IT Maintenance and Support Situation Overview
It’s estimated that maintenance and support contract spend can consume as much as 25% of an average enterprise’s annual IT budget. This is driven by the OEMs who generally push use of their support offerings on all IT hardware. But, especially in the case of post-warranty, end-of-service or end-of-life equipment, that means paying a premium for features that aren’t needed or might never be used. Furthermore, because it is designed to push purchases of new equipment well before current equipment has reached the end of its useful life, OEM pricing increases as assets age and can ultimately end up costing more than the equipment it’s supporting.
Third Party Maintenance Provides a Solution
Third Party Maintenance can drive hard dollar savings as well as delay costly and time-consuming equipment refreshes, meaning budgets can be allocated to other areas of a business.
Advantages of TPM
- Hard dollar savings – 30-60%+
- Avoid OEM post-warranty or EOSL maintenance increases
- Extend the life of IT assets / delay infrastructure refreshes
- Redeploy existing assets
- Flexibility in contract lengths and structure
- Leverage against OEMs
To achieve greater savings, some enterprises consider TPM support for post-warranty data center equipment, or for networking at campus or remote locations.
Competitive Landscape: Partnering with Third-Party Maintenance Providers for Data Center and Network Maintenance Cost Optimization, July 2017 [ID G00327262]
Trifecta Recommends Smart Maintenance Strategies Incorporating Third Party Alternatives
Customers will often switch to TPMs when the original warranty runs out, rather than renew the OEM support contract, due to significant increases in OEM post-warranty pricing.
Competitive Landscape: Partnering With Third-Party Maintenance Providers for Data Center and Network Maintenance Cost Optimization, July 2017 [ID G00327262]
There shouldn’t be a one size fits all approach. It’s important for IT and Procurement teams contemplating third party maintenance to evaluate the associated risks and rewards as they consider the service. Here’s a simple way to look at it:
As Assets Age, The Value of TPM Increases
1-3 Years
Higher risk, lower reward of TPM: Utilize OEM Maintenance
- OEM maintenance is cheap
- Most software and firmware development occurs in early years after a product release
- Frequent updates required
4-6 Years
Risk of using TPM is minimal: Rewards of using TPM are meaningful
- Software and firmware development focus shifts to latest generation products
- Fewer updates and less OEM support for HW
7+ Years
No risk, all reward: Move 100% to TPM
- OEMs announce end-of-life (EOL) and end-of-support (EOS)
- Virtually no new software or firmware development
Key Conclusions
The perceived risk of using TPM is greater than the actual risk
Service hardware life is much greater than their planned service lives
The rewards are saving 40-60%+ on annual maintenance costs
Trifecta Networks can help assess your current maintenance / support spend and provide actionable recommendations based on a Hybrid Support Strategy to reduce costs and improve the user experience.