ITPEC FE Morning October 2020 Question 55

All expenses from installation through operation and maintenance — TCO counts what a system costs over its whole life, not just what it costs to acquire.

Total cost of ownership adds the initial costs (hardware, software, development or purchase, installation) to the running costs that follow: operation, maintenance, support, user training, management and finally disposal. The running costs often exceed the initial ones, which is why comparing systems by purchase price alone is misleading.

Answer (c)

Why not others:

• •(a) — the expenses at installation are only the initial costs; TCO also includes everything paid while the system is in use
• •(b) — development expenses are one part of the initial costs, again leaving out operation and maintenance
• •(d) — operating expenses for communications and networking are one category of running cost, not the total

Key rule: TCO spans the whole life cycle and every cost category; a definition limited to one phase or one kind of expense describes only part of it.

System Component · AI-written, may contain errors