Gartner TCO - Applied Methodology Tools

Welcome to the Gartner Applied Methodology Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Center. On these pages you will be able to find information regarding Gartner TCO Tools, Gartner Applied Methodologies and related Training.

What is Gartner Applied Research? Gartner Applied Research makes Gartner Research actionable by delivering software applications, services, and methodologies that perform total cost of ownership analysis, investment cost/benefit analysis, and vendor selection analysis. Would you like to know more?

What is Applied Methodology? Gartner Research have developed numerous notable methodologies, some of which are implemented or made actionable in a series of decision support tools, thus becoming an "applied" methodology.

Which research methodologies have been applied or implemented in Decision Support Tools? Currently, three Gartner Methodologies and one Gartner framework are applied in Decision Support Tools: Gartner Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), Gartner Business Performance Framework™ and Gartner Total Value of Opportunity (TVO) and Gartner Refined Hierarchical Methodology for Vendor Selection (VS)

Gartner TCO

(Gartner) TCO - Total Cost of Ownership - was first developed in 1987 by Bill Kirwin as a means of clearly and reasonably addressing the real costs attributed to owning and managing an IT infrastructure in a business. Gartner TCO applies a rigorous and holistic methodology to the analysis of IT infrastructure related costs. The methodology is broad enough to include regional and industry variance and still retain the ability to present objective and consistent cost information to the IT department and business alike.

Gartner TCO identifies costs as being made up of two major components - direct and indirect. Direct costs traditionally forms the area that organizations find easiest to measure and as a result direct costs can often receive undue or excessive focus. Typically, direct costs are made up of labor and capital costs.

The other component in Gartner TCO is indirect costs. Indirect costs are more elusive and difficult to measure and rationalize. The 'soft' nature of indirect costs means that their impact on owning an IT infrastructure is often underestimated...would you like to read more?

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