Third party savings
In the not so distant past, using third party network accessories was a risky business. Plug a third party optic into a network switch, for example, and you risked invalidating the switch's warranty. Times change, though, and today, while the warranty issue can still raise its ugly head in mission critical networks, you can make your budget go much further by careful deployment of third party accessories in less critical areas.
This change has been paralleled in other areas. Recent Euro regulations have had a similar effect in the car market, for example, overturning the long standing requirement that cars be serviced at manufacturers' main agents. We all know that when buying a child's car seat, an upgraded car hi-fi system or even something as mundane as new wiper blades, there's no need to buy manufacturers' own products. Most of us are very happy to make savings by opting for third party alternatives, rightly confident that our vehicle warranties will not be affected.
The best of both worlds
Similarly, in the network world, while the manufacturers of our hypothetical switch aren't required to guarantee workability with every third party offering available, they also don't have the right to mess you around. Should you want to connect that switch to a component made by someone else (and there's every chance you will – most networks today draw on a rich mix of different manufacturers) then you have every right to do so. Your switch warranty should remain intact.
What is important is that your network support provider is fully aware of who is supplying what and what comes from where on your network. Failing to keep them fully up to speed could result in unpleasant surprises when the time comes to call on their services to sort out this or that problem on your network.
Explore every avenue
With the economy and trading conditions as tight as they are, and with many pundits predicting even more difficult times ahead, it is absolutely in your interest, and in your business' interest, to explore every possible avenue down which savings might be made. From the cable to the optics to the ways in which you connect your switches together, every saving made represents budget that can be deployed more profitably elsewhere – perhaps on upgraded core network infrastructure.
Of course, you may not need to go as far as actually specifying third party components in every case. Sometimes simply letting your manufacturer know that you are aware of the savings that you could make this way will be enough to encourage them to offer discounts, bring their own prices in line. Business is business, after all, and often, when they can't get what they want, they'll accept what's on offer.
It's all too easy to overpay by defaulting to your main network manufacturer even for simple components and all those overpayments add up. Used wisely, the same budget can pay for more important devices at the network core. Next time you are ordering network kit, take a long hard look at your shopping list to see where third party alternatives could help you make savings.
Thursday, 17 November 2011
Tuesday, 18 October 2011
Check viability of new equipment
When is 'new' really necessary?
I bet, like me, you get something of a buzz when buying new kit. It's satisfying and (let's face it) fun to see new components going into your network. But replacing existing equipment with the latest, even if not the greatest, is not always the financially prudent thing to do. Sometimes it's wiser to keep your existing kit going a little longer, replacing it later on.
I tend to keep my cars for a fair while: my old 4x4 is knocking on eight years old now and it's had new parts in pretty much every area, from the engine and suspension through to the driver's seat. Every new part and every repair costs money, though, and the time will come, probably fairly soon, at which point replacing the car will make more financial sense than continuing to run it.
Of course there are other good reasons to replace an ageing car. My 4x4 has a petrol engine and a substantial thirst – frankly, I'm getting bored of filling up every other day. I've promised myself that when I change it, I'll go for a diesel model or perhaps even a hybrid: running on diesel would cost me a fraction of my petrol running costs.
New: interesting and fun
As well as offering impressive fuel economy, today's vehicles are amazingly reliable. And of course, though it sounds obvious, a new car is, well, new. Like most of us, I like new: it's interesting and fun.
I need to be hard-nosed, though, if I'm not to throw away money. I need to do the maths and identify the right point at which to replace my car. I need to check out the market, so I know what new models are likely to be introduced around the time I reach that point: a new model could be a better bet for me, in which case it might be worth keeping my current car going a little longer, until the new model is available.
These principles apply as much to my network – and yours - as they do to our cars.
Older kit – more failures
Recently I was chatting with a colleague from one of Go Communications' Network Enterprise Partners. He told me – perhaps not surprisingly, given the current economic climate – that while they were busy quoting customers and prospects alike for new products available from manufacturers, a significant number of sales were not being completed. When those customers and prospects saw the proposals, many considered that their existing infrastructure was adequate for their requirements.
The same Partner also told me that network infrastructure component failures were gradually on the increase. That's inevitable, of course, with ageing kit. The older it gets, the more likely it is to fail, and the time will come at which it is more expensive to continue to run an aged infrastructure than it is to replace it, either in whole or in part. In today's economic conditions it's often reaching this point that triggers previously deferred network infrastructure upgrades.
When those upgrades are made, not only is the reliability issue addressed, but other benefits can also accrue. The new devices may have features useful to the business that were not available before, for example.
Do your homework
The two keys to maximising return on your existing investment without spending more than you should on keeping it going are thorough research and careful sums. Study the pros and cons of upgrading now or waiting until later. Know the market, the products on offer, what features you need and what you don't. Be crystal clear on how much your existing set-up is costing you to run and what savings you could make in running costs by upgrading.
When the time comes, you can upgrade with confidence, knowing that the decision is sound – and of course that will mean you can enjoy that 'new kit' thrill all the more.
