IT Asset Disposition Tips
Chris Rodinis
November 26th 2012
The goal of most business is to grow. Growing profits, growing employees, and growing market share are legitimate business goals. If the the blood of the business is the cash, then the CFO is responsible for the the flow of the “blood.”
Inevitably some of this flow must be directed to the information technology department to fuel and feed the “bones” of the operation which is a major part of any business’ infrastructure.
These bones or IT infrastructures are continually being replaced, upgraded or “refreshed” on average at least every 24 to 36 months. The whole point of ITAD or Information Technology Asset Disposition is to manage the replacement process as efficiently, cheaply and sustainably as possible.
If you are a corporate end-user you probably do not have the necessary ITAD expertise in house to perform the ITAD task diligently. Therefore, a diligent and common approach to this function is to outsource this part of the business to an outside company known as a VAR or value added reseller.
Decisions Decisions
The point of this blog post is to ask: “what are things to look out for when selecting an ITAD provider?” The diligence used in other areas of the business can be applied in deciding which ITAD provider to outsource.
According to recent best practices, there are at least four different categories to evaluate prospective ITAD providers. 1. Environmental concerns; 2. Secure Data Destruction; 3. General liability; 4. Fiduciary responsibility. Focusing the evaluation on these points would help create a trustworthy partnership that would be more likely to last.
No Fooling Around
Where the environment is concerned, the old “it’s not nice to fool mother nature” commercial comes to mind in that “it’s not nice to fool the EPA or or the California DTSC!”
The best way ITAD providers can prove their environmental compliance to you is by having E-steward or R2 certification.
This means that the ITAD company in question has passed third party inspections and is audited for compliance on a regular basis.
Plus they have downstream transparency which means that you can follow the asset from “cradle to burial.”
There is no way your assets should end up in a landfill! Nor should they be exported as waste. However, exporting for re-use is ok.
Always check for federal, state and local business permits too!
Secure data destruction is the biggest concern of IT managers everywhere because of the huge financial risk of a breach of sensitive data.
So make sure they have a clean record and make sure you are indemnified with a very large liability insurance policy.
Fiduciary responsibility can be evaluated on the basis of years in business, annual sales, UCC filings, corporate headquarters location and industry trade reports like Dunn and Bradstreet. Also, don’t forget that customer testimonials play a role here.
Indemnify, Indemnify, Indemnify!
Of course an ITAD provider should have the capability to re-market your old computers as a certified refurbisher and also have a large proven network of sales contacts.
This means that revenue sharing would be possible and that would reduce your cost for new equipment.
There are more features and benefits that an ITAD provider can offer, however, liability always must be covered.
For example: what evidence is provided for secure data destruction? What documentation do your require? Can you see a copy of the indemnifying document or the insurance policy? These are the main points of information technology asset disposition.
For more information please visit: www.EwasteWiz.com