5 Proven Ways to Reduce Your Network Equipment Maintenance Costs

Regular maintenance of your network assets is crucial for your business to run smoothly. It prevents costly downtime and protects against cyberattacks. Proper repair also helps you get the most out of your technology investments and ensures your network gear operates at its best. Despite the manifold benefits, maintenance costs can take up a large portion of your IT budget. Hence, it is vital to always look for ways to reduce network repair expenses. This is especially important for businesses relying heavily on their IT network to support their daily operations.

Outlined below are several ways to improve your network performance and maintenance costs:

1. Regularly monitor your network assets

Regularly tracking your network assets' overall health and performance is a great way to prevent unexpected equipment breakdowns. It also helps you avoid expensive downtime and repair bills. You can deploy a network monitoring tool to keep a tab on the overall functioning of your network assets. Another key to curtailing your maintenance costs is to provide quality training to your network staff so they can quickly figure out and fix malfunctions. This way, you'll have fewer periods of operational slowdowns and costlier repairs.

2. Keep a detailed record of your network inventory

To cut down on maintenance expenses, maintain an updated record of your network inventory. It will give you a complete understanding of every network asset and its maintenance needs. Knowing the upkeep level of each asset will aid you in making wise choices while renewing maintenance contracts. With up-to-date network documentation, you can spot areas where you can save money by evaluating the importance of each component. Once you have assessed the significance of every network asset, you can create a better strategy for optimizing network performance and maintenance costs. 

3. Centrally manage your maintenance contracts

In the case of a multi-vendor network, you often have to manage a variety of OEM maintenance contracts. Keeping track of various agreements and their terms and conditions can be a real pain. Usually, OEM contracts provide limited equipment coverage and don't let you make changes easily. If you want customization, you'll have to pay a lot and wait a long time. So, be careful when signing an OEM maintenance contract and read everything carefully to avoid sudden price increases at a later stage. Opt for a hybrid maintenance strategy to avail services of both OEMs and aftermarket maintenance providers and cut your repair costs. You should also build a central repository to store and track all your contracts. This will help you avoid any problems caused by unforeseen coverage gaps. 

4. Opt for network equipment with extended warranties

Once your equipment ages ten years, OEMs start sending EOL notices, so you look for a replacement. Opting for network gear with a lifetime warranty is a wise option to avoid such scenarios. This is even more important for your critical network assets. It keeps you away from the worries of sudden equipment failure and brings down your support and maintenance costs. When deciding on the maintenance service level for your network gear, a few factors should be on top of your priority list, such as: 

• Age of equipment
• Importance of equipment to the business
• Type of network gear

Some IT managers choose the same maintenance level for all network assets to save time and make things consistent. But, this ends up making maintenance costs higher than needed. That's why doing more research when purchasing network gear is always a good idea to get the best warranty and support options. For non-critical network areas, you can also buy high-quality refurbished network gear. Refurbished gear performs like and may come with a lifetime warranty depending upon the vendor, saving on costs without compromising network performance.

5. Choose maintenance contracts without vendor lock-ins

When choosing new network gear and contracts, IT decision-makers often get tricked by the marketing tactics of OEM vendors. OEMs try to lure you in by offering both hardware and maintenance services in one package, but it's usually expensive and has services you don't need. They also design multi-year contracts with limited coverage that keep you locked in with similar pricing and support options for a long time. So, it's wise to get quotes from different companies and not sign up for contracts with hidden clauses. Working with aftermarket maintenance providers is a smart way to cut repair costs. Compared to OEMs, they operate freely and allow you to customize your maintenance plan and coverage based on your unique needs. But ensure you find a good vendor that is certified and trusted to get quality support.

Optimize Your Network Hardware Maintenance Costs With RapidCare® Service from CXtec

Working with a reputed aftermarket maintenance provider can help you save a lot of money. As a leader in the secondary hardware market, CXtec can help you slash your maintenance costs by up to 50 percent through its RapidCare service. Our RapidCare service is simple and easy to use, as it comes with a single contract for all your repair needs. It also allows you to customize your maintenance plan and coverage in a few easy steps. With RapidCare, you'll also get well-tested replacement parts that arrive quickly within 24 hours. To learn more about aftermarket maintenance services, visit our website.