• TCO can put the spotlight on potential cost problems before they become problems..
In the IT world, for instance, "Change costs" are typically under planned and over budget (these are the costs of upgrading, adding capacity, reconfiguring, adding users, migrating to different platforms, and so on).
All of the change cost items from this model could have appeared under "Acquisition" or "Operating" cost columns, but by specifically culling out the change costs, and giving them a column of their own, they can be planned and controlled more easily. In this example, change costs represent between 35 and 40% of total cost of ownership in both scenarios.