Our framework - MOTEF

The MagicOrange Technology Economics Framework, for spend that varies by the hour.

MOTEF is the MagicOrange Technology Economics Framework: six moves, applied across seven spend categories on one governed model. It builds on TBM, the FinOps Framework and FOCUS, and extends them to what they leave out: the people, and the AI that is starting to spend for itself.
What it is

What MOTEF is

MOTEF is MagicOrange’s framework. It is not an industry standard and it does not carry a certification. It is the structure the platform is organized around, published so that a practitioner can see where a TBM tower, a FinOps capability or an FP&A driver lands.

It was built for variable, consumption-driven technology spend, such as AI and cloud workloads, which traditional frameworks struggle to track. Every move runs across every category, and every move has a door for each of the three communities that already hold a vocabulary.

The moves

The moves MOTEF applies to every spend category

See

Every source ingested and attributed, in one model, on shared definitions.

  • The door for each community
  • TBM: transparency.
  • FinOps: data ingestion and allocation.
  • FP&A: one set of actuals.

Price

Cost resolved to the solutions and consumers it pays for: per product, service, customer and outcome.

  • The door for each community
  • TBM: solutions and business functions.
  • FinOps: unit economics.

Plan

Budgets, forecasts and what-if on the model that holds the actuals.

  • The door for each community
  • TBM: plan and govern.
  • FinOps: planning, forecasting and budgeting.
  • FP&A: driver-based, rolling, scenario.

Optimize

Take the cost out of the run, with proof on both sides of the trade.

  • The door for each community
  • TBM: optimization.
  • FinOps: usage and rate optimization.

Control

Catch the runaway, enforce the cap and book the saving.

  • The door for each community
  • TBM: showback and chargeback.
  • FinOps: anomaly management.
  • FP&A: rate, volume and mix variance.

Prove

A technology P&L the board can read, and return by program.

  • The door for each community
  • TBM: insights.
  • FinOps: reporting and analytics.
  • The board: the technology P&L.

Seven categories

Consumed: public cloud, AI and agent workloads, software and SaaS, data cloud platforms. Owned: infrastructure and network, end user technology. Human: labor and services. Consumed, owned and human is how the categories are organized. It is not a standard.

Standing

MOTEF is ours, and we label it that way

Ours. MOTEF holds no seat and claims no certification, because there is no body to hold one at. It is labeled as MagicOrange’s framework wherever it appears beside TBM, the FinOps Framework and FOCUS.

The moves use words that already exist in the TBM taxonomy, the FinOps Framework and FP&A practice. A customer whose own framework is different finds the same answer: your model runs here.

Where it runs

Which capabilities carry each move

MoveThe capabilities that carry it
SeeData Studio, included with every capability: 233 connectors, FOCUS-native, one governed data model.
PriceEnterprise Allocation Modeling and IT Financial Management: the same engine, with a trace in both directions.
PlanBudgeting and Forecasting, with Time Capture and Resource Planning for the people.
OptimizeFinOps for cloud, and IT Financial Management for the owned estate.
ControlFinOps for cloud and platform, AI Economics for AI, and the Bill of IT for showback that matures into chargeback.
ProveAnalytics and AI Studio, included with every capability, with every figure traced to its record.
Where it stops

What MOTEF is not

MOTEF describes what the platform is organized to do. It is not a certification a customer can hold or a maturity assessment a body will audit. Where a customer needs a recognized credential, the answer is the TBM practitioner certification or a FinOps Foundation certification, and the platform is built so that either vocabulary is the model’s vocabulary.

Questions this page answers

Questions you can answer once every spend category is in one model

  • Which instances ran for this cost center over the weekend, and what did they cost?
  • Which software seats have been unused for sixty days?
  • What does one product, one customer or one transaction cost, fully loaded, including people?
  • Which variances are rate, which are volume and which are mix, and who owns each?
  • What did our AI investment return, program by program?
  • Can every figure in this narrative be traced back to a source record?
Read next

Related standards

TBM, the FinOps Framework and FOCUS, the three it is built on, and FinOps for AI, the category it calls AI and agent workloads.

Your own framework can run on MagicOrange.

Bring the model you work to. We will show you where it lands.