The mobile application itself is typically a rollup of third party software and custom in-house components. The costs for software licenses, software subscriptions, maintenance contracts, and in-house software engineering time must be priced, paying particularly close attention to annual costs and one-time costs that may be amortized over the mobile solution lifetime expense.

Testing and roll-out of the mobile solution require IT organization time. Don't forget to include it into the TCO tally.

And finally, you have to keep the mobile solution up and running. You probably have a vision for enhancing the capabilities of the mobile solution. So add the engineering and contractor time to maintain and enhance the mobile solution.

IT services and repair depot costs
Prior to deployment, each handheld must be loaded with the appropriate operating and application software, and configured for each assigned user. Such set-up sessions can take 30 minutes to 4 hours for an IT person to complete, depending on the selected handheld and mobile solution. So factor in the loaded salary of IT specialists' time for the entire complement of handheld devices to be deployed.

Then there is the handheld emergency ward to consider. Handheld devices can become unhappy when they are dropped or their batteries deplete. Dropping a handheld can easily result in a broken screen. Data loss can occur when the handheld runs out of juice. The list of ailments goes on, but the result is the same: the handheld shows up for rejuvenation at the IT repair depot. Cost of parts and IT service time to affect the repair must be assessed.

It can be difficult to estimate what your handheld repair rate is going to be. A lot can depend on the application type and the physical environment of the mobile solution. Initially, take a percentage of the total deployed devices to compute the total repair sessions expected annually and assume an average repair time per device. Replacement part costs and the loaded salary of the IT staff must be factored in. We recommend monitoring your incoming at the repair depot during the first year to capture an actual metric.

Mobile solution software distribution and management costs
Each handheld device is running operating system software, one or more third party software applications, and perhaps your custom application software. This software may require maintenance updates and/or upgrade management multiple times each year. Associated update license fees and the service time of your IT staff to administer these updates must be considered for each deployed handheld.

Training costs
How "handheld-facile" is the user community of your mobile solution? Training the user community is a great way to get users up and running quickly with handheld basics, mobile solution capabilities, and data synchronization procedures. Training can reduce help desk costs and IT repair depot rate but, yes, it has a cost associated with it as well. So, factor in the costs of the trainer and facilities costs for the total number of training sessions that you will need to affectively train the user base.