World Data Products Outlines Four Strategies For Lowering Hardware Costs and Raising Return on Investment31 October 2005
Extend Useful Life of Hardware, Consolidate and Standardise Platforms, Purchase Refurbished IT and Review Maintenance Options
World Data Products Ltd., the largest independent provider and global market leader for refurbished server, storage and networking hardware solutions, today outlined four key strategies for lowering hardware costs and raising return on investment for UK IT Managers.
Intensified competition and volatile markets have complicated the IT executive’s task to support business operations and create strategic advantage from technology investments. IT can still ‘make a difference’, but to do so, more thoughtful, even aggressive, acquisition and installed base management is now mandatory for success. Many organisations have to do more with less and get more value and use from their existing infrastructures.
As specialists in lifecycle control for ICT equipment, World Data Products has outlined four key strategies that IT Managers can use to increase their ROI and decrease their hardware costs.
The first is to extend the useful life of hardware. According to Gartner, companies that adjust their IT hardware replacement cycles to an asset’s true useful life within an enterprise – three to five years – will achieve a near term savings of 10%-20% of their overall hardware budget.
On average, vendors tend promote upgrades every three years, when in reality, the true life of most hardware is closer to five years. Vendors have historically been able to impose shorter hardware lifecycles on customers by withdrawing support and maintenance. However, purchasing compatible equipment, components, parts and system upgrades from refurbished equipment partners eliminates this problem. In addition to reducing direct capital costs, there are substantial indirect savings that come from replacing hardware based on its true useful life, rather than flawed replacement cycle assumptions. These include eliminating migration costs, training costs, downtime from replacements as well as avoiding incompatibilities.
“Replacement cycle policies based on departmental plans, budgets, depreciation schedules and maintenance agreements don’t always reflect an asset’s useful life and may result in under utilisation of hardware assets,” said Will Richardson, European Sales Manager for World Data Products Ltd. “Only by addressing these ingrained planning and operational assumptions can full useful product lives be attained.”
The second strategy is to consolidate and standardise on a relatively few number of hardware platforms and to eliminate redundant data centres. This not only lowers administrative costs, increases efficiency of hardware utilisation, but also improves availability, simplifies deployment and fosters measurable accountability.
“The tide of decentralisation brought immediate solutions at a time of unprecedented change in IT, but also created an environment that is difficult to maintain and manage,” added Richardson. “Consolidation initiatives should be consistent with a greater vision for re-architecting the network for improved efficiency and reliability. While consolidation requires a significant up-front investment, refurbished hardware can be a very effective way to reduce these costs. It is not only ideal for production hardware, but also for development, test and training machines and can yield savings of up to sixty percent over new purchases.”
The third strategy is to ‘buy smart’ by making purchases based on hardware lifecycles, taking advantage of new vs. used price differentials. When markets were booming and innovation was occurring at break-neck pace, IT managers chose to buy primarily new hardware to avoid obsolescence, headaches or anything that might detract from trouble-free implementations. With companies now focused on risk management, operational efficiency and productivity, return on investment is the new standard by which most projects are measured. In addition to reducing the acquisition price, purchasing refurbished IT equipment also reduces the total cost of ownership for companies.
The fourth and final strategy is to review maintenance contract alternatives. According to IDC research, enterprises commonly have more than a dozen support suppliers with many organisations having to manage over 20 supplier relationships. These multiple points of contact create overheads and unclear delineations of responsibility and potential confusion at a time when systems are down and speed is critical. Many organisations are consolidating their suppliers with trusted third party maintainers (TPMs).
“TPMs provide a combination of phone, web based, on-site, and parts availability services that rival the manufacturer’s, with service tiers providing a range of response times and availability options to meet the needs of most companies,” said Richardson. “Equally important, leading TPMs have the infrastructure and experience to provide the levels and quality of support required in today’s business environment with thousands of technicians located in all the major cities nation-wide or world-wide, serving tens of thousands of IT customers.”
World Data Products lowers hardware and maintenance costs, increases upgrade flexibility, extends the useful life, and maximises the residual value of all server, storage and networking hardware. For IT managers, this results in lower costs, fewer headaches, and more control throughout the hardware lifecycle, combined with consolidation and standardisation for operational efficiency. Whilst vendors are focused on how to maximise their profits at every stage of the lifecycle, World Data Products focuses on how to save customers money and maximise the return on their hardware investments.
About World Data Products
Founded in 1987, World Data Products is the largest independent provider and global market leader for refurbished server, storage and networking hardware solutions. With annual revenues of approximately $70 million, World Data Products serves more than 4,000 customers worldwide, processes more than 4,000 transactions per month and holds a multi-million dollar inventory. World Data Products helps enterprises and governments increase the yield and useful life of their IT investment and improve asset manageability. This is achieved in three key ways: first, by providing fully refurbished and tested hardware solutions; second, by facilitating the economical acquisition of system components and parts, upgrades and replacements; and third, by purchasing excess hardware, thereby maximising residual returns.
World Data Products’ global customer base includes large, blue chip organisations, as well as smaller companies looking to maximise their IT return on investment. The company has customers in finance, healthcare, insurance, media, transport, distribution, consumer products and government.
Source: Sourcewire
All trademarks and copyrighted information contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
Related Computer Hardware Articles
|
