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	Issue TOC Print full article Print this page Download as PDF E-Mail this URL Discuss this article Flame the author     In this article Introduction Calculations PerformanceIT Network Management Service iNOC IMonitor HCL Technologies Intelligent Network Operations Services NetProactive Services Remote Infrastructure Management Scenario Complete Responses to RFI Cost Comparison: Chewing the Fat Weblinks Report Card Explained Report Card

The prime motivator for this RFI was to save IT dollars for reallocation into the application-development portion of TacDoh's IT department. To this end, we attempted to take into account all the personnel, hardware and software costs needed to make TacDoh's IT engine run. We used salary data based on BusinessWeek's Salary Wizard and considered network engineers, network operators and related management salaries as prime targets. We also considered other IT positions, such as desktop support and helpdesk staffers, when a vendor indicated it would manage the PoS equipment in each branch. Besides salaries, the model included a 20 percent bump for benefits.

The recurring license cost of TacDoh's network-management software was added at an annual rate of 18 percent, which, though not absolute, is standard. Purchase prices were based on recent Network Computing reviews. Hardware replacement and repair was added in at $65,000 annually. No depreciation costs were calculated. It was up to MSPs to determine how many and which jobs got replaced and repurposed. Although HCL was the only vendor to rely on TacDoh's HP OpenView installation, all the vendors incorporated some of the existing hardware and software.

Other costs crept into the evaluation and had to be compared. All the providers shared a conversion or setup fee, for example, and these varied greatly--from $13,000 to $90,000 dollars. Other costs included integration of the back-end sales tracking application Share the Fat, and the cost of sending someone onsite to a store. But the major factor was the contract length and early termination cost. These varied wildly, from nothing to more than $600,000 dollars.

We were disappointed that the WAN circuit audits were an additional cost. On the one hand, it's understandable--this is additional work and usually falls to someone in finance or a collaboration between a network manager and finance. But it is critical, and at the nexus of WAN-management costs. Seems like an important and measurable ROI point for the outsourcers to make.