How to Make Money from Your IT Assets With These 5 ITAD Secrets
You can make money from IT asset disposition (ITAD) and create revenue-generating ITAD from equipment liquidation by retiring your decommissioned hardware & technology assets with a certified ITAD vendor. You can expect the largest ROI before the residual value diminishes – typically 3-5 years from when it was first purchased.
So, how do you dispose of your IT assets?
37% of IT asset managers surveyed in a recent study identified cost as the main reason they hadn’t adopted IT asset disposition for their business.
But what if you could actually make money on your end-of-life IT assets?
Would you consider IT asset disposition for the safe disposal of your company’s electronic equipment?
If your response is a resounding “Yes!”, then this guide will make you feel like you have hit the jackpot:
The five secrets to making money from your IT assets by turning your end-of-life equipment into revenue-generating ITAD.
Secret #1: Get an IT Inventory and Define Every Piece of Your Equipment
The first critical step in your IT asset disposition is to define every piece of equipment you’re looking to scrap.
Why?
Because a batch of generic devices will command a generic price. But a comprehensive IT asset inventory will deliver top dollar.
Get as specific as possible with counts and details of each product you have for disposal. If I use a computer as an example, you want to provide information such as:
- Make and model
- Type of processor
- Processor speed
- Memory
- Hard drive specifications.
This also applies to all other IT equipment you want to use an ITAD vendor for. Copiers, cell phones, laptops, PC’s, network equipment, and other electronic devices included.
But What if I Don’t Have an ITAD Inventory?
Pay an ITAD vendor for one.
Unless you provide the specifics of your IT assets, you risk being paid a generic amount rather than the true value from an ITAD vendor.
If you aren’t able to locate all the information required for the disposal of your assets, find a vendor who specializes in IT asset reporting. They can calculate the true value of your obsolete IT equipment for you.
Do this even if there’s an additional cost.
Secret #2: Look for an ITAD Vendor With Low Overheads
To maximize the rate of return from your IT asset disposition, use a vendor that minimizes logistics costs.
Whether you’re looking to recover funds from high-worth items such as laptops, computers, cellphones, tablets, photocopiers, or scanners, the principal is the same. You MUST look at the final figure in the ITAD evaluation your asset disposition vendor provides before committing. A lot of vendors are very inefficient in their logistics and handling processes, so you could pay too much.
The lure of high-paying ITAD vendors is a common trap. What you must recognize, is that while some vendors promise high-prices for your IT assets, they often come with high overhead costs. This ends up on your invoice as a logistics fee.
You can maximise your ROI on retired IT assets if you look for an ITAD vendor with low overheads, such as logistics and handling fees.
Secret #3: Retire Your IT Assets Before They’re Worthless and Add 27% to Your Bottom Line
A study conducted in 2015 found that clients who employed a 3-4 year ITAD refresh program realized an average saving of 27.4%.
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Timing is critical when it comes to creating revenue-generating ITAD for your company. IT equipment rapidly loses value – especially after the third year of ownership when replacement models begin to flood the market.
The most successful companies in the world at generating revenue from their IT assets maintain a regular 3-4 year refresh program, allowing for the resale of reusable equipment with a structured ITAD program that will generally see most (if not all) of their IT asset disposition costs covered.
Secret #4: Avoid Costly Penalties for Compromised IT Security
If you’re trying to generate revenue from your IT asset disposition process, one of the worst things you can do is open yourself up to liability of lost or stolen data contained in your IT assets which would then cost you massive amounts of money.
How much money, you ask?
According to research, the average cost of a single lost or stolen data record is as high as $158, with the total cost of a corporate data breach tipping $4 million as of 2016.
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It’s easy to see where such a large figure can come from when you multiply that single data breach by thousands or tens of thousands computers, printers, copiers, faxes, and cell phones your corporation needs to retire every year…
Bye-bye IT budget.
“According to the latest statistics, the average cost of a corporate data breach topped $4 million in 2016.”
These days, a lot of equipment has data stored on it that you wouldn’t think. Even some copiers now have hard drives in them, and networking equipment can contain a lot of embedded data.
And what many IT asset managers fail to realize is that your liability for data protection continues long after you dispose of a retired IT asset. If a data security breach is found, law enforcement officials will target the company that gathered the data as well as the data disposal firm.
Therefore, when choosing an ITAD vendor, partner with a well-established ITAD firm that is certified to properly destroy all of the data on your devices. These include cell phones, tablets, laptops, computers, even copy machines, printers, and networking equipment. They should also have a policy in place to ensure that liability associated with your IT assets – data security, environmental compliance or brand exposure – is addressed.
Secret #5: Use Revenue-Generating ITAD to Avoid Environmental Penalties
Illegal disposal of IT assets is now attracting the attention of regulators. The result? Massive fines for improper disposal of end-of-life IT assets.
- In April 2015, a Minnesota based e-scrap firm was fined $125,000 for storing 2,500 tons of CRT glass in more than 100 semi trailers around the Twin Cities.
- In December 2015, Comcast was fined $26 million by the government of California for unlawfully disposing of electronics – a violation AT&T was also accused of in 2014 costing the company over $23 million.
According to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980, companies are responsible for the recycling processes of their decommissioned IT assets.
What this means is your company is held liable for each piece of equipment through the entire chain of custody. Your company is responsible for your equipment, even after it is handed off to a recycling plant.
You can avoid environmental penalties by ensuring proper, certified disposal of your IT assets with a certified ITAD vendor. They will have the environmental compliance status required to safely and legally recycle your IT equipment.
Maximize Your ROI With Your Revenue-Generating ITAD
As you’ve probably determined, there is a lot involved with proper IT asset disposal.
End-of-life IT assets are more than ordinary trash. They can carry huge areas of vulnerability for your organization, but a potential upside as well. Done right, in partnership with a qualified, reputable ITAD provider, you can create revenue-generating ITAD which has the potential to return tangible value to your organization.
You’ll stay out of trouble, help save the environment, and ensure your data is secure. On top of that, you will see higher ROI than dumping your equipment at the nearest recycling center…
…and that’s the secrets to generating revenue using ITAD!
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References
National Cyber Security Awareness Month Spotlights Security of Our Digital World