More Value for Your Service Dollar: Better Service at Lower Cost Through Service Lifecycle Management reviews a strategic way for companies to ensure that capital equipment is making a profitable return for their business through better service. Please enjoy the free Introduction below, or click the report title above to download the full PDF (free of charge, no registration required).
Introduction
An IT infrastructure and the capital equipment that serves as its foundation must generate a profitable return for the business that owns it. For the most part, there is no reason for a business to own or lease a piece of IT equipment unless it somehow helps to generate revenue. Although the connection between this equipment and the revenue it contributes
may not be absolutely clear — equipment must make money or demonstrate value beyond the cost to purchase and maintain it. Whether the equipment is a vending machine or self-service kiosk that directly pulls in revenue, a personal computer supporting the back office functions of the business, or production equipment helping to produce the products that will be delivered to customers, capital equipment that is out of service or not functioning properly can not make money.
Service Lifecycle Management (SLM) is a strategic way for organizations to ensure that capital equipment is making a profitable return for their business. Making a profitable return is based on two things — ensuring uptime and proper performance for the equipment, and doing so at an optimal cost to keep expenses down. SLM is a business
strategy, first introduced by industry analyst AMR Research, aimed at increasing the amount of time that a machine is up and running and concurrently reducing the total cost of ownership. By attacking both ends of the value equation, revenue and cost, SLM promises to provide a significant return for companies that depend on capital equipment. SLM provides increased service value by employing a philosophy that moves businesses away from reactive service and towards predictive, proactive, preventive service. By identifying and addressing potential problems before they are noticeable problems, companies that adopt an SLM approach avoid the more significant expenses of unplanned repairs and the revenue loss from unnecessary equipment unavailability. The result of this proactive approach is better service at a lower overall cost. Leading companies today are adopting SLM as a business strategy by adopting the SLM concepts into their own service departments, or increasingly, by transferring the service headache over to a service company that delivers SLM capabilities as a part of their service offering.