Just because IT Assets have reached their end of life, it doesn’t mean they don’t have any value left in them. If value recovery isn’t part of your IT Asset Management policy, it should be. If you’re still holding onto equipment your company is no longer using, it’s losing value. Instead, sell your assets as part of an IT asset disposition (ITAD) plan.
Below are some guidelines that will help maximize your asset recovery process:
Create an IT Asset Management Plan for the Entire Life Cycle of Your Equipment
Don’t think of your IT department as a cost center. Instead, let ITAD value recovery turn your cost center into a profit center.
To accomplish this, we recommend that you have an asset management plan in place for the full life cycle of your equipment. The end goal is to determine how you’ll acquire new equipment, how long you want to keep each asset, and how you want to dispose of those assets.
Know When to Retire Your IT Assets
There are many signs to look for that indicate it’s time to retire your IT assets. You’ll want to pay close attention to the decisive moment your assets no longer meet your needs but still have value left in them.
As equipment ages, costs increase and the total cost of ownership goes up. If you retire your assets while they’re still relatively young, you can typically expect to see a much larger return on your investment. If you’re retiring older equipment, the return on investment will not be as significant….if at all.
Keep your Assets Intact
In order to maximize the value recovery from your assets, OceanTech strongly recommends that you keep all of your assets 100% intact. Intact equipment does two things: it holds its value and requires less of an investment for parts and labor during the refurbishing process.
Data Security
For some reason, many companies feel that the safest option to wipe sensitive hard drive data is to physically destroy the assets. Keep in mind that once the equipment is destroyed, no value remains and you’re left with nothing but potentially harmful e-waste.
A feasible option would be to partner with an ITAD vendor to sanitize any equipment that still contains data. Under this method, your data is wiped clean but the asset remains functional and puts you in a position to recover some value from it.
However, if you find that there is no value or life remaining, an ITAD vendor will properly dispose of the equipment in a way that protects your security as well as the environment.
IT Asset Disposition goes hand-in-hand with data security and reporting. OceanTech is dedicated to protecting your data, including your clients’ data. OceanTech can ensure certified data destruction of all data-containing devices and provides detailed reports cataloging each drive’s serial number by job number, location, or other customizable fields. Our process ensures that all retired assets from your organization are wiped clean of any and all information, virtually eliminating the risk of a costly data breach.
Partner with a certified ITAD vendor
We hope we’ve convinced you that asset recovery should be top of your list when it comes to ITAD. Asset recovery by a certified ITAD can help you from simply offloading your used IT assets to the creation of a brand new revenue stream.
In addition, you’ll want to ensure that you choose an ITAD that is R2 certified. The R2 standard establishes responsible recycling practices for the recycling of electronics globally. By certifying to this standard through an accredited third-party certification body, electronics recyclers can help prospective customers make informed decisions and have increased confidence that used electronic equipment would be managed in an environmentally responsible manner.
OceanTech is a leader in ITAD and data center decommissioning services. It is vital that we meet or exceed all industry standards and data destruction regulations. We do this by maintaining R2:2013 Responsible Recycling, ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management System and ISO 45001:2018 Occupational Health and Safety Management System certifications.
