Bentley West Management Consultants, a member of the AST Group, has joined Gartner Group`s Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Alliance programme. Through this programme, Gartner will provide services of TCO certification to Bentley West representatives, in addition to engagement and support services built around the Gartner Group TCO Manager software series, encompassing the TCO model.
As TCO is becoming a crucial element in the continuous process of measurement, simulation and improvement, Bentley West has developed a specific methodology for conducting TCO engagements. The methodology is based on their consulting principles and philosophies, using the Gartner TCO toolkit. The methodology enables Bentley West to rapidly gain an understanding of the TCO challenges within an organisation.
Because budget decisions are ultimately based on a set of strategic IT goals, most enterprises must be able to determine various levels of TCO based on the decision being made. "These new offerings allow Bentley West to build business cases that provide truly seamless TCO lifecycle service solutions to their clients," explains Tertius Cloete, a director of Bentley West Management Consultants.
"The benefits to clients will be exemplified through investment justifications, assistance in optimisation of service levels and benefits, reduction of direct and indirect costs, reduction of time and labour of performing assessments and also improvement in planning, decision-making and budgeting," adds Cloete.
Through the TCO Alliance Program, Gartner unites consulting firms with IT practices, value-added resellers, vendors, systems integrators, accounting firms and others by the common usage of the IT industry standard TCO model.
The program combines service offerings and TCO Manager software in an annual program which provides essential service elements that enable Bentley West to become successful in the infrastructure lifecycle and planning services business.
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Total Cost of Ownership Model
GartnerGroup Inc., headquartered in Stamford, CT, USA, is the world`s leading IT research and advisory company. Since 1987, GartnerGroup has counselled enterprises to consider all costs associated with computing when making management decisions about IT hardware, software and services. During this time, GartnerGroup has created the concept of TCO and spread it among the IT community.
As enterprises have begun to address the significant and rising costs devoted to their IT infrastructure, the message has gained wide acceptance among IT users. As technology suppliers seek ways of differentiating themselves meaningfully, they too have turned to the TCO model as a means of underscoring their value to the customer. Used as a management tool as part of an enterprise`s annual planning process, the TCO model can become part of a continuous process of measurement, simulation and improvement.
More information on the TCO Alliance is available on the Internet at http://www.gartner.com/itmanager
Bentley West Management Consultants
Bentley West is a new generation consulting firm with the ability to add value in both the physical and digital worlds. It was founded in October 1998 as an autonomous, wholly-owned subsidiary of the AST Group.
Bentley West advises a significant number of blue-chip clients on business strategy, on exploring opportunities in the rapidly expanding information economy, and many integrated combinations of these with the help of its 60-strong professional staff complement.
AST
AST provides comprehensive and integrated ICT-based solutions to an increasing range of global corporate clients. AST`s best-of-breed software, excellent service delivery capabilities and our solution focus make us your ideal strategic partner.
AST focuses on industries such as mining, financial services, manufacturing, telecommunications and government. We have specialists in management and IT Consulting, IT Communications, Enterprise Systems Management, IT services, ERP Solutions, Outsourcing, Technology Rentals and Training.