True Cost of Ownership

Over the years one of the largest issues we have found with computer hardware sales has been convincing end users that the price tag on the product is not the real price of the product.  No I'm not talking about sales tax here.  Computers and other technology have a hidden price tag that comes with them. This is what our industry refers to as a TCO or Total Cost of Ownership.

There are a lot of factors that go into TCO numbers and I'm going to talk about some of the more off the wall things people miss. 

First we'll talk about store bought computers and why the price on a box bought at a store may not be the same as a custom solution.  The biggest issue that comes to mind is setup.  As in do you know how?  Many people purchase a computer, printer, monitor and a few other gadgets then drag it home and have little to no idea what to do from there.  At this point several things begin to happen, perhaps frustration being the leader of the show. Lets assume your time is worth nothing to you, although anyone who says this is often decieving themself. You'll likely spend hours on the phone with HP or Epson trying to set up a wireless printer or perhaps an ISP trying to get your email set back up.  What about your data? Did you get it moved from the old computer to the new one?  What if the old computer is "dead" but you still want your data?  Many other situations can arise but these are some good high lights that can wind up taking hours. I had a call just the other day where a customer had spent over three hours on the phone with HP trying to set up a wireless printer only to call me and have the issue resolved with a remote session in under 60 seconds flat.

Next we will come to software.  This is probably an even stickier subject and I will only touch lightly on it.  Now that Windows 7 is out many users don't realize that many of their programs that they relied on won't run on the new computer. Additionally many users don't remember that seven years ago when they purchased their last computer they had to buy a few additional pieces of software, some of which are very expensive.  A good computer company can help you by determining what can be reloaded to your new computer and what can't. Many times people go to a big box store and purchase their computer and think they need to repurchase Microsoft Office or other software suites that they already own. The license is portable as long as you don't have it on both systems at once. And finally our industries dirty secret with software, prebundled junkware.  Why do you suppose that they dump systems in retail chain stores for unbelievably low prices? Its not volume. The computer industry is highly competitive and the cost of parts for big builders isn't much cheaper than it is for a little guy up the street. The truth is they often sell the hardware at a loss in order to put a box in your hands loaded with garbage. In otherwords they're selling advertising space to those guys and giving you a computer that runs like crap to do it.

There are many other hidden costs of owning computers of course. Warranties, replacement cycles, software upgrades and more all come into play.  Remember when you call a local computer shop for a quote that their "price" may sound higher than the "price" at Wally World but if you've got a local guy they may be willing to do more for you than Wally ever would.