Perform research on the Internet to learn more about TCO, and develop a TCO checklist that includes the five most important elements of TCO, because of their magnitude or potential impact on TIMS.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

TCO checklists will vary. The main objective is to give students the opportunity to examine the overall range of TCO issues and think critically about the topic. Students should understand that TCO consists of easily identified, direct costs that can be predicted and budgeted. In addition, TCO can include costs that are not so apparent, such as employees’ time spent in peer-to-peer problem solving, which represents an indirect cost that typically is not budgeted.

When students formulate a TCO list, they might include examples similar to these:
Direct costs:
- Hardware and software (capital and lease expenses)
- Management (network, systems, and storage management labor and fees)
- Support (Help desk, training, travel, and overhead)
- Development (labor and fees)
- Communication fees
Indirect costs:
- User time (the cost of users supporting themselves and each other instead of relying on formal IT support channels, end user formal training, casual learning, and self-development/scripting of applications)
- Downtime (the lost productivity due to planned and unplanned network, system, and application unavailability, measured in terms of lost wages