I bet, like me, you get something of a buzz when buying new kit. It's satisfying and (let's face it) fun to see new components going into your network. But replacing existing equipment with the latest, even if not the greatest, is not always the financially prudent thing to do. Sometimes it's wiser to keep your existing kit going a little longer, replacing it later on.
I tend to keep my cars for a fair while: my old 4x4 is knocking on eight years old now and it's had new parts in pretty much every area, from the engine and suspension through to the driver's seat. Every new part and every repair costs money, though, and the time will come, probably fairly soon, at which point replacing the car will make more financial sense than continuing to run it.
Of course there are other good reasons to replace an ageing car. My 4x4 has a petrol engine and a substantial thirst – frankly, I'm getting bored of filling up every other day. I've promised myself that when I change it, I'll go for a diesel model or perhaps even a hybrid: running on diesel would cost me a fraction of my petrol running costs.
New: interesting and fun
As well as offering impressive fuel economy, today's vehicles are amazingly reliable. And of course, though it sounds obvious, a new car is, well, new. Like most of us, I like new: it's interesting and fun.
I need to be hard-nosed, though, if I'm not to throw away money. I need to do the maths and identify the right point at which to replace my car. I need to check out the market, so I know what new models are likely to be introduced around the time I reach that point: a new model could be a better bet for me, in which case it might be worth keeping my current car going a little longer, until the new model is available.
These principles apply as much to my network – and yours - as they do to our cars.
Older kit – more failures
Recently I was chatting with a colleague from one of Go Communications' Network Enterprise Partners. He told me – perhaps not surprisingly, given the current economic climate – that while they were busy quoting customers and prospects alike for new products available from manufacturers, a significant number of sales were not being completed. When those customers and prospects saw the proposals, many considered that their existing infrastructure was adequate for their requirements.
The same Partner also told me that network infrastructure component failures were gradually on the increase. That's inevitable, of course, with ageing kit. The older it gets, the more likely it is to fail, and the time will come at which it is more expensive to continue to run an aged infrastructure than it is to replace it, either in whole or in part. In today's economic conditions it's often reaching this point that triggers previously deferred network infrastructure upgrades.
When those upgrades are made, not only is the reliability issue addressed, but other benefits can also accrue. The new devices may have features useful to the business that were not available before, for example.
Do your homework
The two keys to maximising return on your existing investment without spending more than you should on keeping it going are thorough research and careful sums. Study the pros and cons of upgrading now or waiting until later. Know the market, the products on offer, what features you need and what you don't. Be crystal clear on how much your existing set-up is costing you to run and what savings you could make in running costs by upgrading.
When the time comes, you can upgrade with confidence, knowing that the decision is sound – and of course that will mean you can enjoy that 'new kit' thrill all the more.
Thursday, 15 September 2011
Buy fully tested hardware
Testing pays dividends
Fascinating fact: as much as 6% of hardware equipment purchased new and delivered sealed fails to initialise on first start up. Largely this is down to shocks and vibration as the product passes through assorted warehouses on its journey from the manufacturer to your site.
Of course, if one of those 6% of devices happens to be critical to your network installation, this ceases to be a fascinating fact. It becomes instead a substantial pain in the neck, potentially costing you significant amounts. So, what can you do to avoid suffering at the hands of this particular statistic?
A basic principle
To answer that, let's first review a basic principal. Just as your hot and cold water systems are fundamentally more important than the various appliances and fittings they serve (after all, the most expensive, all singing, all dancing shower is useless without a reliable water supply) so your network infrastructure is more important than the devices connected to it.
If you doubt this, consider for a moment the upshot of a key component of your network infrastructure arriving on its installation date and refusing to initialise. How many people will you have sitting around doing little more than honing their thumb-twiddling skills and charging you by the hour for the privilege? How many aspects of your business will be impacted? The total cost can be enormous.
Pre-installation testing
Addressing such risks comes down to pre-installation testing. However, simply having your supplier test equipment before shipping it to you, repacking it in its original packaging complete with test report, is only part of the story. After all, faults can develop in transit, even after such supplier testing.
However, this should catch all pre-existing hardware issues, as well as rooting out any potential compatibility problems – much better to know in advance than waste expensive engineering time because the pre-sales team failed to pick up on something when proposing devices and configurations.
Get involved
Being actively involved in deciding on the types of testing to employ pays dividends, as does making such decisions early on. Full traffic load testing, for example, is likely to cost more and take more time than basic loop-back testing, but if planned well and in advance, the time involved is likely to be significantly cheaper than the time involved in resolving problems resulting from faulty or incompatible components at installation time.
Undertaking such testing is also likely to be significantly less stressful and damaging to your reputation than managing problems on D-Day, with a couple of engineers hanging around idle and a testy customer tapping his watch and making sarcastic comments.
Knowledge, so the saying goes, is power. When it comes to advance knowledge of potential pitfalls it certainly is, so make sure your kit (new or refurbished) is tested thoroughly before despatch, make sure you are intimately involved in the testing process, and do it early on.
Fascinating fact: as much as 6% of hardware equipment purchased new and delivered sealed fails to initialise on first start up. Largely this is down to shocks and vibration as the product passes through assorted warehouses on its journey from the manufacturer to your site.
