“There is never enough budget to do it right, but there is always enough to do it over.”

Few professions make science out of quantifying true direct and indirect costs better than project management. After all, it’s the project manager’s job to accurately predict scope and budget for foreseen – and unforeseen – expenses, including such things as intangible as ‘planning time’. Why is it then, that often within the same company, we as designers, facility managers and architects often reject the big cost picture, just to satisfy short-term budget pressure? Against all logic, we choose the more expensive options for their cheap price tags. The numbers just don’t add up.

Leading consulting firm, Accenture, produced a ‘Spotlight on Total Cost of Ownership’ a few years back. And while simple, it makes a lot of sense for the most complex of purchases. Check it out here.

Fortunately, writing surfaces should not be a complex purchase. But oftentimes, businesses spec, procure and replace with ‘whiteboard’ products or even writable ‘paint’ surfaces that might work today, but not tomorrow. These unsanitary, too-cheap eye-sores are the paper-plates of your office – totally disposable.

Consider the cost of replacement as you consider the TCO of your writing solutions. In a 10-12 year period, a $250 ‘whiteboard’ may require, on average, a total spend of $1122 due to multiple board replacements. By using The Clarus™ ‘Cost of Ownership’ Calculator, you can compare the cost of a whiteboard to that of a Clarus glass marker board, factoring in the direct costs (Gross Costs), such as installation, hardware and the board itself. And the total costs, including ‘downtime’ upon replacement, ‘risk’ of damaged goods in the shipping process, time and expense to remove the boards in a replacement scenario and more.

Ultimately, with Clarus glassboards, ‘replacement’ for discoloration or ghosting is a non-issue. According to an independent survey of facility managers, these two factors (discoloration and ghosting) are the leading cause of whiteboard replacements. Clarus offers the ‘go-to’ dinner plate, always clean, always durable, and not the brittle china you never use. In fact, Clarus Glassboards will last the life of your wall and look as good as the first day they were installed.

Facility managers cite expense in the thousands when depicting the true costs of whiteboards. Through experience, they have learned the downside of ‘going cheap’ on writing surfaces. When it’s time to replace the product, it’s likely coming from their budget and its certainly taking their time.

Many brands have to work really hard to ‘sell’ their total cost of ownership equation. Truly, if the break even point is decades away it can be a far-fetched concept. But the writing surface market, like many others, is facing obsolescence outside of the most innovative and disruptive new suppliers. Take the men’s razor industry for example, where unsanitary, nasty, ugly and overused assets were the norm until a fresh new concept.

Clarus Glassboards are the fresh new concept in the writing surface market and as the Total Cost of Ownership champion, they will save you time and money, helping make your budget (and your workspace) look a whole lot better.