Hey everyone,
I’m looking for some guidance on how to properly model cost structures in LeanIX, especially when it comes to separating opex and capex while still maintaining a meaningful TCO view.
According to the LeanIX documentation, all costs related to acquiring the right to use an application should be entered under License Costs — regardless of whether they are one‑time investments or recurring subscription fees. All other cost types are expected to be recorded as yearly values.
This creates a challenge: Most of the costs that are aggregated (including via custom code) are annual costs, which makes them useful for identifying potential savings when rationalizing applications. However, I also want to capture a proper Total Cost of Ownership over the entire lifecycle — which should include one‑time license purchases and other upfront investments.
The problem is that these one‑time costs distort the picture when the goal is to evaluate potential savings from retiring an application. A one‑time investment cannot be “saved” again, but it does belong in a full TCO calculation.
So I’m stuck between two needs:
-
A complete TCO view including all costs over the application’s lifetime (opex + capex)
-
A clear view of annual savings potential when decommissioning an application (opex only)
LeanIX’s standard template doesn’t really support a clean opex/capex separation.
One idea I’m considering is adding custom fields (e.g., Investment Costs for capex) to the TCO extension. But these values wouldn’t appear in standard dashboards or reports, which limits their usefulness.
Has anyone found a practical way to model this distinction in LeanIX?
I’d love to hear how others handle one‑time license costs, lifecycle TCO, and savings calculations in a consistent way.
Thanks in advance for any insights you can share.
Kind regards,
Tim