Of course, if one of those 6% of devices happens to be critical to your network installation, this ceases to be a fascinating fact. It becomes instead a substantial pain in the neck, potentially costing you significant amounts. So, what can you do to avoid suffering at the hands of this particular statistic?
A basic principle
To answer that, let's first review a basic principal. Just as your hot and cold water systems are fundamentally more important than the various appliances and fittings they serve (after all, the most expensive, all singing, all dancing shower is useless without a reliable water supply) so your network infrastructure is more important than the devices connected to it.
If you doubt this, consider for a moment the upshot of a key component of your network infrastructure arriving on its installation date and refusing to initialise. How many people will you have sitting around doing little more than honing their thumb-twiddling skills and charging you by the hour for the privilege? How many aspects of your business will be impacted? The total cost can be enormous.
Pre-installation testing
Addressing such risks comes down to pre-installation testing. However, simply having your supplier test equipment before shipping it to you, repacking it in its original packaging complete with test report, is only part of the story. After all, faults can develop in transit, even after such supplier testing.
However, this should catch all pre-existing hardware issues, as well as rooting out any potential compatibility problems – much better to know in advance than waste expensive engineering time because the pre-sales team failed to pick up on something when proposing devices and configurations.
Get involved
Being actively involved in deciding on the types of testing to employ pays dividends, as does making such decisions early on. Full traffic load testing, for example, is likely to cost more and take more time than basic loop-back testing, but if planned well and in advance, the time involved is likely to be significantly cheaper than the time involved in resolving problems resulting from faulty or incompatible components at installation time.
Undertaking such testing is also likely to be significantly less stressful and damaging to your reputation than managing problems on D-Day, with a couple of engineers hanging around idle and a testy customer tapping his watch and making sarcastic comments.
Knowledge, so the saying goes, is power. When it comes to advance knowledge of potential pitfalls it certainly is, so make sure your kit (new or refurbished) is tested thoroughly before despatch, make sure you are intimately involved in the testing process, and do it early on.
Friday, 12 August 2011
Use Refurbished Spares
Don't bin it – sell it
It's in your interest to maximise the return you get on your network infrastructure investments. That's simple business common sense. And it holds good even when devices reach the point at which they can no longer form a useful part of that infrastructure. How? Simple: sell them, for the best price possible.
Smaller companies tend to be better at this than larger ones. That's possibly not surprising, as financial outlay on network and other IT infrastructure is typically a large proportion of a small business' total overhead. When such businesses have serviceable network kit to retire that they can't re-use elsewhere on their network, they don't usually just dispose of it: they sell it on as second-user equipment.
Make your budget go further
New network devices aren't cheap, and given the financial constraints under which many businesses are currently working, any net reduction in spend that can be achieved will be welcomed by owner, shareholders and bank manager alike. Every pound retrieved by selling used kit is one pound fewer that the company must find to run its network.
While many smaller businesses would view this as obvious, it's surprising how many medium-sized and larger organisations do nothing to secure a return on retired network kit. When you consider that whereas a small business might spend several thousand on its network over the course of a year, a larger one could well be spending in the tens or hundreds of thousands – or even millions – this is all the more remarkable.
A formal sales process
Whatever the size of the business, the key to maximising sales revenues from retired network devices is to formalise the sales process and clearly identify who is responsible for it.
Larger businesses can benefit from dedicated teams to handle the disposal of retired equipment, properly incentivised to secure the best possible price the kit they sell on. Even smaller ones should have at the very least a sales-oriented individual responsible for this area.
It might seem like a good idea to have the existing network management team handle the sale of surplus equipment, but while highly skilled and experienced technically, they are unlikely to be natural sales people. As a result, they won't get the best prices and they'll probably end up resenting having to handle this task as well as their day-to-day network management activities.
Plan it – and go for it
Looking at the practical issue of how to sell redundant kit, a number of alternatives present themselves, including private and public auctions, press or online advertising and even, for larger organisations, creating an in-house outlet. The key is to generate competition to purchase the retired devices, thus maximising the sale price.
There's almost always a market for second user kit: a device that seems useless to you could well be exactly what the company down the road needs. So plan the best way for your business to sell its retired network kit, put the right people in place to execute that plan, and start getting value from your network hardware even after you've removed it from your network.
It's in your interest to maximise the return you get on your network infrastructure investments. That's simple business common sense. And it holds good even when devices reach the point at which they can no longer form a useful part of that infrastructure. How? Simple: sell them, for the best price possible.
Smaller companies tend to be better at this than larger ones. That's possibly not surprising, as financial outlay on network and other IT infrastructure is typically a large proportion of a small business' total overhead. When such businesses have serviceable network kit to retire that they can't re-use elsewhere on their network, they don't usually just dispose of it: they sell it on as second-user equipment.
Make your budget go further
New network devices aren't cheap, and given the financial constraints under which many businesses are currently working, any net reduction in spend that can be achieved will be welcomed by owner, shareholders and bank manager alike. Every pound retrieved by selling used kit is one pound fewer that the company must find to run its network.
