When crossing corporate boundaries, these kinds of formalized contracts are a necessity—the product must have definition, the pricing must be agreed upon. But inside a company, it’s all loosey goosey. If each team exposes to other teams a formalized notion of “Here’s what we do, and here’s how to engage with us,” then the cost of coordination is reduced. It’s a way of standardizing those types of interactions, making them into a well-understood and scalable process. You can even put a “price tag” on the services, to aid with internal accounting and resource planning.
