How to Cut 50% of IT OPEX at the Bank Branch

Stop using OEM support on your Bank Branch 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 the branch level 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.

One example of a Bank we have worked with:

The CIO of this regional bank has been needing to do a refresh of its legacy WAN networking equipment for 2 years. It is old Cisco networking equipment that was deployed in 2016. They have not been able to get the CAPEX budget approved by the business to perform the refresh. By reducing this past years IT support contracts by about $30k, they were able to reallocate those savings towards the purchase of their new networking equipment.

In an era of economic uncertainty, banks face mounting pressure to control costs while maintaining service reliability and regulatory compliance. One strategic way to reduce operational expenses (OPEX) is by shifting from traditional OEM support contracts to third-party maintenance (TPM) providers. Instead of locking into costly, inflexible manufacturer agreements, banks can save 50–70% on IT hardware support by consolidating support for multi-vendor environments under a single TPM contract.

To put the need in perspective, the average U.S. bank’s operating expenses account for approximately 3% of total assets, according to World Bank data. Additionally, the cost-to-income ratio for U.S. banks hovers around 60–65%, meaning a significant portion of revenue is consumed by operating costs like infrastructure and technology upkeep. TPM helps reduce those burdens by extending the life of secure, reliable hardware, cutting spare part costs, and eliminating unnecessary refresh cycles. For banks with large branch