© 2009 VDC Research Group, Inc.
1
A critical aspect of any successful TCO
analysis needs to include the business
elements of TCO.
Today’s enterprises are continuing their transformation to highly fluid and distributed
organizations where key decisions are being made at the point of interaction.
Ultimately, the ability to improve employee decision-making speed and scalability at
the edge of an organization is what is setting apart best-in-class operations. As a
result, organizations are looking to mobile computing and wireless communications
solutions to enable these real time remote transactions.
However, organizations are also frequently making these investment decisions with
incomplete information or a general misunderstanding of the environments within
which mobile technologies are being used. Coupled with the impact of today’s tough
economic climate and pressure to cut costs, this frequently translates into mobile
workers being equipped with devices that do not map to their real-world
requirements. The consequences can be severe, including higher ownership costs
and, potentially, customer service lapses and even lost revenue. To avoid these
missteps, VDC Research is proposing a fresh approach to how organizations
evaluate mobile computing solutions for their mobile workers.
VDC Research believes that a model that focuses on the most powerful technical and
operational cost drivers will provide customers with an accurate baseline from which
they can make mobile and wireless investment decisions. A critical aspect of any
successful TCO analysis needs to include the business elements of TCO. These
include anticipated length of deployment and planned replacement cycles, failure
rates and causes of failure, the opportunity cost of lost productivity—to name a few.
Of equal importance to TCO is an analysis of the end user’s needs based on their
work flow and work environment. This will impact decisions on the appropriateness of
a mobile platform in terms of form factor, functionality, connectivity and durability.
Only through this kind of analysis can organizations determine which solutions will
best serve the company.
I . I M P R O V IN G M O B IL E I N V E ST M E N T D E C I S I O N S
T H R O U GH T C O AN A L Y SI S
For nearly a decade, suppliers and users of both rugged and commercial grade
mobile computing solutions have been debating the merits and limitations of both
classes of solutions. TCO has often been upheld as the definitive metric by which
the cost-effectiveness of any mobile computing solution can be measured. During
that decade, however, definitions of every single dimension of the mobile computing
market have changed.
So, too, have the definitions of TCO. With all these moving parts, it is nearly
impossible for users to be confident in the accuracy of their TCO modeling during
their evaluation or deployment. In this challenging business climate, now is no time
to make the wrong investment decision based on flawed TCO modeling. It is critical
that users find and use a simple, reliable TCO model.
