Third Party Hardware Support vs OEM Hardware Support: Who Wins in Terms of Value for Money and Convenience?

If your business owns a plethora of IT equipment such as computers, server equipment, workstations and other IT hardware that you use on a daily basis, then it is imperative that you have someone at hand to maintain all that equipment. Most companies often have OEM support for that hardware, especially if they are only a couple of years old, or third party hardware support provider for very old hardware. But third party providers also offer maintenance for newer hardware, its just that many companies don’t opt for the same.

If you are deciding between third party support or OEM support, here are some aspects that define their business and whether they are favorable to you or not:

1. Compatibility

The very first aspect is compatibility. The support provider should offer support for as many devices as possible, because that way, you can save money on dealing with multiple support providers for multiple hardware brands. For OEMs, the compatibility always seems to be at a minimum. For example, you have Dell computers, IBM workstations and HP servers. OEMs will only support the brands they make; hence Dell will not support HP and vice versa. But for third party support providers, they will likely support all three brands at the same time, making them more compatible with a wide range of brands. Winner: Third Party

2. Expertise

Expertise also plays an important role in hardware support. OEMs always have fully certified and experienced engineers by their side, who are specialists in their specific brands. Hence, with OEM support, you are guaranteed to have highly trained experts looking up at your hardware maintenance and providing support when needed. In case of third party support providers, they also have trained and certified engineers, but because they deal with multiple brands at once, their level or expertise may be as good as OEM at most. This all mainly depends on the company and the type of engineers they have. Winner: OEM

3. Support Period

OEMs always support their products for a fixed time, after which they refuse to offer support past a set age. OEMs are primarily hardware selling companies, not support companies, so selling new hardware takes preference for them over supporting old hardware. In case of third party support providers, they will support any kind of hardware for any length, well past the official support date from OEMs. Hence, they are great for supporting legacy hardware that are no longer supported by OEMs. Winner: Third Party

4. Pricing

OEM support is never cheap or even in the affordable range. Because they are big MNCs, their service charge is also high. Plus, having OEM supports for different brands in your office means paying a higher overall price to each OEM for support. In case of third party support providers, the overall cost of maintenance will be less because on firm will support all your hardware irrespective of brands. Plus, they are usually medium-scale businesses, so their service charges are lower than OEM service charges. Winner: Third Party.