While many smaller businesses would view this as obvious, it's surprising how many medium-sized and larger organisations do nothing to secure a return on retired network kit. When you consider that whereas a small business might spend several thousand on its network over the course of a year, a larger one could well be spending in the tens or hundreds of thousands – or even millions – this is all the more remarkable.
A formal sales process
Whatever the size of the business, the key to maximising sales revenues from retired network devices is to formalise the sales process and clearly identify who is responsible for it.
Larger businesses can benefit from dedicated teams to handle the disposal of retired equipment, properly incentivised to secure the best possible price the kit they sell on. Even smaller ones should have at the very least a sales-oriented individual responsible for this area.
It might seem like a good idea to have the existing network management team handle the sale of surplus equipment, but while highly skilled and experienced technically, they are unlikely to be natural sales people. As a result, they won't get the best prices and they'll probably end up resenting having to handle this task as well as their day-to-day network management activities.
Plan it – and go for it
Looking at the practical issue of how to sell redundant kit, a number of alternatives present themselves, including private and public auctions, press or online advertising and even, for larger organisations, creating an in-house outlet. The key is to generate competition to purchase the retired devices, thus maximising the sale price.
There's almost always a market for second user kit: a device that seems useless to you could well be exactly what the company down the road needs. So plan the best way for your business to sell its retired network kit, put the right people in place to execute that plan, and start getting value from your network hardware even after you've removed it from your network.
Wednesday, 20 July 2011
Reduce Maintenance Costs
Cut your maintenance costs
While it's quick and easy to simply accept the renewal proposal your maintenance supplier sends you each year, it's also a sure-fire route to rapid cash burning. It's a healthy policy to explore maintenance cost savings on a regular basis: networks and the cost of supporting them change constantly and opportunities for savings can easily be overlooked by the unwary.
Contract renewal
Achieving a reduction in maintenance costs may be fairly easy to negotiate when contract renewal time comes around. After all, your supplier already has the necessary spares so they have no sparing-up costs to meet. Also, with 12 months or more of history to review they can see that most parts of your network simply carried on working faultlessly all year. They are aware that you know they can see that, and that you're wondering about dropping support on some items as a result.
Of course, there are real costs associated with providing maintenance support, and your support supplier has to make a profit. You are never going to reduce the cost of mission-critical network support to zero. But what else can you do to get the cost down?
Shopping around
The obvious answer to that is to shop around for better prices from other maintenance companies. This is most likely to be fruitful if you are currently using your manufacturer's premium support service. If you are already with a third party maintenance supplier, you are unlikely to make significant savings this way. In fact, you may find that alternative providers actually quote more than your existing supplier, because they need to spare up, and because your existing supplier will want your repeat business enough to be willing to discount their prices to retain it.
There is another avenue to explore, though, which can realise significant savings whether or not you switch suppliers. It may not be surprising to regular readers of this series that it can be illustrated with a parallel from the world of motoring.
Checking the detail
When renewing your car insurance, you probably shop around to see if you're getting the best deal. If the quotes come in at or around the same price, you might dig a little deeper into the detail. I certainly do. I like to make savings where I can, because then I can spend those savings on things rather more exciting and entertaining than car insurance.
I check the policy detail. Where is the car kept overnight? Is it alarmed? How is it used? I even look at the excess payable on each claim. I've had my Range Rover for over eight years and I know I can get most parts at very low cost second hand or from online spares specialists and my local mechanic can fit them at rates well below those demanded by the main dealer. I don't need insurance for that, and if I'm involved in a minor scrape, I'll sort it out myself to avoid pushing my premiums up.
Therefore, when it comes to looking at the excess I'm willing to pay on any claims I actually do make, I push it as high as the insurance company will allow. That drives my premiums down, and because I'm a careful driver and I can afford to sort out any minor scrapes myself, I save significant amounts over the years.
In short, I carefully assess exactly how much cover I need, and make sure I'm not buying cover where it's not necessary.
Don't need it? Don't buy it!
Similar principles apply to networks. Take a look at your telephone and technical support. This is an area in which many businesses have much more wide-ranging cover than they actually need. Of course, for some parts of your network you may well need such support, especially if you aren't always around and your team aren't as technically proficient as you. Indeed, a few years ago, when money was less of an issue than it is today, it was commonplace for telephone support to be included in every hardware support contract.
Finances are rather tighter nowadays, though. I speak on a regular basis with network managers from a wide variety of sectors, and the common story from all at present is that budgets are under pressure, frozen or even cut. They have hardly any room for manoeuvre, and when that unexpected (and unplanned) requirement arises, they find themselves having to go to great lengths to justify the additional expenditure. When the network is down and the phone is ringing off the hook, that's not good.
Cut cost, not value
It makes good sense, then, to evaluate carefully exactly what does, and what does not require telephone support. For much of your network, a simple break-fix contract may be entirely sufficient. Pull together a list of everything that needs hardware cover but doesn't warrant telephone support. Technologies such as routers and switches aren't the rocket science they used to be, and where you don't need telephone support, there's precious little point in buying it. Doing so adds significant cost but no value: move such devices onto straightforward break-fix support.
Take your list to your maintenance supplier and ask for a reduced quote in the light of the reduced telephone support: on some devices the saving could be as much as 50%.
