The Total Cost of Ownership of Information Technology (or TCO) is made up of five components:

• the hardware,
• the software,
• the installation,
• the training
• the maintenance.

The maintenance can easily exceed all the other components added together.

Why is this?

If important information gets corrupted, data is lost, or a piece of hardware fails, this could instantly threaten the viability of a business, and waste valuable hours in data recovery.

Industry analysts have demonstrated that the initial purchase price of a PC is far outweighed by the associated support costs over its life cycle.

As a result of the findings, businesses now focus on the TCO package when pricing their new purchases.