RTLS TCO model — 5 years, honest.
Most RTLS deals are budgeted as year-1 capex and discover the real cost in years 2–5. This TCO model fixes that.
It's the spreadsheet we use with clients to build a 5-year cost picture across hardware, software, integration, support, tag replacement and change orders — vendor-neutral, fully editable, exposing the assumptions you'd otherwise miss.
What the model includes
The spreadsheet covers 5 years, broken into capex and opex. Hardware capex: anchors / readers / locators / gateways, tags (initial batch), supporting infrastructure (cabling, mounting, switches).
Software and platform: licences, subscriptions, hosting. Integration capex: enterprise-system integration (WMS / ERP / EMR / MES), often 30–50% of year-1 hardware capex.
Year-1 services: site survey, design, commissioning, validation. Annual opex: support, maintenance, platform subscription, tag replacement (~10–15% of fleet per year typical), connectivity. Change orders: site expansion, additional use cases, version upgrades.
The assumptions clients usually miss
Four cost categories regularly absent from vendor quotes. Integration: a vendor quotes the RTLS platform; integration to your WMS / EMR / MES is your problem (it shouldn't be — see /integrations).
Tag replacement: 10–15% of fleet per year typical for active tags, lower for passive.
Multiplies dramatically at hospital or warehouse scale. Change orders: vendor pricing for additional sites or use cases varies 2–5×; the model forces you to ask up front. Internal labour: clinical engineering, IT, integration partner time. Often 0.5–2 FTE equivalent.
Capex vs opex — the structural choice
Most RTLS deployments are now offered in both capex (you own the hardware and licence it) and opex (success-based / subscription / RTLS-as-a-service). The model handles both.
Opex usually has higher year-5 total but cleaner cash-flow and faster expansion. Capex is cheaper TCO at steady state but locks capital and has slower expansion. We model both during stage 1 — see /method.
Sensitivity analysis built in
The model includes sensitivity sliders on six key assumptions: tag count growth (sites expand), tag replacement rate (battery life vs duty cycle), platform-subscription escalation, integration scope creep, support response (premium tiers), and change-order pricing.
A small change in any of these can swing 5-year TCO by 30–50%. Most vendor quotes ignore these entirely.
Benchmarks from real deployments
We maintain anonymised benchmarks from 40+ enterprise RTLS deployments we've advised on. Typical ranges (per-site, mid-size, 5-year): UWB manufacturing 400 k–1.2 M Euro; BLE-AoA hospital 600 k–1.5 M Euro; RAIN RFID warehouse 250 k–700 k Euro; AGV/AMR fleet 1.5–5 M Euro.
These are reality-check anchors, not quotes — every site is different. We refine for your specific environment in stage 1.
What you can do next
Download the TCO model, populate your specific environment, and use it to challenge vendor quotes during the RFP.
If you want us to validate the model against benchmark data or to run TCO assessment as part of independent procurement advisory, book a 30-minute scoping call. The model is shipped after a short qualification email; sign up to the procurement-toolkit list.
Frequently asked questions
Is the TCO model really vendor-neutral?
Yes — it's structured to expose costs regardless of vendor. Vendors who price aggressively in year 1 and recover in years 2–5 (the most common pattern) get caught by the model. Vendors who price transparently across 5 years usually look favourable.
How accurate are the benchmark ranges?
Anchored on real deployments, ±30% typical accuracy at the early-budget stage. Site-specific variables (asset density, environmental complexity, integration scope) drive the variance. We tighten to ±10% during stage 1 of /method.
Does the model handle hybrid stacks?
Yes — separate sheets for UWB, BLE-AoA, RFID and combined hybrid deployments. Most large-site TCO models we build are hybrid.
What about cloud vs on-premise?
Both are modelled. Cloud (SaaS-style) usually wins on year-1 cash-flow; on-premise can win on year-5 TCO for large deployments, but adds operational overhead. We model both options for clients deciding.
Can we share the model with our finance team?
Yes — designed for that. The spreadsheet is annotated with assumption explanations and is structured to be CFO-readable. Many clients use it as the procurement-business-case input directly.
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