So this month's money-saving tip is this: don't just renew your maintenance contracts each year. Scrutinise them. Check that you're with the supplier who can give you the best deal, make sure they're giving you the best deal, and be ruthless in pulling out of the contract any support that you don't actually need. Remember: if it's old and you're familiar with it, it should cost you less to maintain.
While it's quick and easy to simply accept the renewal proposal your maintenance supplier sends you each year, it's also a sure-fire route to rapid cash burning. It's a healthy policy to explore maintenance cost savings on a regular basis: networks and the cost of supporting them change constantly and opportunities for savings can easily be overlooked by the unwary.
Contract renewal
Achieving a reduction in maintenance costs may be fairly easy to negotiate when contract renewal time comes around. After all, your supplier already has the necessary spares so they have no sparing-up costs to meet. Also, with 12 months or more of history to review they can see that most parts of your network simply carried on working faultlessly all year. They are aware that you know they can see that, and that you're wondering about dropping support on some items as a result.
Of course, there are real costs associated with providing maintenance support, and your support supplier has to make a profit. You are never going to reduce the cost of mission-critical network support to zero. But what else can you do to get the cost down?
Shopping around
The obvious answer to that is to shop around for better prices from other maintenance companies. This is most likely to be fruitful if you are currently using your manufacturer's premium support service. If you are already with a third party maintenance supplier, you are unlikely to make significant savings this way. In fact, you may find that alternative providers actually quote more than your existing supplier, because they need to spare up, and because your existing supplier will want your repeat business enough to be willing to discount their prices to retain it.
There is another avenue to explore, though, which can realise significant savings whether or not you switch suppliers. It may not be surprising to regular readers of this series that it can be illustrated with a parallel from the world of motoring.
Checking the detail
When renewing your car insurance, you probably shop around to see if you're getting the best deal. If the quotes come in at or around the same price, you might dig a little deeper into the detail. I certainly do. I like to make savings where I can, because then I can spend those savings on things rather more exciting and entertaining than car insurance.
I check the policy detail. Where is the car kept overnight? Is it alarmed? How is it used? I even look at the excess payable on each claim. I've had my Range Rover for over eight years and I know I can get most parts at very low cost second hand or from online spares specialists and my local mechanic can fit them at rates well below those demanded by the main dealer. I don't need insurance for that, and if I'm involved in a minor scrape, I'll sort it out myself to avoid pushing my premiums up.
Therefore, when it comes to looking at the excess I'm willing to pay on any claims I actually do make, I push it as high as the insurance company will allow. That drives my premiums down, and because I'm a careful driver and I can afford to sort out any minor scrapes myself, I save significant amounts over the years.
In short, I carefully assess exactly how much cover I need, and make sure I'm not buying cover where it's not necessary.
Don't need it? Don't buy it!
Similar principles apply to networks. Take a look at your telephone and technical support. This is an area in which many businesses have much more wide-ranging cover than they actually need. Of course, for some parts of your network you may well need such support, especially if you aren't always around and your team aren't as technically proficient as you. Indeed, a few years ago, when money was less of an issue than it is today, it was commonplace for telephone support to be included in every hardware support contract.
Finances are rather tighter nowadays, though. I speak on a regular basis with network managers from a wide variety of sectors, and the common story from all at present is that budgets are under pressure, frozen or even cut. They have hardly any room for manoeuvre, and when that unexpected (and unplanned) requirement arises, they find themselves having to go to great lengths to justify the additional expenditure. When the network is down and the phone is ringing off the hook, that's not good.
Cut cost, not value
It makes good sense, then, to evaluate carefully exactly what does, and what does not require telephone support. For much of your network, a simple break-fix contract may be entirely sufficient. Pull together a list of everything that needs hardware cover but doesn't warrant telephone support. Technologies such as routers and switches aren't the rocket science they used to be, and where you don't need telephone support, there's precious little point in buying it. Doing so adds significant cost but no value: move such devices onto straightforward break-fix support.
Take your list to your maintenance supplier and ask for a reduced quote in the light of the reduced telephone support: on some devices the saving could be as much as 50%.
So this month's money-saving tip is this: don't just renew your maintenance contracts each year. Scrutinise them. Check that you're with the supplier who can give you the best deal, make sure they're giving you the best deal, and be ruthless in pulling out of the contract any support that you don't actually need. Remember: if it's old and you're familiar with it, it should cost you less to maintain.
Thursday, 16 June 2011
Use original & OEM & 3rd Party
Genuine, OEM or third party?
In these economically challenging times, savings must be made. As costs are driven down, though, risks often rise. Lose control of those risks, and those hard-won savings – and more – could be wiped out.
If you could buy the same piece of memory, for example, through two different channels, one being twice as expensive as the other, which would you choose? Get the choice right, and you could make great cost savings. Get it wrong and not only could you damage your network, but you could also jeopardise the warranty that's in place to protect you against failures. Conventional wisdom says that genuine or OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) components are the safe but expensive options, while savings are to be had, at the cost of increased risk, by going for third party products.
Cars again!
