The client required a TCO tool to facilitate the comparison of the total cost of its upcoming EIM solutions to other competitive EIM solutions. This tool would guide users through the total costs the customer can expect to outlay over a 3-year period to implement these solutions. TCO includes more than software and maintenance costs, e.g. hardware, implementation, ongoing maintenance, etc.
The client realized that – Given the need to amortize On-Premise solutions with all their hardware and software costs, per user EIM costs are very high if the number of users is below 1,000, but they begin stabilize beyond 5,000 users.
On-Premise solutions were most attractive to enterprises with less than 10,000 users. Small firms were less concerned with the security implications of using public IM systems thus preferring free systems, while larger firms were less likely to use IM or EIM due to security and productivity concerns.