Cut your Retail Store IT Costs by 70% this Year

Stop using OEM support on your Retail Store IT equipment after the initial 3 years. Maintain proper licensing of your equipment and then move your IT hardware to a Third Party Maintainer (TPM). This will lower your IT support contract spend at your stores by 50-70%, allowing you to reallocate those funds to the business or to more critical functions of your IT infrastructure.

We always recommend staying with OEM support if your business can afford it, BUT....

1.      If you are a CIO, IT Director, IT Manager, or business leader working to reduce your operating expenses,

2.      OR you are trying to find ways to free up IT budget to allocate to a pending technology refresh, you should be looking at IT support contracts as a way achieve these goals.

Here's an example from one of our Retail Clients:

We worked with a frustrated Director of IT who managed 36 stores across the U.S. They implemented a new POS system at all their stores that operated solely on WiFi. However, they couldn’t refresh their wireless APs to obtain the necessary coverage. Their in-store iPads that managed the new POS application continued to drop wireless signal as associates walked around the store. This caused frustration with the salespeople and added friction with their clients, as open shopping carts on the iPads would clear when they lost Wifi signal.

We suggested (and the Director agreed) that the company should move to a hardware replacement ONLY maintenance strategy for a year on their store IT equipment. By foregoing the OEM support contract, they could free up the budget to perform the refresh. This is a fantastic strategy you can employ with a 3rd Party Maintenance provider to reduce your OpEx and reallocate those funds to a critical refresh.

Today, retailers operate on slim profit margins, averaging around 3%*. Managing OpEx is crucial for not only maintaining profitability, but to perform the technology refreshes needed to remain competitive. By transitioning to third-party maintenance providers, retailers can achieve flexibility in how they support their storefront while also getting substantial savings—often reducing support costs by 50–70%.

In an industry where operating expenses can consume a significant portion of revenue, implementing TPM strategies can provide retailers with the financial agility needed to invest in growth and innovation.

Source

*NYU Stern School of Business