- Service hours
- Business-day part shipping
- On-site response
- Self-install
- Economical for
- Test & dev systems · cold spare
Hardware maintenance
Hardware maintenance as a service — Third Party Maintenance for data centres
Vendor-independent maintenance for server, storage and network hardware from all major enterprise vendors — including past factory warranty and past end-of-service-life. 30–70 % below OEM list price, with original spare parts, German- and English-speaking 24/7 service desk and SLA from Parts Only to 24×7×4. One contract, one point of contact, one invoice — across all 28 covered vendors.
30–70 %
Savings vs. OEM
48 h
Fixed-price quote
24×7
Service desk DE/EN
28+
OEMs in one contract
Third Party Maintenance — what, why, for whom
Four foundational questions on the service model, answered concisely. For deeper coverage see the service theme spokes below — detailed content on EOSL maintenance, post-warranty, maintenance extension, hardware lifecycle and installation/relocation.
What is Third Party Maintenance?
TPM is hardware maintenance by an independent provider instead of the original manufacturer (OEM). TechCare delivers the same original spare parts, the same service scope (diagnostics, on-site, escalation, 24/7 service desk) and comparable or stricter SLAs — but at 30–70 % lower cost than the OEM. The business model has been established since the 2000s; in the US the largest TPM providers together cover several billion USD annually.
Where do the savings come from?
Three structural levers: First, no new-hardware sales margin — OEMs often use maintenance contracts as a vehicle to drive refresh purchases; a TPM provider has no such commercial interest. Second, leaner service operation: regionally concentrated spare-parts hubs, less management overhead, no OEM marketing budget to fund. Third, longer hardware lifecycles: TPM providers earn from EOSL maintenance, OEMs earn from selling the successor model.
Who are typical customers?
Midmarket with heterogeneous IT environments (50–500 employees, multiple OEM contracts), corporations with IT consolidation initiatives, banks and insurers with BAIT/MaRisk/VAIT requirements, hospitals with healthcare investment budgets, government agencies and critical infrastructure with multi-year lifecycle strategies, plus datacenter operators optimising margins via maintenance consolidation. Common denominator: hardware is in operational use, refresh would be expensive, OEM contracts are fragmented.
When is TPM the right choice?
Four clear triggers: (1) Factory warranty is expiring and the OEM offers expensive extension — always compare with TPM. (2) Hardware reaches end-of-service-life and the OEM discontinues service — TPM is the standard here, not the exception. (3) IT environment is multi-vendor and the SLA matrix becomes too complex — consolidation under one TPM contract saves time and money. (4) Hardware still works well but OEM pushes for refresh — TPM economically extends by 3–7 years.
Year 1–3
Factory warranty
OEM default. Warranty covers hardware defects, often with limited SLA. Refresh pressure rises from year 3.
Year 3–6
Post-warranty
OEM charges 1.5–2× premium for extension — or lets it expire. TPM costs 30–50 % less at equivalent SLA.
Year 6–10+
End-of-service-life
OEM discontinues service. TPM providers hold original spare parts, cover another 3–7 years with 50–70 % savings.
Year 10+
Legacy / EOL
Hardware beyond OEM scope. TCS legacy support via refurbisher network — original spare parts from certified sources, maintenance continues, or planned refresh after audit.
| Phase | Timeframe | Description | TCS coverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Factory warranty | Year 1–3 | OEM default. Warranty covers hardware defects, often with limited SLA. Refresh pressure rises from year 3. | No |
| Post-warranty | Year 3–6 | OEM charges 1.5–2× premium for extension — or lets it expire. TPM costs 30–50 % less at equivalent SLA. | Yes |
| End-of-service-life | Year 6–10+ | OEM discontinues service. TPM providers hold original spare parts, cover another 3–7 years with 50–70 % savings. | Yes |
| Legacy / EOL | Year 10+ | Hardware beyond OEM scope. TCS legacy support via refurbisher network — original spare parts from certified sources, maintenance continues, or planned refresh after audit. | Yes |
Service themes in detail
Five service themes with their own detail pages — from the specific question "What happens after factory warranty?" to strategic lifecycle planning across multiple hardware generations.
Service theme
EOSL maintenance
Maintenance past end-of-service-life — when the OEM has discontinued support. Typically 50–70 % savings versus OEM extended-service tariffs, with original spare parts from our own stocking hubs. Platforms like HPE ProLiant Gen8/Gen9, Dell PowerEdge R720/R730, Cisco Catalyst 3850, NetApp FAS80x0 are covered 3–7 years past official EOSL.
Detail & EOSL listService theme
Post-warranty maintenance
Maintenance after factory warranty ends, before EOSL is reached — the typical midmarket case 3–5 years after initial purchase. OEMs typically charge 1.5–2× TPM for warranty extensions without discernible added value. Transition is seamless: existing coverage expires, TechCare starts the next day with no service gap.
Detail & transition pathService theme
Maintenance extension
Extension of existing maintenance contracts with consolidation effect: four or five separate OEM contracts with different terms, SLAs and minimum spends become one unified TechCare contract. One invoice, one SLA matrix, one service desk — typically 30–50 % consolidation savings just from eliminating parallel OEM minimum spends.
Detail & consolidationService theme
Hardware lifecycle
Lifecycle strategy across multiple hardware generations with 3–7 years of operational extension. Instead of OEM-driven refresh cycles (typically 3–4 years) our customers achieve 6–8 years of economic operation per generation — without performance loss and with same SLA. Refresh investments reduced by factor 2–3.
Detail & TCO modelService theme
Installation & relocation
Migration services for datacenter relocations, onboarding existing inventory into the TechCare contract, professional hardware handover and asset discovery. Typical onboarding timeframe: 2–6 weeks depending on environment size, without service interruption versus the running OEM contract. Including datacenter moves with rack mounting and structured cabling.