In keeping with the tradition we've built up in this series, consider a parallel from the motoring world. When you buy a brand new car, it will come with perhaps as much as a three year warranty. Typically you'll protect yourself against unexpected expensive repairs by having it serviced at the official dealer you bought it from, in line with the warranty contract – all part of generally taking care not to invalidate the warranty.
This extends to any additions you make to the car. While there is a huge range of performance and comfort enhancing upgrades available, the manufacturer will require that you have any work done at an authorised dealer to keep your warranty intact.
Main dealer labour rates being what they are, this will almost certainly not be the cheapest option, of course. However in the good old days of plentiful money supply this was the norm, and independent dealers were left somewhat out in the cold, having to explain to potential customers how money could be saved here and there by using genuine parts sourced through independent channels: as long as proof of the parts' origin was retained breach of warranty terms could be avoided.
Have your cake and eat it
Those days are of course long gone. Today money is tight and the situation has as a result been turned on its head. It's almost as if customers have an even greater desire to save money (safely!) than the independent dealers have to sell to them. And the good news is that you don't need to throw caution to the wind and take wild risks in order to make worthwhile savings. With a little careful research, you can have your cake and eat it.
I've gone through this process with my faithful old Range Rover. I've owned it from new – eight years ago – and I still love it. So, do I take it to the main dealer for service and repairs? Absolutely not! I'm not about to be stung with main dealer prices. Instead, I've done my homework and found a local independent Land Rover specialist. They only work on Land Rovers and Range Rovers, and they don't get involved in vehicle sales, only servicing and repair. All of their customers are, like me, ex-main-dealer customers who have seen the benefits of using a specialised outfit like this, and the cost savings that can be made.
You have a choice
Critically, they have the resources to supply and fit both genuine parts and third party alternatives. I always get quotes for both, and if it's a safety-critical part that's needed, such as brakes, I'll usually go for the genuine item. If it's less critical, I'll probably go for the third party alternative.
Similar choices need to be made by network managers. From the smallest home network to the largest corporate infrastructure, the key is reliability. Life's too short to be sitting idle without access to critical applications or data. Time is, after all, money.
To be able to decide when to go for genuine parts, when to choose OEM and when to go third party, you need to know your network – the age of every component and the nature of the support service it's covered by.
For components still under warranty, there are two alternative options when sourcing spares: OEM or third party. In the case of a very large network there is clear justification in conducting a close examination of all components that could be purchased as OEM, while avoiding invalidating the warranty. OEM gives you peace of mind that the product comes from the same source as that used by the manufacturer, and allows you be fully supported if any product failure issues arise.
It is sheer network size that makes this exercise worth undertaking: on a larger network the savings can be enormous. For smaller networks, with smaller numbers of devices involved, the potential savings are much reduced, making it less worthwhile spending the time involved. In either case, if your network is mission-critical and you want to preserve your warranty then OEM is the way to go. Such products will be manufacturer approved, and, indeed, identical to the manufacturer's genuine article, making sparing up easier.
Chunky savings
I like chunky savings, though, so I always like to explore the third party option: that's where the best savings can be made. Most third party products will not be manufacturer approved, but lack of manufacturer approval has little or no bearing on whether a product will work any better or worse than an approved product. After all, no manufacturer has the time or inclination to approve every third party device that may or may not work with their own.
Do your research, then. Examine non-approved vendor's products. Is the spec the same? Has it been recommended by anyone else? Is it recommended by the supplier as good for use in your device? What warranty does it come with? All of this may well be spot on, even though the third party device hasn’t been officially sanctioned by the manufacturer of the component that you need to upgrade or spare up for.
The key to making savings by specifying OEM or third party devices is comprehensive knowledge. Know your network, know which network segments and components are mission-critical. Know the nature and extent of the warranty on each device. Then research the available OEM and third party alternatives for upgrades and spares. Assess the risks involved to the network and the business and weigh them against the potential savings. Arm yourself with the information you need to make the decision, and then go for it.
In these economically challenging times, savings must be made. As costs are driven down, though, risks often rise. Lose control of those risks, and those hard-won savings – and more – could be wiped out.
If you could buy the same piece of memory, for example, through two different channels, one being twice as expensive as the other, which would you choose? Get the choice right, and you could make great cost savings. Get it wrong and not only could you damage your network, but you could also jeopardise the warranty that's in place to protect you against failures. Conventional wisdom says that genuine or OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) components are the safe but expensive options, while savings are to be had, at the cost of increased risk, by going for third party products.
Cars again!
In keeping with the tradition we've built up in this series, consider a parallel from the motoring world. When you buy a brand new car, it will come with perhaps as much as a three year warranty. Typically you'll protect yourself against unexpected expensive repairs by having it serviced at the official dealer you bought it from, in line with the warranty contract – all part of generally taking care not to invalidate the warranty.
This extends to any additions you make to the car. While there is a huge range of performance and comfort enhancing upgrades available, the manufacturer will require that you have any work done at an authorised dealer to keep your warranty intact.
Main dealer labour rates being what they are, this will almost certainly not be the cheapest option, of course. However in the good old days of plentiful money supply this was the norm, and independent dealers were left somewhat out in the cold, having to explain to potential customers how money could be saved here and there by using genuine parts sourced through independent channels: as long as proof of the parts' origin was retained breach of warranty terms could be avoided.
