Recently I’ve been working with my colleague Wolfgang Benkel, to analyze the pricing trends for desktop outsourcing, and look again at how different service requirements and service level choices affect the final price of a contract.

 

Drawing on Forrester’s research, and his own knowledge of multiple desktop outsourcing contracts, Wolfgang has built a benchmark model of a representative desktop outsourcing arrangement. This defines a standardized service scope, and a representative mid-market set of service levels relative to the range among today’s buyers.

 

Using the benchmark model, and calculating through costings based on known market rates, a typical annual price range for desktop outsourcing works out at between 432 euros and 504 euros ($601 to $701) per workstation for desktop services, and between 144 and 180 euros ($200 to $250) per workstation for service desk (or help desk) services.

 

Of course, we observe a much wider range of prices than this in the open market. Buyers have huge variations in their service needs and service level expectations. Impact factors that influence the price include the overall numbers of end users supported, service quality requirements (such as resolution times for incidents or hours of availability for service desk), the volume of service delivery supported (in terms like service desk calls per user per month and change requests – IMACs per desktop and year), and the complexity of delivery in terms of numbers of desktop apps supported, heterogeneity of the hardware environment, geographical distribution of users and the like.

 

If you’d like to learn more about the benchmark model, its potential applications, and how Forrester thinks current market trends in desktop outsourcing will affect pricing going forward, then look out for an upcoming document on desktop outsourcing pricing trends that Wolfgang and I will publish shortly.

 

 

 

Andrew Parker, Vice President And Principal Analyst

aparker@forrester.nl