Planning. Research. Due diligence.
The total cost of purchasing and maintaining IT infrastructure can add up for businesses relying on technology. From hardware to software to ongoing maintenance, it’s essential to consider the total cost of ownership before committing to significant IT investments.
Total cost of ownership (TCO) refers to the overall cost of a product or service over its life cycle, including direct and indirect costs. A TCO analysis can help businesses understand the difference between a product or system’s short-term and long-term costs.
The right partner can help you make informed decisions and choose the right vendors. In doing so, they help minimize ongoing costs without sacrificing quality or functionality. Whether you’re a small business owner or an IT professional, understanding the actual cost of IT is crucial for making smart purchasing decisions.
Minimize your downtime
When implementing new technology integrations, consider the likelihood of downtime if the technology malfunctions. Downtime can be costly, resulting in lost productivity, revenue, and even damage to the company’s reputation.
Achieving longer lifetimes for technology can reduce TCO, which means you can extend the time between maintenance and service intervals leading to substantial cost savings in labor, parts, and downtime. By prioritizing longer lifetimes and implementing proactive maintenance strategies, you can ensure that your investments are cost-effective and reliable for years to come.
Top 3 strategies for minimizing TCO
Optimize cloud storage
Managing storage needs can be challenging as data continues to grow and evolve. Utilizing cloud storage reduces on-premises hardware usage and optimizes data management. To maintain control over the ever-increasing volume of data, it’s important to create multiple data lines and store incoming data appropriately. Effectively distributing workloads between spinning disks and flash can also improve storage and control.
Automation
To keep costs in check, address any potential cloud incapabilities before they escalate. Leverage the automation capabilities of cost-optimization tools that allow you to set up quick responses to misconfigurations and promptly resolve them. Doing so can avoid time-consuming manual processes and keep expenses under control, freeing up your team to concentrate on other critical aspects of cloud management.
Migrate to the Cloud and reduce on-prem utilization
When enterprises move their workloads from on-premises to the Cloud, they outsource many of their time-consuming IT management and maintenance activities. This enables their IT teams to focus on generating revenue by developing new features, fixes, and innovations. By migrating to the Cloud, companies can improve their agility, lower their total cost of ownership, and accelerate innovation through cloud-native development and automation technology.
How do these strategies benefit you?
When analyzing the total cost of ownership, one of the most significant advantages is that it accounts for the obvious and hidden costs that may arise over the expected lifetime of the asset. This approach gives businesses a comprehensive understanding of the costs involved. It lets them create hard data for pricing and accounting purposes and also identify areas where savings and efficiencies can increase.
By completing TCO models for current and future states, businesses can make informed decisions about investment strategies. This analysis helps identify a starting point for areas of improvement and creates a measuring stick for analyzing strategies for priority areas. It’s a valuable tool for businesses looking for a competitive advantage through TCO reduction, one of the most common strategic levers that decision-makers use today.
In summary, the TCO analysis is a powerful tool that provides businesses with a comprehensive understanding of the costs of their products, services, or projects over their expected lifetime. It helps to identify areas where savings and efficiencies can be increased and provide a solid foundation for investment decisions. By leveraging the insights provided by TCO analysis, businesses can gain a competitive advantage and reduce costs, which is critical for success in today’s fast-paced business environment.
Discover how CBTS Total Cost of Ownership processes is developed to comply with a company’s needs.
Brian Quinn is Vice President of Global Services at CBTS. He is responsible for overseeing the development and sales support of solutions for customers that help achieve their business outcomes. Brian leads the Pre-Sales Business Development Organization as well as the Product Development Organization, with a focus on offering exceptional value to our customers by solving their most complex IT business needs.
