Integrating with CA BSI › Benefits of the Integration

Benefits of the Integration

In addition to the benefits that CA Service Catalog and CA BSI provide individually, the integration of the two products provides the following benefits:

• As a CA Service Catalog administrator, when defining a service option, you can browse the list of contracts in CA BSI, select one, and associate it with the service option. At the same time, you select a service component, contractual metrics, and incentive metrics from that contract to associate it with the service option.

  Together, they specify the quality of service expected for the service option. The service component specifies what is being monitored (a component related to the service option), while the metrics specify which data are being monitored (such as kilobytes per second or violations per month). You can select a contractual metric with a higher level of service quality that costs more, or you can select a contractual metric with a lower level of service quality that costs less.

• Using the integration as explained in this documentation, you measure adherence to CA BSI contracts according to the service as a whole: all requests for the service during the time period specified by the metrics you selected.
• This association of a service option with a contract and the monitoring provided by both products supports the transparency of service quality throughout the organization, especially for the request, fulfillment, invoice, and chargeback processes.
• Moreover, the association of the service with a contract and the monitoring provided by both products also provide financial adjustments as specified by the contract. For example, the adjustments can include reduced charges when the service does not meet the terms of the contract or increased charges when the service exceeds the terms of the contract.
• You can use either CA BSI or CA Service Catalog to view the level of compliance of a CA Service Catalog service to the terms of its associated CA BSI contracts.
• You can use the billing features of CA Service Accounting to determine any financial adjustments required by a service either failing to meet or exceeding the terms of its associated contract.