The challenge of IT budget optimization
The prices of IT infrastructure are rising, placing a considerable financial strain on businesses across sectors. Hardware and software upgrades are increasingly expensive, while unexpected breakdowns imply the hefty costs of emergency repair, replacements and downtime. While maintenance can decrease the risk of unexpected and pricey failures, this requires its own investment.
This is where IT lifecycle management can save your company capital. Robust and thoughtful management of your IT assets’ lifecycles can be a valuable source of cost optimization.
Jump-to section
1. Understanding IT lifecycle management
What is IT lifecycle management?
The lifecycle of a piece of IT equipment is normally divided into five key phases:
- Procurement: Selecting and purchasing the hardware.
- Deployment: Installing and making the hardware operational.
- Maintenance: Keeping the IT system running optimally through support and updates.
- Upgrade: Enhancing or replacing hardware at the end of its useful life.
- Disposal: Disposing of or recycling IT assets securely and sustainably.
Management optimizes the value of your company’s hardware at every stage of its life. This begins with responsible and considered hardware selection and continues with extending your infrastructure’s useful life through expert maintenance. Managing the IT lifecycle ends with securely wiping data, recycling or refurbishing usable elements of the IT assets, and guaranteeing the environmentally responsible and legally compliant disposal of unrecyclable parts.
Core principles of IT lifecycle management:
The key objective of IT lifecycle management is to maximize the value of your IT assets throughout its lifecycle, ensuring a higher return on investment. Lifecycle extension is great both for your company and the environment, reducing e-waste and saving your business the excess costs of replacing its IT assets before it is necessary.
Once hardware reaches its End-of-Life (EOL), Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) provide only limited support and updates. After its End-of-Service-Life (EOSL), OEM support ceases entirely. IT lifecycle management addresses this challenge by leveraging third-party maintenance (TPM) to keep IT infrastructure operating efficiently for the long term.
TPM providers offers reliable, high-quality and cost-effective support for IT systems in any stage of its lifecycle.
2. Key ways IT lifecycle management boosts your budget
Prolonging asset lifespan:
Extending and optimizing the lifecycle of your company’s IT infrastructure maximizes the return on your hardware investment. That is, your business’s purchase will perform better and for longer. It also avoids the costs of replacing the systems, saving money.
Lifecycle extension works by carefully and routinely maintaining your hardware to avoid failures or damage to parts. This keeps the components functional for longer. It also optimizes the system to fully take advantage of the system’s capacities.
Cost-effective maintenance solutions:
As well as saving the costs of replacing hardware unnecessarily, you can reduce costs through thoughtful maintenance choices. Shifting from OEM contracts to Third-Party Maintenance can save a company up to 70% in IT support costs.
TPM providers such as Evernex provide cost-effective support using flexible service-level agreements. These SLAs are tailored to your business needs and can be scaled up or down, so your business only pays for the services it requires.
Consistent maintenance, while it requires investment, saves money in the long term by avoiding the high expenses of emergency repairs and replacements. Emergency repairs imply the costs of:
- Unexpected downtime, leading to lost productivity
- Urgently sourcing replacement parts, which may be harder if the asset is old
- Emergency call-out charges, especially if you do not have a maintenance contract
Optimizing IT investments:
The cost of IT equipment does not end with the initial purchase. Over the years, you will invest in various aspects of its lifecycle, including the costs of:
- installation
- maintenance
- updates
- repairs and replacements
- ITAD (IT Asset Disposal) processes
The accumulation of these costs from purchase to retirement is called the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). IT lifecycle management reduces the TCO by keeping the system in optimal condition. It therefore decreases the costs of replacing damaged equipment. As always, prevention is better than cure, and management is better than replacement.
Strong lifecycle management maximizes your business’s ROI on its IT infrastructure not only through making it last longer, but also by improving its efficiency and uptime through optimization. Your business can then redeploy this capital into innovation and strategic projects, leading to overall business growth.
Sustainable and economical end-of-life management:
Even when your IT equipment finally reaches the end of its useful life, it can still offer possibilities to recover value. Rather than letting it become e-waste, your business has multiple options. These include:
| Solution | What is it? | Benefits |
|---|---|---|
| Refurbishment | Extending the lifespan of IT equipment by restoring and upgrading hardware for continued use. | – Maximizes the value of existing IT assets. – Reduces e-waste and environmental impact. – Ensures reliable performance without costly replacements. |
| Buy-Back | Selling old or unused IT equipment to a third-party provider, which refurbishes and repurposes the hardware. | – Recovers a portion of the initial investment. – Supports sustainability by keeping IT assets in use. – Provides an alternative to premature disposal. |
| IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) | Securely dismantling, data-wiping, and processing end-of-life IT equipment. Reusable components are refurbished, and recyclable materials are returned to the market. | – Ensures compliance with data security and environmental regulations. – Supports the circular economy by reducing raw material demand. – Minimizes the environmental footprint of IT disposal. |
On an environmental level, these routes prevent your hardware from ending up in landfills and polluting the earth. They also promote a circular economy and reduce the demand to manufacture new hardware.
In terms of your business, these options:
✅ Promote an image of environmental responsibility among clients and stakeholders.
✅Generate revenue from retired assets.
✅Ensure compliance with legislation, avoiding hefty fines and other repercussions.
3. Implementing IT lifecycle management for budget optimization
Here’s a quick step-by-step overview of asset lifecycle management to help you get started:
| Step | What is it? | What does it involve? |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Conduct an IT asset audit | -Identify ageing assets. -Diagnose their current state and potential lifespan. |
| 2 | Partner with a trusted IT lifecycle management provider | -Evaluate providers for cost-effective services tailored to your business needs. -TPM providers such as Evernex offer expert, flexible and budget-friendly IT support throughout your asset’s lifecycle. |
| 3 | Establish a proactive maintenance plan | -Perform regular check-ups and preventive measures to avoid costly repairs. -Optimize your infrastructure to get the most out of your hardware’s performance. |
| 4 | Plan for asset retirement | -Decide on how best to retire your old IT hardware and consider your replacement options. -Maximize your company’s ROI on its hardware investment through options including resale and ITAD. |
Evernex, your partner in IT Lifecycle Management
Evernex is a leading provider of Third-Party Maintenance services and expert in IT lifecycle management. We offer a comprehensive range of lifecycle services called IMACD. That is:
- Install
- Move
- Add
- Change
- Dispose
Our end-to-end services guarantee the best-quality care for your business’s IT infrastructure, wherever it is in its lifecycle. Other benefits of partnering with Evernex include:
- Corrective maintenance services. Our certified maintenance teams identify and resolve existing issues in your IT system before they reach the end user.
- Evernex’s ITAD services are WEEE Directive- and ISO 14001-certified, ensuring a sustainable and legally compliant disposal of your old hardware.
- Buy-back program. Evernex buys your unwanted hardware, optimizing your ROI.
- Spare-as-a-Service. We provide rigorously tested, highest quality spare parts to replace faulty components. This avoids the need to replace an entire system.
Future-proofing your IT budget with IT lifecycle management
In conclusion, IT lifecycle management offers a range of financial benefits for businesses. Extending the useful life of IT hardware, as well as its responsible disposal at the end of its life, are fundamental in the creation of a sustainable, cost-effective IT strategy.
Lifecycle management allows your business to optimize its current resources, maximize the return on its investment and even gain part of it back. Explore IT lifecycle management solutions or consult an expert to optimize your IT budget today.
