Total Cost of Ownership

Psion Teklogix understands the Total Cost of Ownership for mobile computers in supply-chain-execution applications.

An important aspect of evaluating devices is recognizing how a product’s features will protect the enterprises’ investment over the lifespan of the device’s deployment. Cost should be measured over a continuum rather than a point in time, such as the point of purchase. Costs incurred through device downtime are important to include when building a business case for deploying mobile computers. The Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) model includes all the costs associated to the device over its life span. The benefit of examining costs in this way is that it provides the enterprise a more realistic view of the purchase decision and how it will affect the business over time.

In this model, rugged devices are found to be significantly less expensive (approximately 32% over 5 years) from a TCO perspective. This finding is backed by Venture Development Corporation’s (VDC) findings in their 2003 Total Cost of Ownership models, which surveyed a broad range of actual deployments.