Five-year total cost of ownership is the full modeled cost of a phone-free program over five years — including hardware, annual replacements, and staff labor — used to compare phone pouches against software on equal footing.
Five-year total cost of ownership is the full modeled cost of a phone-free program over five years — including hardware, annual replacements, and staff labor — used to compare phone pouches against software on equal footing.
Also known as: 5-year TCO, total cost of ownership
A vendor's sticker price rarely reflects the real cost of a phone-free program. Five-year TCO adds the recurring costs a quote omits: consumable pouch replacements, unlocking hardware, and the daily staff time spent distributing and collecting devices.
Comparing programs on five-year TCO rather than upfront price is the standard way administrators evaluate pouches versus software, because the recurring costs dominate over a multi-year horizon.
Phone pouch vs. software cost calculator