IT Maintenance Options Explained: OEM, TPM or Time & Materials?

When it comes to maintaining IT infrastructure, servers, storage and network equipment, most businesses are presented with a single option:
Whatever the supplier sells.

Manufacturers promote OEM support.
Third-party maintainers sell TPM contracts.

At Baby Blue IT, we take a different approach.

We provide all three support models:

• Genuine OEM Support
• Third-Party Maintenance (TPM)
• Time & Materials (T&M)

This allows our customers to weigh up cost versus risk and choose the level of cover that fits their business, not someone else’s sales strategy.

The Three IT Maintenance Models Explained

1. OEM (Manufacturer) Support

Best for: Businesses that need access to firmware, patches and software updates

Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) are the only providers that can supply:

• Firmware updates
• Security patches
• Microcode and software fixes
• Official compliance support

If your business operates in a regulated environment or requires continued access to vendor updates, OEM support is essential.

What you gain:

• Full access to patches and updates
• Vendor-backed compliance
• Direct manufacturer support

What you lose:

• The highest support costs
• Limited flexibility
• Pressure to upgrade hardware

OEM pricing is typically far higher than the real cost of delivery, as manufacturers use maintenance as a way to encourage hardware refresh projects.

2. Third-Party Maintenance (TPM)

Best for: Older equipment where same-day fix SLAs are required

Third-Party Maintainers specialise in supporting out-of-warranty equipment and typically offer:

• Same-day or 4-hour fix SLAs
• On-site engineering
• Multi-vendor support

TPM contracts usually cost around 50% less than OEM, but still carry high margins.

What you gain:

• Fast response times
• Strong SLAs
• Lower cost than OEM
• Continued use of legacy hardware

What you lose:

• No access to OEM firmware or patches
• Annual contract commitment
• Still paying for cover you may never use

TPM is ideal when uptime is critical and equipment is ageing.

3. Time & Materials (T&M)

Best for: Cost-focused businesses that can accept next-business-day fixes

Time & Materials is the most flexible and cost-effective maintenance model.

Instead of paying a large annual contract, you only pay:

• When a part fails
• If you need an engineer

If nothing breaks?
You pay nothing.

What you gain:

• Huge cost savings
• No fixed annual fees
• Pay only when needed
• Trade-price parts
• Flexible engineering support

What you lose:

• Same-day response
• Guaranteed immediate fixes

For many modern environments, this trade-off makes perfect sense.

Why T&M Works So Well in Modern IT Environments

Today’s infrastructure is:

• Highly reliable
• Built with redundancy
• Virtualised
• Clustered for resilience

In most cases:

• A failed server doesn’t stop applications
• Storage has dual controllers
• Network devices have failover
• Workloads keep running

Fault rates are very low, and when issues occur, systems are designed to stay operational.

That’s why paying large annual maintenance fees “just in case” is often unnecessary.

How Time & Materials Works in Practice

With Baby Blue IT’s T&M support, customers receive:

• Next Business Day Fix SLA
• Trade-price parts + ~25%
• Optional engineer support (£150/hour)
• Multi-vendor coverage

Typical part costs:

Most modern hardware uses CRUs (Customer Replaceable Units), so many parts can be swapped in-house without specialist engineers.

If required, Baby Blue can dispatch an engineer but most customers only need very few call-outs per year.

The Real Cost Comparison

For a typical UK business running:

• 20 servers
• 2 mid-range storage arrays
• 2 fibre switches

Annual support costs look like this:

That’s up to 90% cheaper than OEM support.

Why Baby Blue Is Different

Most providers only sell their own model:

• OEMs push OEM support
• TPMs push TPM contracts

Baby Blue provides all three:

• OEM: when patches and compliance matter
• TPM: when fast SLAs are essential
• T&M: when cost efficiency is the priority

We help customers:

• Compare options
• Understand the risks
• Balance uptime vs cost
• Build a mixed support strategy

Many of our clients use:

• OEM support on critical systems
• TPM on legacy platforms
• T&M on non-critical infrastructure

This blended approach delivers maximum value.

Final Thoughts

OEM support offers compliance.
TPM offers fast response.
Time & Materials offers value.

With Baby Blue IT, you don’t have to choose blindly, you get clear options, honest guidance, and full control over your maintenance strategy.

If your infrastructure is stable, resilient and well-designed, Time & Materials could save your business tens of thousands of pounds every year.