All costs associated with owning a system over the life of the installation and implementation—usually considered over a range of three to five years. TCO includes implementation price and change orders (and the change-order approval process), which occur when changes to the project are made outside of the original proposal. Timing and pricing of the software support fees are also critical TCO components and may include warranty periods, annual fees, planned and maximum increases, trade-in and upgrade costs, hardware maintenance costs, and other charges that may not be immediately apparent to buyers.
