As a CEO who has spent more than thirty years in the technology world, one thing that I have learned is that while the licence fee is the price of the software, it’s rarely the real cost of using it.
If you put two remote IT access solutions side by side, the first thing you’ll compare is the price, and that can make the decision feel fairly simple. But it’s the total cost that really matters, not which one costs less upfront.
The invoice is only one part of what that product will cost you. The true cost is a larger number when you consider the implementation, integration and training required. When assessing which products to buy, it’s worth asking – is that the cost of the software, or the cost of using it?
The price you see and the cost you don’t
Let’s take a slightly closer look at this. Comparing two remote access tools on price alone looks like the obvious sensible financial decision. But what if the tool that wins on price also means an IT technician takes an extra ten minutes to resolve each ticket, or an issue requires somebody to visit the affected site? If you multiply these inefficiencies across hundreds of tickets and requests, suddenly the saving on the licence starts to look quite different. The same logic works the other way too: a more expensive tool that doesn’t fit with how a team works can rack up the same hidden costs, but with a bigger invoice attached.
What I think organisations are not always particularly great at is counting the valuable time people lose when a tool, whatever it costs, ends up making their job more difficult.
For remote access software, the true cost goes beyond the initial licence fee to include the time spent diagnosing problems, the time employees lose while waiting for issues to be solved as well as the administrative burden of managing and maintaining the software. All of these are critical costs that need to be recognised and taken into account.
Start with what remote access needs to do
Another question that I think is valuable for IT leads or organisations to ask is, what problem are we actually trying to solve by buying this product?
Perhaps an organisation has used the same tool for years and has it on automatic renewal. Or maybe price became the deciding factor because the differences between tools were not clear enough. It’s easy to fall into the trap of choosing what’s familiar rather than what’s suitable for where your organisation is right now.
This is why it is so important to understand the environment the tool needs to work within. How distributed is the organisation? How quickly must problems be resolved? Who should be allowed to connect, and with what controls? The answers will naturally be different for every organisation.
Asking these questions puts you in a much better position to make a sensible and suitable decision. A tool that might be perfectly fine for a small team with a handful of devices may become a large-scale issue across a large, distributed IT estate. The question for remote access solutions is not whether it works, it’s whether it works for you.
Every extra minute counts
It’s also really key to remember that an IT support problem rarely affects the IT team alone. If an employee cannot access the technology they need, their work may come to a stop. If a ten-minute fix takes thirty, those additional twenty minutes have gone somewhere too.
Ten minutes lost here and twenty minutes there soon become serious hours spent working around the limitations of a tool. If a new tool causes longer delays than the one it replaced, staff will often work around it quite quietly rather than report it. The problem with this is that the workaround never appears in IT’s data. What you lose is visibility and that is something no IT team wants.
Know what staying is really costing you
The subscription fee is only one part of the cost of remote support software. If a platform has become too expensive, too complicated or no longer fits the way your team works, the real cost can show up elsewhere: wasted technician time, unnecessary administration, underused licences and processes built around the limitations of the software.
That’s why it pays to look beyond the renewal figure. Ask how much time your team spends managing the platform, whether you’re paying for features or licences you don’t need, and whether there’s now a simpler way to get the same job done.
Switching software does take a little planning, but that shouldn’t automatically make renewing the safer option. Compare the cost of change with the cost of another year using something that no longer fits.
The right remote support platform should be straightforward to adopt, easy for your team to use and priced in a way that still makes sense as your needs change.
It’s the whole cost that counts
This isn’t about buying the most expensive remote access solution on offer. A higher price does not guarantee a better fit any more than a lower one guarantees a bargain. But it is an argument for being clearer about what we mean by cost.
Licence price certainly matters. But so do the hours an IT team spends supporting a solution, the time employees lose waiting for problems to be fixed, the ongoing demands of managing it, the cost of leaving and the ability to adapt when the organisation changes.
The best technology decisions rarely begin with a product; they begin with a problem, a clear understanding of the environment, and an honest definition of what good looks like.
That’s why the real question was never which option costs less; it’s the one this piece opened with – is that the cost of the software, or the cost of using it? Get that right, and the invoice looks after itself.
Al Kingsley MBE
Al Kingsley MBE is CEO of NetSupport. With three decades of experience in EdTech and digital safeguarding, Al regularly speaks and podcasts on the use of technology in enhancing education, promoting online safety, and shaping effective digital strategies.
