Lay-down Price vs Lifetime Cost.

An age old conundrum in business is whether to allow yourself to be be seduced by a lower lay-down cost (actual price) versus the cumulative costs you’ll incur over the lifetime of a purchase.

In the 70’s, AMSTRAD computers were attacked by COMPAQ computers with this in mind.

AMSTRAD’s £400 computers seemed much better value than COMPAQ’s (apparently) comparable £700 computers.

So COMPAQ’s marketing messages homed in on the fact that the ongoing repair bills relating to a less superior AMSTRAD machine would in fact – over the lifetime of the product – make AMSTRAD more expensive than COMPAQ.

This was proven time and time again.

Some believed the messaging. Some didn’t. And – for a while at least – both brands did OK.

Our World.

In the world of UltraMAP, there are similar forces at play.

There are fees involved with UltraMAP monitoring and offering protection to subsea assets. This investment prevents strikes but – naturally – does incur a nominal fee.

So what should an asset owner do?

Cross their fingers and risk a strike? And risk the two major fallouts from that – discontinuation of supply for a customer and the very real threat of losing said customer?

Or get protection.

In times when money is tight, we understand the case for both.

But let’s look at a genuine example of what can really happen in our world.

The Gulf.

UltraMAP monitor cables around The Gulf area.

We look after one client in this area really well. They have chosen not to take a risk. UltraMAP looks out for them.

By the way, we can quantify ‘really well’.

There have been zero cable strikes in the last 2 years.

Not one.

Threats.

But is this region simply devoid of threats?

We are also aware of another cable owner in the same area that, at one time, did not use UltraMAP.

In the same two year period they had 14 strikes.

The cost of repairing a single strike can and often does extend into millions of pounds.

Plus the very real likelihood of a lost customer.

From One. To Two. 

We are very pleased to say that, as we entered 2020, we had two customers in this geography.

It’s great to be able to offer the same protection – and the same huge money-saving opportunities – to both.