What TCO is — total cost of a system

TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) is the concept that forces calculation of ALL IT system costs — not just the list price. For CRM and ERP, TCO typically covers: licence fees (one-off and annual), implementation cost (configuration, integrations), data migration cost, training cost, maintenance and support cost, hosting cost, vendor change cost (exit cost), and hidden costs (employee adaptation time, mistakes during transition).

The most common mistake in choosing a CRM/ERP is comparing only the 'monthly per-user price' — leading to a choice that turns out 2x more expensive over 3 years. Example: Salesforce advertises EUR 75/user/month, but real cost also includes storage (extra packs), AI (Einstein), integrations (MuleSoft), training (Trailhead Pro), Sandbox (separately) and partner implementation cost (typically 30-50% of annual licence value).

3-year TCO formula: TCO = Licences × 3 + Implementation + Migration + Training × 3 + Hosting × 3 + Support × 3 + Customisation + Switching cost. For SaaS, licences dominate (60-75% of TCO). For open source — implementation and maintenance (70-85%), zero licences. At 25+ users, open source is typically 2-4x cheaper in 3-year TCO than SaaS.

Hidden costs are often 20-30% of TCO, and missing them leads to budget overruns. Most common hidden costs: team adaptation time (typically 1-3 months of reduced productivity), error costs during transition (orders 'lost' between systems), additional consultation cost (when implementation spec was insufficient), extension cost (when needed module turns out 'extra paid').

Practical rule when choosing a system: always ask the vendor for a 3-year TCO as a table broken down by component. A good vendor will prepare this easily. A bad one will dodge, hiding behind 'individual quote'. TCO comparison between 3-5 candidates gives an objective ranking, independent of marketing. Open Mercato provides an online TCO calculator that automatically computes savings vs Salesforce/HubSpot for different user counts.