Method and structure for assigning a transaction cost

One or more computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for assigning a monetary cost to a computer transaction, the computer-executable instructions perform a method comprising:

• identifying two or more information technology services utilized to execute the computer transaction, wherein the information technology services include telephone services, network access services, maintenance services, software services, support services, and hardware services;
• determining a monetary computer transaction cost associated with the two or more services utilized to execute the transaction, wherein determining the monetary computer transaction cost comprises:
• (1) identifying each resource utilized to provide the two or more services, wherein a portion of an original cost or a depreciated cost of each identified resource is assigned to the computer transaction,
• (2) determining a quality cost that represents a cost for a level of quality of each of the two or more services utilized to execute the transaction, wherein the quality cost for each of the two or more services comprises an availability cost that represents the cost for the availability of each of the two or more services and a response time cost that represents the cost of the response time for each of the two or more services,
• and
• (3) combining the portion of the original cost or depreciated cost and the quality cost to define the monetary computer transaction cost for each identified resource utilized to provide the two or more services;
• and
• summing the monetary computer transaction cost for each identified resource to determine the monetary cost for the computer transaction in order to pass the monetary cost for the computer transaction to a user executing the computer transaction.

A computer system having a processor, an operating system, a memory, the processor being configured to carry out the steps comprising:

• identifying two or more information technology services utilized to execute the computer transaction, wherein the information technology services include telephone services, network access services, maintenance services, software services, support services, and hardware services:
• determining a monetary computer transaction cost associated with the two or more services utilized to execute the transaction, wherein determining the monetary computer transaction cost comprises:
• (1) identifying each resource utilized to provide the two or more services, wherein a portion of an original cost or a depreciated cost of each identified resource is assigned to the computer transaction,
• (2) determining a quality cost that represents a cost for a level of quality of each of the two or more services utilized to execute the transaction, wherein the quality cost for each of the two or more services comprises an availability cost that represents the cost for the availability of each of the two or more services and a response time cost that represents the cost of the response time for each of the two or more services,
• and
• (3) combining the portion of the original cost or depreciated cost and the quality cost to define the monetary computer transaction cost for each identified resource utilized to provide the two or more services;
• and
• summing the monetary computer transaction cost for each identified resource to determine the monetary cost for the computer transaction in order to pass the monetary cost for the computer transaction to a user executing the computer transaction.

A computer system having a processor an operating system, a memory, the processor being configured to carry out the steps comprising:

• identifying two or more services necessary for conducting the computer transaction, wherein the two or more services include telephone services, network access services, maintenance services, software services, support services, and hardware services, and identifying the two or more services comprise:
• assigning identifiers to applications associated with the two or more services and to components of the applications that are triggered by the computer transaction;
• and
• monitoring each identified application and each identified component to calculate a response time for the two or more services accessed by the computer transaction and to calculate the availability of the two or more services accessed by the computer transaction;
• identifying resources utilized in providing the two or more services;
• and
• determining a monetary cost to a provider for each resource and determining the monetary cost for the computer transaction, wherein the monetary cost for the computer transaction is a function of a depreciated cost or an original cost for each utilized resource and a quality cost of each of the two or more services, wherein the quality cost comprises an availability cost based on the calculated availability time of the two or more services and a response cost based on the calculated response time of the two or more services.