What is Third Party Maintenance (TPM)? and Why Does Your Business Need It?

What is third party maintenance anyway?

These days, there are countless services and solutions available for companies hoping to improve the longevity of their technology investments. After all, while technology continues to grow more powerful and impressive by the day, it’s far from perfect.

Servers, storage and networking devices, and countless other solutions can easily fail. Unfortunately, these failures can cause damage to customer relationships, operations, and company reputations in seconds. In the past, companies have relied heavily on Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) warranties to protect their investments. Unfortunately, OEM solutions don’t last forever.

Third party maintenance, or “TPM” services extend the end of service life your hardware, and give you an extra layer of protection when OEM solutions are no longer available.

Let’s explore the realities of TPM, and why your company might need it.

An Introduction to Third Party Maintenance

Let’s start with the basics, Third Party Maintenance is a solution for extending the lifecycle of essential hardware beyond the End of Service Life dates offered by your OEM. With third party maintenance, you can continue to access the support you need to leverage your IT investments for as long as necessary. This allows companies to get more out of their equipment.

Third party maintenance is delivered by providers outside of the OEM environment, and often includes a variety of solutions and services to keep companies functioning at their best. TPM essentially provides more flexibility, and more cost savings for businesses reliant on crucial technology to keep their ecosystem running.

While the exact services offered by a TPM solution can differ, most providers will step in when equipment reaches the end of its warranty, and built-in support availability comes to an end. Usually, the third-party maintenance service you get will be cheaper than continued OEM support, while still providing access to the same level of expertise.

How Does TPM Differ from OEM Services?

As mentioned above, third party maintenance services are offered by companies outside of your original equipment manufacturer, often for a lower cost. While the technicians available can still offer the same level of support, they can usually provide you with a much better deal. What’s more, many TPM solution providers can offer expertise across a range of tools, rather than just focusing on the technology available from a single vendor.

Although OEM solutions have their benefits, it can be expensive and frustrating to try and renew your service every time your warranty ends. Switching to third party maintenance options won’t negatively interact with existing agreements, and they allow you to access follow-the-sun support, thanks to specialists available all over the world, in every time zone.

TPM solutions last a lot longer than OEM services on average, and they ensure you can retain full control over your data, facilities, and team, while still unlocking additional IT expertise. TPM service providers can also offer solutions to support a host of different technology tools, including networking and storage devices, servers, and more.

The Benefits of Third Party Maintenance

Third party maintenance solutions provide companies with the absolute peace of mind of being able to access support and assistance any time of the day, any day of the year, for as long as necessary. The major benefits of this kind of service include:

·      Cost savings: Continued maintenance and support from an OEM provider once your warranty ends can be very expensive to access. Third-party maintenance contracts usually amount to a fraction of the cost of OEM warranties, so you can focus your budget elsewhere.

·      Greater ROI: Although you may still need to refresh or update your technology at some point in the future, third-party maintenance should allow you to continue using your existing technology for as long as it continues to operate as its supposed to. This means you get a better return on your initial investment.

·      Unified support: Depending on the vendor you choose for your third party maintenance solutions; you may be able to leverage service for a wide range of legacy products and tools. This means you can reduce the headaches of having to work with a multitude of different OEMs on your service strategy.

·      Specialist support: Though usually a lot cheaper than the service offered by OEM providers, TPM companies still provide the same level of expertise. They can even have additional skills they’ve developed through years of working with different technologies, rather than just a single OEM brand. This could mean you get more of the expertise you need for a lower price.

·      Always-on support: As mentioned above, many of the third party maintenance companies on the market today can offer global support, and around-the-clock assistance. You can access international geographic coverage for everything from break-fix issues to spares. This means you spend less time waiting around waiting for issues to be addressed, and more time getting important work done.

·      Reduced business disruption: The right third-party maintenance provider will be able to offer a consistent level of high-quality support no matter what happens in your company. They can provide you with round-the-clock service, so you don’t have to suffer from the huge cost issues associated with business downtime and disruptions.

·      Versatility: Most third-party maintenance providers will be able to offer contracts and support designed to suit your business needs. This could mean offering global around-the-clock support for some companies who need always-on assistance. On the other hand, it could mean looking for opportunities to reduce costs for businesses with limited budgets.

Do You Need Third Party Maintenance?

As companies continue to grow increasingly reliant on the technology they use every day to keep their business ecosystems up-and-running, third party maintenance is growing more popular. Today’s companies can’t afford to lose access to the support and service they need when a piece of critical technology stops working as it should.

Third party maintenance can be a fantastic way for business leaders to make the most of their tech investments. With these services, you can make the most of your technology for longer, and transform your tech stack at a rate that suits you.