Today's complex IT environment consists of multiple interconnecting brands and equipment types, resulting in customer having to sign multiple support contracts with different equipment vendors. During a technical outage, customers often have to scramble to find the right helpdesk telephone number to call due to the vast number of different providers supporting the whole environment. The possibility of finger pointing from one vendor to the next with regards to whose equipment is really causing the problem often arises when there is no clear indication of the fault which involves two or more equipment and software brands. This often results in a long delay in fixing the outage.
Customers managing many vendors will often find some difficulty in remembering and aligning different start and end dates for different machines and the time spent to negotiate separate contracts can be used more productively elsewhere. Costs are often increasing year on year due to the lack of an economy of scale.