Have your cake and eat it
Those days are of course long gone. Today money is tight and the situation has as a result been turned on its head. It's almost as if customers have an even greater desire to save money (safely!) than the independent dealers have to sell to them. And the good news is that you don't need to throw caution to the wind and take wild risks in order to make worthwhile savings. With a little careful research, you can have your cake and eat it.
I've gone through this process with my faithful old Range Rover. I've owned it from new – eight years ago – and I still love it. So, do I take it to the main dealer for service and repairs? Absolutely not! I'm not about to be stung with main dealer prices. Instead, I've done my homework and found a local independent Land Rover specialist. They only work on Land Rovers and Range Rovers, and they don't get involved in vehicle sales, only servicing and repair. All of their customers are, like me, ex-main-dealer customers who have seen the benefits of using a specialised outfit like this, and the cost savings that can be made.
You have a choice
Critically, they have the resources to supply and fit both genuine parts and third party alternatives. I always get quotes for both, and if it's a safety-critical part that's needed, such as brakes, I'll usually go for the genuine item. If it's less critical, I'll probably go for the third party alternative.
Similar choices need to be made by network managers. From the smallest home network to the largest corporate infrastructure, the key is reliability. Life's too short to be sitting idle without access to critical applications or data. Time is, after all, money.
To be able to decide when to go for genuine parts, when to choose OEM and when to go third party, you need to know your network – the age of every component and the nature of the support service it's covered by.
For components still under warranty, there are two alternative options when sourcing spares: OEM or third party. In the case of a very large network there is clear justification in conducting a close examination of all components that could be purchased as OEM, while avoiding invalidating the warranty. OEM gives you peace of mind that the product comes from the same source as that used by the manufacturer, and allows you be fully supported if any product failure issues arise.
It is sheer network size that makes this exercise worth undertaking: on a larger network the savings can be enormous. For smaller networks, with smaller numbers of devices involved, the potential savings are much reduced, making it less worthwhile spending the time involved. In either case, if your network is mission-critical and you want to preserve your warranty then OEM is the way to go. Such products will be manufacturer approved, and, indeed, identical to the manufacturer's genuine article, making sparing up easier.
Chunky savings
I like chunky savings, though, so I always like to explore the third party option: that's where the best savings can be made. Most third party products will not be manufacturer approved, but lack of manufacturer approval has little or no bearing on whether a product will work any better or worse than an approved product. After all, no manufacturer has the time or inclination to approve every third party device that may or may not work with their own.
Do your research, then. Examine non-approved vendor's products. Is the spec the same? Has it been recommended by anyone else? Is it recommended by the supplier as good for use in your device? What warranty does it come with? All of this may well be spot on, even though the third party device hasn’t been officially sanctioned by the manufacturer of the component that you need to upgrade or spare up for.
The key to making savings by specifying OEM or third party devices is comprehensive knowledge. Know your network, know which network segments and components are mission-critical. Know the nature and extent of the warranty on each device. Then research the available OEM and third party alternatives for upgrades and spares. Assess the risks involved to the network and the business and weigh them against the potential savings. Arm yourself with the information you need to make the decision, and then go for it.
Wednesday, 25 May 2011
Opt for sparing on less critical areas
Maintenance costs driving you spare?
Your IT network infrastructure needs maintenance support. It is your business' central nervous system: without it, you would almost certainly be hard pressed to stay afloat for long. But it is a conglomeration of technology, and technology – even the very best technology – is subject to failure.
Nothing new so far. Indeed, I've said as much a number of times in this series of articles.
Here's the critical question, though: "How can you keep the risk of device failure at an acceptable level, without burning huge amounts of cash in the process?"
You could conclude that your entire infrastructure should be covered by a support contract. After all your business relies utterly on it – it is, by almost any definition, mission critical. That would address the risk reduction requirement, of course, but it wouldn't be cheap.
As always, there is a better way.
A little mental retail therapy
Think back to the last time you went shopping for one of the many pieces of electronic wizardry that we all fill our homes with. The latest plasma TV or game console, perhaps. At the checkout you're sure to have been offered an extended guarantee. When buying cutting-edge technology with as yet no track record in the market, I almost always go for such extended guarantees. After all, brand new technology is new not only to me, but, in terms of its performance in the mass market, it is new even to its manufacturer. The extended guarantee may be costly, but it provides a good level of protection against unknown risks.
Now leap forward a couple of years to the day the extended guarantee renewal notice lands on your doormat. At this point, I usually take a completely different view. I've seen the product in action, I've read the reviews and I've chewed the fat with friends who also have it. I know it's reliable, and with the benefit of hindsight the renewal premium looks rather expensive for what it will give me. The long and the short of it is that since the product has been working well throughout years one and two, there's every reason expect it to continue to do so in years three and four. I say "No thanks" to the invitation to renew.
Is the cover warranted?
There's a principle here that transplants well into the world of your IT network. While it makes excellent sense to have appropriate support contracts covering more recently purchased devices and those which are core to the functioning of your network, significant savings can be made by identifying those areas of your network that don't warrant such cover, and protecting them with spares instead.
