Seat management and the utility model

Seat management is a way of tracking IT services and SLAs. Technology assets, contracts, and services are grouped into distinct 'seats' that are typically defined around particular job functions, like engineering, sales, or accounting.

Seat types can also be defined around other types of enterprise functions, like training and human resources, or around:

• Servers
• Communications and peripheral devices like cell phones and PDAs
• Enterprise business services like SAP access
• Operational services like server farm availability

What are the benefits?
By standardizing technology use and delivery, seat management makes the IT environment simpler and easier to manage. It gives you clear insight into how you're supporting individual users or functional groups, and helps you align IT infrastructure with corporate business objectives.

What is meant by 'the utility model'?
The utility computing model is an approach to supplying IT services based on the notion that users want to subscribe to technical services with a predictable costing model and service level. Utility computing operates much like other utilities-such as cellular phone services, where a cell phone owner subscribes to a phone service with a monthly fee and defined service package.

What are the benefits?
This model lets users pay only for what they use, and gives management a more accurate picture of the total cost of ownership associated with IT services. Users get exactly what they need, while IT minimizes unnecessary technology costs.

Seat management and utility computing are behind some of Provance's key features:

• Terminology that is intuitive to the business
  With Provance, your users don't have to understand hardware, configuration and compatibility issues. Instead, they can access any number of services and service levels in business terms that make sense to them.
  
  
• Customized service delivery
  Help desk systems only offer specific service options at the contract level (gold, silver or bronze). But with Provance, you can customize services for specific users.
  
  
• Temporary changes to service levels
  If you have a mission-critical launch or other intensive deliverable, you can temporarily adjust your service levels to reflect required changes-like reducing help desk response times for a limited period. These changes are automatically reflected in billing and charge back.
  
  
• Support for accurate purchasing decisions
  When the business is considering new technology purchases, Provance lets you provide added value by showing users the incremental costs associated with various service and service level scenarios, for more informed, "apples to apples" comparisons.
  
  
• Detailed charge back and reporting
  Support a true "pay for what you use" approach by presenting customers with detailed information, by user, for the exact amount of time they had access to their seat. Provance provides tightly integrated billing and charge back management that lets IT:
  • Maintain a flexible pricing model.
  • Offer a flexible billing timetable and account for billing adjustments.
  • Efficiently forecast the pricing impacts of ongoing cost changes.
  • Incorporate retroactive transactions into billing.
  • Reduce billing reconciliation efforts and build trust by giving clients direct access to billing details.

For more information:
The Provance solution uses the seat and service subscription management model to provide you with greater visibility into your operations and tighter control of your costs, while dramatically improving IT service levels.