🚀 go-pugleaf

Bob Rahe (bob@hobbes.dtcc.edu) wrote:
: In article <3v3g1o$52q@newshost.lanl.gov>,
: David D Kaas <ddk@beta.lanl.gov> wrote:
: >We have been asked to review how we charge our users
: >for computer services.  I would appreciate any information
: >on how other sites charge for computer related services.  These
: >are the services we currently charge for:
: >printing, microfiche, cpu, disk and tapes.

:   Well, a while back we looked at how we did billing and concluded it would
: be a whole lot easier to just bill on connect time and job elapsed time for
: batch.  People understand it and within reason it's accurate.  Some outlier
: maybe sucks a lot of proc time but...  Just figure out how much connect
: and elapsed time was used last year, get what you want to charge total and
: divide.....

We essentially charge for CPU used (+ a little for IO) and nothing else. 
But we only `bill' in funny-money, no real cash changes hands.  Connect time
is unreliable for us as we use Solaris and it's not always very reliable in
closing down connections...

I'd always advise anyone to simplify charging as much as possible.

--
Geoff. Lane.   |   mailto:zzassgl@cs6400.mcc.ac.uk   |  http://gl.mcc.ac.uk/
CS6400 Admin, MCC, Manchester University, Oxford Rd, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK

Programs which do not require them, have the best manuals.     -- Geoff. Lane.