Take a long, hard, critical look at your support contracts. You're paying, of course, not for the repair cost of each device, or even a percentage of it, but, effectively, for an insurance contract. You are buying protection against remedial expense and costly downtime in the event of a failure. It's your support provider's job to provide that protection, of course, and it's not something which can be done on the cheap. Each supported device must be surrounded with sufficient spares and skilled personnel to ensure that service can be delivered in line with the standards set in the contract. All that costs money, which of course is reflected in the price you pay for the support.
Mission critical, and not so critical
Now, if you have to have that support, then you have to have it. But – and it's a big 'but' – while your network as a whole is mission critical, it's almost certainly not the case that the whole of your network is mission critical. Naturally, your support provider isn't going to draw this to your attention – supporting those non mission critical parts of your network is usually, not to put too fine a point on it, money for old rope. Your support provider will be very happy to have the extra, low-hassle profit it brings their way. To take the initiative and put yourself ahead of the game, you need to do some auditing, before that renewal notice lands on your desk.
Before you are next due to renegotiate support contracts, take some time out to identify which parts of your network could be supported in house with appropriate spares. Of course, doing this may mean taking on additional staff – reckon all the various costs in and compare them to the cost of including those parts of your network in a support contract. It boils down to arithmetic. Have your accountants crunch the numbers so you can see clearly the relative costs involved. Once you can see that, and you know where in your network the dividing line between mission critical and non mission critical lies, you'll be able to decide what should be included in a support contract, and what you can support by sparing up.
And remember, the time to do that preparatory work is now – before the pressure is on at support contract renewal time. Arm yourself with a cuppa and get auditing!
Your IT network infrastructure needs maintenance support. It is your business' central nervous system: without it, you would almost certainly be hard pressed to stay afloat for long. But it is a conglomeration of technology, and technology – even the very best technology – is subject to failure.
Nothing new so far. Indeed, I've said as much a number of times in this series of articles.
Here's the critical question, though: "How can you keep the risk of device failure at an acceptable level, without burning huge amounts of cash in the process?"
You could conclude that your entire infrastructure should be covered by a support contract. After all your business relies utterly on it – it is, by almost any definition, mission critical. That would address the risk reduction requirement, of course, but it wouldn't be cheap.
As always, there is a better way.
A little mental retail therapy
Think back to the last time you went shopping for one of the many pieces of electronic wizardry that we all fill our homes with. The latest plasma TV or game console, perhaps. At the checkout you're sure to have been offered an extended guarantee. When buying cutting-edge technology with as yet no track record in the market, I almost always go for such extended guarantees. After all, brand new technology is new not only to me, but, in terms of its performance in the mass market, it is new even to its manufacturer. The extended guarantee may be costly, but it provides a good level of protection against unknown risks.
Now leap forward a couple of years to the day the extended guarantee renewal notice lands on your doormat. At this point, I usually take a completely different view. I've seen the product in action, I've read the reviews and I've chewed the fat with friends who also have it. I know it's reliable, and with the benefit of hindsight the renewal premium looks rather expensive for what it will give me. The long and the short of it is that since the product has been working well throughout years one and two, there's every reason expect it to continue to do so in years three and four. I say "No thanks" to the invitation to renew.
Is the cover warranted?
There's a principle here that transplants well into the world of your IT network. While it makes excellent sense to have appropriate support contracts covering more recently purchased devices and those which are core to the functioning of your network, significant savings can be made by identifying those areas of your network that don't warrant such cover, and protecting them with spares instead.
Take a long, hard, critical look at your support contracts. You're paying, of course, not for the repair cost of each device, or even a percentage of it, but, effectively, for an insurance contract. You are buying protection against remedial expense and costly downtime in the event of a failure. It's your support provider's job to provide that protection, of course, and it's not something which can be done on the cheap. Each supported device must be surrounded with sufficient spares and skilled personnel to ensure that service can be delivered in line with the standards set in the contract. All that costs money, which of course is reflected in the price you pay for the support.
Mission critical, and not so critical
Now, if you have to have that support, then you have to have it. But – and it's a big 'but' – while your network as a whole is mission critical, it's almost certainly not the case that the whole of your network is mission critical. Naturally, your support provider isn't going to draw this to your attention – supporting those non mission critical parts of your network is usually, not to put too fine a point on it, money for old rope. Your support provider will be very happy to have the extra, low-hassle profit it brings their way. To take the initiative and put yourself ahead of the game, you need to do some auditing, before that renewal notice lands on your desk.
Before you are next due to renegotiate support contracts, take some time out to identify which parts of your network could be supported in house with appropriate spares. Of course, doing this may mean taking on additional staff – reckon all the various costs in and compare them to the cost of including those parts of your network in a support contract. It boils down to arithmetic. Have your accountants crunch the numbers so you can see clearly the relative costs involved. Once you can see that, and you know where in your network the dividing line between mission critical and non mission critical lies, you'll be able to decide what should be included in a support contract, and what you can support by sparing up.
And remember, the time to do that preparatory work is now – before the pressure is on at support contract renewal time. Arm yourself with a cuppa and get auditing!
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