Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

TCO is the buyer-side correction to vendor list prices. A $50K-per-year SaaS tool with $30K in implementation services and $20K in annual integration maintenance has a true 3-year TCO closer to $250K. TCO calculations are most useful when comparing two vendors with very different deployment models, because the cheaper-on-paper option often loses on TCO once professional services are included.