Important: On raw TCO alone, this platform costs $2.56M more than simply maintaining the legacy system over 10 years. TCO does not account for benefits — see the companion Cost-Benefit Analysis for the quantified efficiency, risk-avoidance, and retention benefits that justify this incremental cost.
Annual Ongoing Cost Breakdown
| Category | Annual Amount |
|---|---|
| Software Licensing / Subscription Renewal | $180,000 |
| Hosting / Cloud Infrastructure | $220,000 |
| Vendor Maintenance & Support (Post-Warranty) | $150,000 |
| Internal Support / Operations Staff | $300,000 |
| Periodic Enhancements / Minor Change Requests | $100,000 |
| TOTAL ANNUAL ONGOING COST | $950,000 |
New Platform vs. Legacy Status Quo
What would it cost to NOT modernize, and simply maintain the current legacy platform?
| Metric | New Platform (Modernized) | Legacy Status Quo |
|---|---|---|
| Year 0 (Implementation) | $7,062,000 | $0 |
| Annual Ongoing Cost | $950,000 | $1,400,000 |
| 5-Year Total | $11,812,000 | $7,000,000 |
| 10-Year Total | $16,562,000 | $14,000,000 |
| 10-Year TCO Delta (New − Legacy) | +$2,562,000 | |
Legacy maintenance cost ($1.4M/year) reflects rising technical-debt burden: increasing manual workarounds, higher defect rates, and vendor support costs for an aging platform. Full year-by-year detail is on the 10-Year Breakdown tab of the Excel workbook.
How This Relates to the CBA
TCO answers "what will this cost" — and on that measure alone, modernizing costs more than doing nothing. The Cost-Benefit Analysis answers "is it worth it," and shows that $2.53M/year in quantified benefits (at full realization) more than offsets this $2.56M 10-year cost delta, producing a positive 10-year NPV of ~$1.93M at an 8% discount rate. Read the two documents together, not in isolation.