Anodot cost intelligence documentation

Working with Business Mapping Viewpoints

A Business Mapping Viewpoint is a collection of rules that enable you to get a granular visibility into how much each business unit costs you whether it is  the cost for serving your customers, projects , internal departments in your organization or even different products. This data can unlock your ability to make better decisions: from your pricing to renewal strategy and probability decisions.

A Viewpoint can also be described as "lens" that enables you to segment the same data in different ways, meaning that the data can be segmented according to an individual's specific requirement (i.e comparing projects vs. departments).

Examples of Business Mapping Viewpoints can include:

  • Product - By defining a Product Business Mapping Viewpoint you can track the costs of a product through its development into production. This enables the relevant departments to understand where costs were implemented throughout the product lifecycle.
  • Organization - By defining an Organization Business Mapping Viewpoint you can determine which departments within the organization are contributing most/least to expenses, and hold each department accountable for their cost and usage.
  • Environment - By defining an Environment Business Mapping Viewpoint you can determine where exactly your costs are focused on, such as development or production, and how this impacts your bottom line.
  • Team - By defining a Team Business Mapping Viewpoint you can generate data and reports according to the actual cost or usage of the team members, in turn holding each team member accountable. It also provides insights into the cost and usage, enabling team members to better optimize their future efforts. 

To access Business Mapping Viewpoints, go to Cost Allocation > Business Mapping. The screen below is displayed with your own defined Viewpoints. Note that you can create a new Viewpoint as required, and also create global mappings, which enable you to reuse mappings in multiple Viewpoints and subsequently reduce the time and effort spent on configuration. When your mapping is defined, you can then see the associated costs in the Cost & Usage Explorer. You can also click the Kubernetes Viewpoints switch to display only Kubernetes Viewpoints.

business-mapping-viewpoints.png

Creating a new Viewpoint

Creating a Viewpoint consists of two main steps: naming the Viewpoint, and then adding mapping rules. The following procedure describes these steps.

  1. In the Navigation Panel, click Cost Allocation > Business Mapping.
  2. Click + New Viewpoint.
  3. Enter a name for the Viewpoint, and then click Save. The new Viewpoint is added to your Viewpoint dashboard (as shown above). 
  4. Click on the new Viewpoint.
  5. Click + New Mapping and then select one of the following:
    • Create New Mapping: This enables you to create a new mapping to identify the unit cost (this could be a customer / project / environment / department). Add as many rules and conditions as required, and then click Save.

      Screenshot_2023-04-02_at_13.00.01.png

    • Import from Global Mappings: In the displayed dialog, select an existing Global Mapping that includes the mappings you want to include in this Viewpoint. Add as many rules and conditions as required, and then click Save.

      Note that if you want to edit or delete this Global Mapping's rule's and conditions, you should first duplicate it because any action applied to these mappings will also be applied to any other Viewpoint using them; when you attempt to edit or delete the existing Global Mapping rules you are therefore prompted to click Edit or Duplicate. For more information about Global Mappings, see Defining Global Mappings.

      business-mapping-import-global-mappings.png

  6. (Optional) You can also use the Split cost feature to get an even more granular view of the total costs. Note that the split costs aren't shown in the preview pie chart (see Step 8). For more information, see Split shared costs using Business mapping. 
  7. Repeat the same steps for all other required mappings (for example, all other customers).
    Note: When a mapping is saved it cannot be edited. You can only duplicate it and then edit the duplicate version.
  8. (Optional) Click the Preview icon to see a pie chart view of your new Viewpoint.

    Screenshot_2023-04-02_at_13.02.28.png

  9. When your Business Mapping Viewpoint is complete, you can use it in the Cost & Usage Explorer to view the costs associated with the defined mappings, as described in the section below.

Editing a Viewpoint

  1. From the main Business Mapping Viewpoints dashboard, click the Options icon in the top right corner of the relevant Viewpoint, and then select from the displayed options.

    viewpoint-edit.png

  2. Click Edit to edit the mappings already defined for the Viewpoint. You can also add new mappings as required.
    OR
    Click Edit Name to edit the Viewpoint's name. In the displayed dialog, enter the new name and then click Save.
    OR
    Click Duplicate to make a copy of the Viewpoint. A copy of the Viewpoint is added to the dashboard with the same name (suffixed with Copy).
    OR
    Click Delete to delete the Viewpoint. In the displayed confirmation message, click Delete.

Defining Global Mappings

Global Mappings are a collection of rules that enable you to re-use mapping rules in several Viewpoints in order to ease configuration pain.

To create a Global Mapping:

  1. In the Navigation Panel, click Cost Allocation > Business Mapping.
  2. Click Manage Global Mapping. In the displayed Global Mappings screen, click New Global Mapping.

    global-mappings.png

  3. Enter a name for the Global Mapping, and then define the rules and conditions to identify the unit cost (this could be a customer / project / environment / department). Add as many rules and conditions as required, and then click Save.

    global-mapping-create.png

  4. The new Global Mapping is added to your main Global Mappings dashboard, as shown in Step 2. As and when Business Mapping Viewpoints use the Global Mapping you created, the associated Viewpoints will also be listed in the Global Mappings dashboard.

    To edit or delete a Global Mapping, click the Options icon in the far right column, and then select Edit Mapping or Delete Mapping. When deleting a Global Mapping, be aware that you are also deleting it from any associated Viewpoints.

Displaying only Kubernetes Viewpoints

From the main Business Mapping Viewpoints dashboard, click the kubernetes-switch.png switch. The displayed Viewpoints are relevant only for Kubernetes, and only for use in the Kubernetes Cost & Usage Explorer. For more information, see Working with the Kubernetes Cost & Usage Explorer.

Viewing unit costs in the Cost & Usage Explorer

  1. In the Navigation Panel, click Cost & Usage > Cost & Usage Explorer.
  2. In the Group By dropdown list, click Business Mapping Viewpoints and then select the relevant Viewpoint. Note that if you have many Viewpoints you can use the search functionality to locate the Viewpoint you want.
    Note: If you want to use a Kubernetes Viewpoint, they can only be used in the Kubernetes Cost & Usage Explorer. For more information, see Working with the Kubernetes Cost & Usage Explorer. Any other Business Mapping Viewpoint can be viewed and grouped by in the regular Cost & Usage Explorer, as described in this procedure.

    business-mapping-filters-cue.png

  3. Filter the data according to the mapping you defined in Creating a new Viewpoint.
  4. The Cost & Usage Explorer shows the costs per business unit previously defined.

    Note: If you want to view any unallocated costs in a Viewpoint, you need to group by the Viewpoint (select the relevant Viewpoint in the Group by dropdown list) and not apply any other filtering.