Competition can be good or bad; even though it can be your biggest obstacle while growing and maintaining market share, a competitor can also be a tremendous advantage when more than one capable provider competes for your business and customers. In the latter instance, companies can enjoy significant savings and a greater level of attention under these conditions and over any period of time.

Partnering with a professional third-party maintenance company (TPM) can add significant advantages during negotiations for new equipment and support services for your employees with one of the well-known original equipment manufacturers (OEM).

Your buying power is also substantially enhanced when working with a global TPM partner to supply replacement parts and labor that will extend your IT systems' productive life beyond the equipment's established warranty.

Tactics for Improving Your Bargaining Position with a Third-Party Maintenance Company

• Locked into the OEM

It is no secret that anyone's bargaining position improves substantially when they have an effective alternative.

Here is a typical scenario in the IT world: Enterprise managers sometimes find themselves "locked into" single-sourcing IT equipment. Once their warranties expire, the OEM representative will encourage them to "refresh" with new equipment. If this effort falls short, the OEM rep will offer an expensive year-by-year service contract to keep the original IT equipment running longer.

Extended service contracts provide some level of insurance, but the premiums can become astronomical. As each service contract increases in price, the business manager will eventually decide that buying new equipment is cheaper than keeping the old.  

Maintenance services are never the OEM's core mission. Selling new equipment is part of their plans to make more profit. Raising maintenance costs to a level that makes buying new equipment seem like the only economical option is a strategy for increasing sales. Without an alternative, the client must succumb.

Bringing an Effective Third-Party Maintenance Company On Board in the Future

On the other hand, when the same manager begins to work with a professional third-party IT management company at the time the warranty is expiring, the result will represent the following outcomes:

• Lower overall IT maintenance costs
• Extended functional life of IT equipment
• Comprehensive coverage for all equipment available
• Personalized service
• Regular, ongoing maintenance
• 24/7 monitoring
• Strategic, continuous data backup

The presence of your closely-associated and experienced TPM will signal to the OEM representative that you have a strong alternative, especially one that can substantially extend the life and capacity of the existing systems.

Third-Party Maintenance: The Right Step in Achieving a Competitive Edge

Breaking free of the bonds controlled by the original equipment manufacturer substantially reduces any company's long-term capital expenditure on IT equipment, storage, and maintenance. Savings and benefits from a competitive scenario include:

• Extending equipment life and reducing long-term IT costs
• Tailored maintenance contract pricing, i.e., paying only for what you need
• Forestall upgrading to newer technology until after the "introductory pricing" drops
• OEM's expensive maintenance waiver at the end of the warranty will go away in favor of a less expensive, flexible, and more comprehensive maintenance contract with the TPM

With a professional TPM, the client will enjoy an ongoing partnering relationship with greater accountability, better communications, full-time system monitoring, enhanced security, and upgrades only when needed.

For Global Third-Party Maintenance Support and Service for Your Business, contact thomastech

Just having a competent, experienced, and reliable TPM to serve as your virtual IT Department while keeping your equipment up-to-date and running smoothly without draining your capital resources will instill peace of mind and confidence.

Enterprise managers should never rely strictly on OEMs for support because their primary objective, such as selling new systems, is clearly in conflict with your business goals.

The objective of a skillful and diligent TPM, on the other hand, is precisely the same as your business goals. Keeping your business running smoothly, extending your IT products' useful life, and providing all the necessary support and security at lower cost are clearly mutually important goals.

If organizations have an extended global reach, working with a company like thomastech to meet industry demands and keep all entities in sync and running smoothly are essential; undoubtedly, such an opportunity will save you time and money.

thomastech provides effective, secure, and ongoing IT maintenance support for companies in the U.S. and across Europe and various countries. To arrange a confidential discussion and a quality evaluation with one of our experts, visit the thomastech website or call us at (330) 225-3117.