For many organizations, renewing an OEM maintenance contract has become routine. The renewal arrives, the customer reviews the price, and—assuming the equipment is still in use—the contract gets renewed.

But as enterprise hardware gets older, that automatic renewal may deserve a second look.

OEM maintenance costs can increase as equipment moves further into its lifecycle, even when the hardware continues to perform reliably. For value-added resellers (VARs), that creates an opportunity to help customers rethink how they support aging infrastructure—and potentially reduce their maintenance costs without forcing a premature hardware refresh.

Third-party maintenance (TPM) offers another option.

Through SmartCare from SmartSource IT, EarthBend Distribution partners can offer customers an alternative to traditional OEM maintenance for networking, server and storage infrastructure, with potential savings of 50% to 85% compared with OEM support.

When Does Third-Party Maintenance Make Sense?

OEM support can provide considerable value during the early years of a product’s lifecycle. Parts may be harder to obtain, software and firmware development remains active, and frequent updates may make manufacturer support particularly important.

The equation can begin to change as the equipment matures.

Around four years after a product’s release, OEM maintenance costs may increase while replacement parts become more readily available and affordable. At the same time, the frequency of software and firmware updates often begins to decline. As equipment approaches End of Life (EOL) or End of Service (EOS), the economic argument for continuing traditional OEM maintenance can become less compelling.

That doesn’t necessarily mean the equipment itself needs to be replaced. Enterprise hardware can remain productive well beyond its planned service life. TPM gives organizations another option for continuing to support that infrastructure rather than allowing an OEM support timeline to dictate when it must be retired.

For VARs, identifying equipment at this stage of the lifecycle can open the door to a valuable conversation with customers.

OEM vs. TPM: An Inverse Relationship

Give Customers Another Option at Renewal Time

When an OEM maintenance renewal comes up, customers may assume they have only two choices: pay the renewal price or replace the equipment.

SmartCare provides a third.

Instead of automatically renewing an increasingly expensive manufacturer contract, customers can move eligible equipment to third-party maintenance while maintaining access to the technical expertise and hardware support needed to keep their infrastructure operating.

SmartCare provides:

• Potential maintenance savings of 50%–85% compared with OEM support.
• 24/7 expert support with access to certified engineers.
• Flexible SLAs designed to match or exceed OEM service levels.
• Multi-OEM support that can bring equipment from multiple manufacturers under a single maintenance solution.
• Hardware lifecycle extension that can help customers continue using infrastructure that still meets their needs.

This isn’t simply a conversation about finding cheaper maintenance. It’s about helping customers align their support strategy with the actual lifecycle and value of their infrastructure.

Simplify Support Across a Multi-Vendor Environment

Most enterprise environments aren’t built around a single manufacturer.

A customer might have Cisco networking equipment, Dell servers, HPE storage, and Juniper infrastructure—all at different stages of their respective lifecycles. Maintaining separate OEM agreements for each environment can increase both cost and administrative complexity.

SmartCare provides maintenance coverage across a broad range of enterprise platforms, including equipment from Brocade, Cisco, Dell EMC, Hitachi, HPE, IBM, Juniper, Lenovo, NetApp, Sun/Oracle, and Supermicro.

Supported product families span networking, servers, and storage, giving partners an opportunity to evaluate more of the customer’s infrastructure rather than approaching each maintenance renewal in isolation. Explore SmartCare coverage and supported manufacturers.

For customers, that can mean simpler vendor management. For VARs, it can mean a broader support conversation and another opportunity to provide value beyond the initial hardware sale.

Turn Maintenance Renewals Into a Margin Opportunity

TPM can also change the economics of a maintenance renewal for the reseller.

Instead of simply passing along an OEM renewal at a price the customer may already find difficult to justify, partners can introduce a lower-cost alternative while creating an additional source of margin.

That can be particularly valuable when customers are under pressure to reduce IT spending. Rather than asking them to sacrifice support or replace functioning equipment, VARs can help customers identify infrastructure that may be appropriate for SmartCare and compare the cost of TPM against their existing OEM maintenance.

The conversation becomes less about selling a maintenance contract and more about solving a business problem:

How can we reduce the cost of maintaining your existing infrastructure without compromising the support you need?

That’s a much stronger position for a trusted technology partner.

Start With the Equipment Your Customers Already Have

One of the easiest ways to uncover a SmartCare opportunity is to look at infrastructure already installed within your customers’ environments.

Consider equipment that is:

• Approaching an OEM maintenance renewal.
• Several years into its lifecycle.
• Out of warranty.
• Approaching or already at End of Life (EOL) or End of Service (EOS).
• Still performing reliably with no immediate business need for replacement.
• Becoming increasingly expensive to maintain through the manufacturer.

From there, the process is straightforward. Provide a list of the equipment requiring support, receive SmartCare pricing to compare against the customer’s current OEM costs, and determine whether TPM makes sense for that portion of the environment.

Not every piece of hardware needs to move away from OEM maintenance. The opportunity is to identify the equipment for which OEM support may no longer provide enough additional value to justify its premium.

Help Customers Get More From Their IT Investment

Extending the useful life of enterprise hardware can give organizations more control over both their infrastructure and their budgets.

Instead of replacing equipment because an OEM support contract has become too expensive—or because the manufacturer has reached a particular lifecycle milestone—customers can make refresh decisions based on their own operational and business requirements.

For EarthBend Distribution partners, SmartCare provides another tool for helping customers make those decisions.

SmartCare from SmartSource IT offers third-party maintenance for networking, server, and storage infrastructure at a fraction of traditional OEM maintenance costs—while creating another opportunity for VARs to add value, strengthen customer relationships, and generate margin.