Hitachi

JP1 Version 12 JP1/IT Desktop Management 2 Overview and System Design Guide


2.11.4 Managing contract information

In the Contracts view of the Assets module, you can register and manage contract information.

You can register contract information by manually adding information about individual contracts or by importing a CSV file containing the contract information.

Maintain contract information to keep the status up to date. This is especially important when a contract is expired or cancelled, when a related asset is changed, or when a contract term is extended.

Note that you can also update information about contracts in a batch by exporting information about contracts and importing an edited CSV file.

You can also delete contract information for which management is no longer needed.

Organization of this subsection

(1) Managing contract status

For contract information, you can set Contract Status, which indicates whether a contract is valid (within the contract term) or invalid (contract term has ended). Setting Contract Status will let you display a list showing the statuses of the contracts that are entered into. You can also display contracts that have ended, as well as the contracts that are within the contract term.

There are following types of contract statuses:

Active

Indicates that the contract is within the contract term. If a contract for which the contract term has expired has this status, the contract is treated as an expired contract.

Canceled

Indicates that the contract was terminated. Set this status if a contract is cancelled during the contract term.

Expired

Indicates that the contract period has ended.

The administrator can add custom contract statuses (no more than 100 statuses excluding the default contract statuses).

Tip

If you register the contract statuses and contract terms, you can check the contracts for which the expiration date is approaching on a summary report.

(2) Checking the costs for assets

You can check the operational costs for hardware assets or software licenses in reports. You can check the costs for assets, using the following reports under Asset Detail Reports:

For each contract target in the All Assets Cost report or for each contract type in the other reports, you can check the monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, and yearly contract costs for each contract type.

Note that, to check the costs, you must set the costs in contract information and associate it with hardware asset information or software license information.

Tip

By viewing the Other Cost report, you can check the contract costs that are not associated with hardware asset information or software license information.

The following shows the concept of checking the costs for which contract information is associated.

[Figure]

In the above figure, for the lease contract associated with hardware assets, monthly payment is set for the contract term from October to March. Therefore, for the six months of the contract period, $100 is booked monthly. In the same way, for the support contract, $600 is booked monthly for the twelve months of the contract period. For purchase, the lump sum is set, so $1,100 is booked in December.

The monthly amount is summed up based on these calculated amounts, and the amount is booked quarterly, half-yearly, and yearly.

Tip

The amount is summed up for each contract, and does not depend on the number of hardware assets associated with contract information.

Tip

You can also use the ioutils importassetassoc command to associate contract information with hardware asset information and software license information.

(3) Calculating the costs for the all assets

The costs for the all assets are displayed on the All Assets Cost report (under Asset Detail Reports) of the Reports module.

The following describes how the contract costs are calculated.

Costs for each contract target

The total costs of Hardware Assets Cost, Software License Cost, and Other Cost for individual months are displayed. Based on those costs, quarterly, half-yearly, and yearly costs are calculated. For details about how to calculate the costs for hardware assets and hardware licenses, see (4) Calculating the costs for hardware assets and (5) Calculating the costs for software licenses that follow.

Export

You can output the costs summed up for the all assets to a CSV file. The format of an output CSV file is as follows:

The following is an example of a CSV file.

[Figure]

(4) Calculating the costs for hardware assets

If you associate contract information and hardware asset information, the contract costs are calculated. The costs for hardware assets are displayed on the Hardware Assets Cost report (under Asset Detail Reports) of the Reports module.

The following describes how to calculate the contract costs.

Costs for each contract type

The total costs for individual months are calculated for each contract type. Based on those costs, quarterly, half-yearly, and yearly costs are calculated. The costs for each month is calculated based on the value in Monthly Cost for monthly payment, or on the value in Total Cost for lump sum. A year starts with the month set in the Duration and Start Date view (under Reports) of the Settings module. The costs for twelve months are displayed on the Hardware Assets Cost report (including the date the report is displayed).

