Reporting on a grouped object

Question

I am looking for a way to report on a very large data set. We have a very large file with all of our databases, which is then expanded by the applications and business units using each one. In order to allocate cost without completely breaking our model, we had to group the databases object down so the unique ID is the application/business unit key. We have BU facing reports that are redacted to that company, including one that details the servers they are charged back for. I would like to create a similar report for databases, but with the grouping I can't show a redacted report with a list of databases. I can only report on their cost for each Apptio application, which is already shown in many other places. I tried modeling the database object before grouping, and then 'allocating' from it to BU's, but the redaction did not work. Any other ideas on how to make this work?
#CostingStandard(CT-Foundation)

Accepted Answer

Hello, @Elizabeth Lewis.

We have the following allocation path for database-related costs. I have removed from the view the Business Services object, that we have between Applications and Business Units, as per standard ATUM. Please note that there's another driver to Databases for the DB software costs, but I left it out of the picture for clarity:

We have added to the total cost of Databases the servers that run them. These are fully loaded server costs, with their share of Storage, Network and Data Center.

We then allocate DB costs to the related Applications, and these to Business Services, and then to Business Units. We find this sequential allocation logic very useful, without resorting to direct lines from intermediate objects to BUs, as you seem to suggest.

If we wanted, we could list the servers allocated to each BU using the engine's built-in drill-down logic.

If you really want to stick to a single object with all the data, I'd add the DBMS to the object ID. That should get the report to work.

Please let me know if you need further details.

#CostingStandard(CT-Foundation)

IBM Apptio