Detail & onboarding phases- Service hours
- 9×5 (business days 8–17)
- On-site response
- Next business day
- Economical for
- Office IT · secondary workloads · backup systems
- Service hours
- 9×5 (business days 8–17)
- On-site response
- 4 hours
- Economical for
- Productive business systems · Datacenter Tier 2
- Service hours
- 24/7 year-round
- On-site response
- 4 hours
- Economical for
- Trading systems · critical infrastructure · Tier-1 mission-critical
Response speed:
Mixed mode possible: separate SLA tier per system within the same contract. We recommend tiers per asset during the TPM audit — you don't pay blanket top-tier across the entire estate.
When is TPM the right choice?
Four trigger situations where the TPM comparison almost always pays off. If you recognise any of these symptoms, don't blindly accept the OEM price — the market price gap is large enough to economically justify the effort of obtaining a comparison quote.
Factory warranty expiring
Symptom: 3 years after initial purchase, OEM reminder email with warranty extension offer. Typical price increase of 40–80 % versus the original maintenance share.
Action: obtain comparison quote from TechCare — fixed price within 48 h. Then make an informed decision.
TPM typically 50–60 % below OEM extended tariff with identical service depth.
End-of-Service-Life (EOSL)
Symptom: OEM announces service end, recommends refresh to next-generation model. Coverage gap looming in 6–18 months.
Action: request coverage statement from TechCare — most EOSL platforms are fully serviceable (HPE Gen8/Gen9, PowerEdge R720/R730, Catalyst 3850, FAS80x0).
50–70 % savings, refresh deferred by 3–7 years, CapEx preserved.
Multi-vendor complexity
Symptom: 4–5 OEM contracts with different terms, service desks, SLAs and minimum spends. Different escalation paths, renewal dates constantly rotating.
Action: consolidation audit, all contracts unified in a single SLA matrix at TechCare.
30–50 % consolidation savings from eliminating parallel minimum spends plus operational simplification.
Refresh pressure without economic basis
Symptom: Hardware still functions technically, but OEM pushes refresh decision — usually with arguments like "service level declining" or "parts availability uncertain".
Action: TCO comparison of "refresh + new OEM maintenance" versus "existing hardware + TPM for 3–5 years".
Typical CapEx avoidance 60–80 % per generation, refresh only when technically justified (performance limit, scaling need).
FAQ on hardware maintenance as a service
What technically distinguishes TPM from OEM maintenance?
From the hardware's perspective: nothing. We use the same original spare parts, the same diagnostic tools, the same engineer skills. The difference is in the business model: OEMs often use maintenance contracts as a vehicle for refresh sales; a TPM provider has no such commercial interest and can therefore offer more economically. Service depth, SLA tiers, escalation paths and engineer certifications are comparable — at strict SLA tiers (24×7×2) we're often even more responsive than OEM service centres with their 24-hour off-shore routings.
Do we lose factory warranty if we switch to TPM?
No — factory warranty on new hardware is unaffected. It applies independently of the maintenance contract as long as original spare parts are used. We use exclusively OEM original spares. Our maintenance contract only takes full effect after factory warranty expires. The common misconception that TPM voids warranty originates from US marketing material of certain OEMs and does not correspond to technical or legal reality in Germany.
Are the spare parts really original?
Yes — we use exclusively OEM original spare parts. Sources: (1) our own stocking hub with purchased original spares, (2) certified refurbishers reconditioning OEM hardware from decommissioned systems, (3) for current OEM lines partially direct procurement. On request we provide chain-of-custody documentation for each installed part — important for regulated sectors (banking, government, critical infrastructure). Refurbished here means: original OEM hardware with functional test, certificate and warranty — not "compatible" or third-party clones.
How fast is an engineer on-site during a failure?
Depends on the chosen SLA tier: with 24×7×2 an engineer with original spare part is on-site within 2 hours, with 24×7×4 within 4 hours, with 9×5×4 within 4 business hours. We operate spare-parts hubs in Germany for the most common models (HPE ProLiant, Dell PowerEdge, Cisco Catalyst, NetApp FAS) — these are dispatch-ready from the hubs within 2 hours. For sites outside metropolitan areas a dedicated on-site spare-parts inventory can additionally be arranged, decoupling engineer travel time from response time.
What happens if TechCare doesn't have a spare part?
Very rare — we verify part availability per system during the TPM audit before contract signing. If a bottleneck still occurs, three escalations apply: (1) spare-parts backup via our refurbisher network within 24–48 h, (2) for critical hardware exchange of the entire component from the nearest hub, (3) as last resort SLA penalty per contract plus coordination of an OEM emergency procurement at our cost. Over the past two years tier 3 has been less than 0.5 % of tickets.
Is TPM permitted in our sector/compliance requirement?
Yes — TPM is sector-wide established and compliant: banks & insurers under BAIT, MaRisk, VAIT and EU DORA; critical infrastructure under BSI-IT-SiG; hospitals under B3S Krankenhaus and KHZG; government under EVB-IT and IT security law; automotive under TISAX. On request we provide compliance evidence: engineer certifications, background checks, data carrier destruction per BSI/DoD, chain-of-custody documentation and ISO 27001 conformity. In DACH banking maintenance TPM providers are established market standard — many large banks have used TPM for years without BAIT issues at Bafin audits.
5-year savings € 175.000
OEM maintenance per year
€ 70.000
10 systems × €7,000
With TechCare TPM
€ 35.000
−50% vs. OEM list price
Savings over 5 years
€ 175.000
Re-invest in refresh or new projects