The costs are calculated for each contract type based on the conditions below.

The costs for a contract with contract type XXX are calculated below. XXX is one of the following:

Method of payment

Calculation

Monthly

Sums up Monthly Cost for the contracts that satisfy all of the following conditions:

  • Contract Type is XXX.

  • Payment Mode is Monthly.

  • Hardware asset information is associated with Hardware Assets (Contract).

  • The specified month includes the date the costs occurred.

Note that the costs for the Monthly payment occur every month for the period from the start date to the end date of the contract specified in Contract Term.

For example, if Contract Term is 2011/4/10 to 2011/6/10, the costs occur on 2011/4/10, 2011/5/10, and 2011/6/10. Therefore, if the specified month is April in 2011, May in 2011, or June in 2011, the costs are displayed.

Lump Sum

Sums up Total Cost for the contracts that satisfy all of the following conditions:

  • Contract Type is XXX.

  • Payment Mode is Lump Sum.

  • Hardware asset information is associated with Hardware Assets (Contract).

  • The specified month includes the date the costs occurred.

Note that the costs for a Lump Sum payment occur on the Contract Date.

Export

You can output the costs summed up for hardware assets to a CSV file. The format of an output CSV file is as follows:

The following is an example of a CSV file.

[Figure]

Note that data is output for customized contract types, in addition to the default contract types.

(5) Calculating the costs for software licenses

If you associate contract information and software license information, the contract costs are calculated. The costs for software licenses are displayed on the Software License Cost report (under Asset Detail Reports) of the Reports module.

The following describes how the contract costs are calculated.

Costs for each contract type

The total costs for individual months are calculated for each contract type. Based on Monthly Cost or Total Cost for individual months, quarterly, half-yearly, and yearly costs are calculated. A year starts with the month set in the Duration and Start Date view (under Reports) of the Settings module. The costs for twelve months are displayed on the Software License Cost report (including the date the report is displayed).

The costs are calculated for each contract type based on the conditions below.

The costs for a contract with contract type XXX are calculated below. XXX is one of the following:

Method of payment

Calculation

Monthly

Sums up Monthly Cost for the contracts that satisfy all of the following conditions:

  • Contract Type is XXX.

  • Payment Mode is Monthly.

  • Software license information is associated with Software Licenses (Contract).

  • The specified month includes the date the costs occurred.

Note that the costs for the Monthly payment occur at every month for the period from the start date to the end date of the contract specified in Contract Term.

For example, if Contract Term is 2011/4/10 to 2011/6/10, the costs occur on 2011/4/10, 2011/5/10, and 2011/6/10. Therefore, if the specified month is April in 2011, May in 2011, or June in 2011, the costs are displayed.

Lump Sum

Sums up Total Cost for the contracts that satisfy all of the following conditions:

  • Contract Type is XXX.

  • Payment Mode is Lump Sum.

  • Software license information is associated with Software Licenses (Contract).

  • The specified month includes the date the costs occurred.

Note that the costs for the Lump Sum payment occur on the Contract Date.

Export

You can output the costs summed up for software licenses to a CSV file. The format of an output CSV file is as follows:

The following is an example of a CSV file.

[Figure]

Note that data is output for customized contract types, in addition to the default contract types.

(6) Notification of expired contracts

Based on the contract end dates set in Contract Term in contract information, you can send email notifications of expired contracts.

The function of sending summary reports is used for notification of expired contracts. You can set the summary report notification destinations in the Summary Report Notifications view (under Reports) of the Settings module.

The number of expired contracts is reported by email. A contract is determined to be expired based on the following conditions:

If you want to know the details about expired contracts, click the link in the email body. Clicking the link displays the Reports module. In the Summary Reports view of the Reports module, click the link for an expired contract. You are moved to the Assets module, and here you can check the details about the relevant contract.

Tip

You can also check contract terms on the Expired Contracts (next 3 months) panel.