Finding cost effective ways to acquire and maintain your IT system is something on every decision maker's mind these days. That's why it is so important to realize that the purchasing price of a system is only the up-front cost and a small part of the total expense.

Taking into account the TCO or Total Cost of Ownership is crucial in determining the overall cost of a system. TCO is defined as all of the possible costs involved in the purchase, installation, management, support and use of the IT infrastructure within an organization throughout a product's life cycle, from acquisition to disposal. 

 

According to Gartner Data there are seven key components that contribute to TCO:

• Hardware Acquisition - purchase of user's computer equipment
• Software Acquisition - purchase or license of software for each user
• Installation and Configuration - cost incurred to install and configure computers and software
• Training - cost incurred to provide training to users, including a portion of the user's time spent in training
• Support - cost incurred by vendor support contracts, Information Systems Department support areas, ISD Help Desk
• Maintenance - costs to upgrade user's computer equipment, vendor's maintenance contracts, supplies, disaster recovery costs
• Infrastructure - costs to acquire, maintain and support the Local Area Network environment and specialized equipment shared by department staff

 

Reducing the True Cost of Ownership

While there is no single item that can be eliminated to substantially reduce the TCO, the majority of costs involve the support and maintenance of computers and networks, properly planning the hardware and software acquisition, installation and infrastructure of the network.  Creating a technology plan (as opposed to ad-hoc spending), and implementing TCO best practices is what can really make the difference. The graph at the top of this article illustrates the significant savings of a locked and well managed PC environment versus an unmanaged one.

It is important to understand the purchase of the physical machine is the least costly element of owning your computer. Guidant Partners provides Flat Fee IT Managed Services to eliminate risk to your business, alleviate the stress of managing your workstation, and to ensure you don't get stuck with outrageous computer repair bills down the road.

One part of our Flat Fee IT solution that sets us apart from our competition is that we offer HaaS (Hardware as a Service). We help in the selection of computers for your business, and we furnish the physical hardware at no additional cost to you. We send a system engineer onsite to configure and install your hardware for you. We provide preventive maintenance and system monitoring. This ensures all security patches are applied, and necessary malware protection and intrusion prevention software is installed and updated. We also provide unlimited 24x7x365 help desk and phone support, and install an icon on your desktop to open a service ticket or submit a question to a service technician about your PC.

While the hidden costs of owning, securing, and properly managing your business' workstations can be extensive, electing NOT to manage your computers may be the most costly option of all!

Guidant Partners is an industry leading IT Managed Service Provider (MSP). Since 1988, our mission has been to reduce our client's business risk and provide a higher return on IT investments. Our Managed Services deliver 24x7 protection of your electronic data for a predictable and stabilized monthly fee. Our innovative Managed Services can reduce your IT costs by 20-30% annually.   Call our Sales Department at (615) 277-3370 for a free consultation.