Make smater decisions thanks to third-party-maintenance

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, IT teams around the globe have been forced to review or set aside ongoing projects and initiatives to help sustain business operations and adapt to a virtual working environment.

With IT budgets reduced or reallocated to allow for this unexpected pivot, many organisations made the decision to adopt a hybrid support model – a mix of manufacturer and third-party support to future-proof their IT ecosystems.

Before, some companies opted to upgrade sizeable portions of their IT infrastructures on the pretext of manufacturer EOL (End-of-Life) and EOSL (End-of-Service-Life) dates to avoid potential compatibility issues and being left without support. This seems logical and straightforward, and for a time it was.

However, as the efficient use of budget and the term flexibility becomes a dire need, more companies now incorporate third-party maintenance (TPM) in their IT environments.

Why is this a smart decision? This blog explains some of the key reasons.

Lifecycle differentiation:

Thanks to the detailed information and diverse research from various IT analysts about our corporate IT systems (servers, storage, routers, and switches), we conclude that not all equipment in the IT ecosystem requires immediate replacement, once proclaimed EOL/EOSL.

In fact, it is said that legacy IT infrastructure hardware has a higher mean time between failure (MTBF) rate, which—with regular equipment maintenance—translates into increased hardware performance, as most hardware bugs and inconsistencies are successfully fixed in the initial warranty years.

The shift to integrate TPM support in your environment breaks this forced lifecycle of IT equipment and enable companies to reduce unnecessary capital expenditure caused by replacing useful hardware. It further allows for a better ROI (return on investment) on initial equipment, as it permits you to replace or upgrade according to the needs of the business – and not according to the demands of the equipment manufacturers.

Targeted innovation:

To enable organisations to choose which parts of their IT infrastructure they want to upgrade/ replace and which parts they want to cost-effectively maintain- to instead target new avenues of innovation, requires a hybrid approach to hardware maintenance.

For this reason third-party maintenance — which extends the support for IT equipment that has reached the ‘end’ of its predetermined lifecycle — have disrupted the IT landscape. Your business can now independently decide on the lifecycle for each equipment piece, based solely on your on-going business needs.

It is with no doubt that there will always be parts of your hardware that will require upgrading, but, thanks to detailed TPM insights, these components can be identified more precisely, saving you costs to invest in other important areas of business.

Abundant support:

As TPM providers do not have the same service focus as the hardware manufacturer and, most importantly, do not need to ‘sell’ the latest line of switches, routers, or servers, they can be purely customer-centric.

Over the years, TPM support has evolved around the need of the customer, in terms of both maintenance and spare parts. Signing with a TPM provider will therefore generally provide you with multi-vendor technical skills, customizable offerings, and a robust Forward-Stocking-Location (FSL) network, with the necessary import and export licences to deliver parts wherever needed.

Whether an organisation is based in one country or has footprint across the globe, the chosen TPM provider must have logistical capacity and resources to meet their needs. This is especially important when a part of their IT infrastructure requires immediate replacement, without the process affecting the running of the organisation.

Flexibility and reliability, seen as key focus areas of a TPM provider, is what makes this alternative option ideal for many IT environments and incorporating such support can eliminate time and money spend on the unnecessary management of multiple global service contracts.

Sustainable development:

By extending the life of IT hardware assets beyond EOL/EOSL contracts, companies help prevent e-waste and reduce CO2 emissions caused from producing new equipment. Breaking the cycle of “take-make-dispose” through the support of a TPM provider helps to make your IT infrastructure more sustainable, both from a financial and environmental perspective – which is key to modern IT business.

With COVID still around and business continuing to bear the consequences, there has never been a better time to partner with a quality TPM provider to support your organization, safeguard IT investments, and free up resources to focus on your core business.

Evernex, as a global TPM provider, can help companies understand the lifecycles of various replacement parts and provide clients with unparalleled opportunities for cost savings and improved efficiency.

Contact Evernex experts to find out more about TPM possibilities in your environment.

Enquire now