HP Care Pack vs. Third Party Maintenance

If you are an HP Care Pack customer, you may find yourself wondering, is the grass greener on the other side of the market—with a third party maintenance provider? While there are numerous advantages to third party maintenance over an HP Care Pack, here are four we consider fundamental:

• This is where many clients start. They’re experiencing an IT budget pinch as the HP Care Pack comes up for renewal. An extreme case of sticker shock starts them looking for other options, and they quickly find out that third party maintenance can save them 30% to 70% when compared with HP.
• What is more stretched than IT budgets? IT managers’ time. A support provider should make life easier, yet most OEMs fail in this regard. They make it difficult to access the support contracted for—requiring the customer to dig up paperwork, run unnecessary reports, pursue a frustrating escalation process to get to an experienced engineer, and then follow up and follow up some more just to push HP to resolve the issue in a timely manner. Because the best third party maintenance providers are exclusively in the business of service, they are much more responsive, leaving you to do your job while they do theirs.
• While an HP Care Pack might be right for some, other providers will offer a more customizable suite of services. You can find the right level of coverage for each piece of equipment, whether it’s mission-critical and requires 24/7 backing or is something your team wants to support on its own, turning to an outside provider only in extreme situations. This “mix and match” ability ensures you get the perfect support solution and pay only for what you’ll use.
• HP routinely declares equipment end of life and rescinds support, forcing IT organizations to upgrade. Third party maintenance, on the other hand, puts the upgrade decision back in the customer’s hands. Without looming EOSL deadlines, the customer sets the priorities for what new hardware to buy and which systems to keep and support.