Captain's Log, Entry 7650.1—Thanks to all the public discussion on total cost ownership TCO, most business people now understand this: There can be a large difference between the price of something and what it costs to own. Nevertheless, when presented with TCO analysis results, many are still skeptical. They ask: Is TCO analysis for real?
Total cost of ownership analysis tries to find all important costs due to owning certain assets.
At the same time, conflicting marketing claims and other forms of TCO misuse no doubt account for the TCO metric's poor reputation.
As a result, many senior decision makers do not fully trust TCO figures. Most agree with the total ownership cost concept as legitimate. However, they also know that analysts can manipulate TCO results. In fact, most know that TCO results depend on so many factors that it means little to speak of “the TCO" for any asset.
John Dobbs of Novell said it best:
“The only valid TCO data are your own data.”