You’re the IT manager always looking for ways to operate more efficiently, squeeze more value out of your IT assets and closely manage risk. (We like you already.) One of your biggest challenges is recognizing your team doesn’t have capacity for managing every aspect of your equipment’s entire life cycle. But how do you decide what to keep in-house and what to outsource, especially when managing risk is so important? And how can you sell the idea of outsourcing something as critical as IT asset disposition to your leadership team?

Many of our customers have these concerns initially; however, when you work with a professional IT asset disposition (ITAD) partner, you’re actually protecting your company in three critical risk areas:

  • Data security
  • Environmental impact
  • Financial return

Let’s take a closer look at each of these areas.

Data security

When companies need to dispose of data-carrying IT assets, they face a wide variety of data security and legal compliance risks. The rules are complex, and failure to comply can be costly and significantly harm your brand. Most companies don’t have the resources to manage this process or satisfy audit trail requirements internally. 

When you partner with a professional ITAD vendor, you mitigate data security risks and safeguard your customers’ sensitive data. Plus, you’re keeping the company compliant with a host of state, federal, and international regulations that govern data security and privacy practices (e.g., HIPAA, GDPR, CCPA, FACTA, and GLBA, to name a few).

Your talking points:

  • ITAD partners know how to professionally wipe or shred valuable data effectively, so it doesn’t end up in the wrong hands.  Their expert staff and certified best practice processes ensure every device is handled perfectly.
  • ITAD partners provide a certificate of destruction and a certificate of sanitization to prove they followed proper protocols, which also establishes your audit trail for legal compliance.

Environmental impact

Some companies focus their environmental efforts on Green IT or managing data centers to reduce the total energy drain. This is an essential first step but doesn’t address the potential environmental impact of equipment ready for disposition. And it doesn’t help you make meaningful progress against your mission or corporate environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) initiatives.

When you work with a professional IT asset disposition partner, you enter the next level in environmental stewardship. ITAD vendors go beyond reducing environmental impact to creating environmental benefits. This is where the lifecycle of dispositioned IT assets is extended by entering the circular economy.

Your talking points:

  • ITAD partners send equipment to be re-used in the secondary market or responsibly recycled in compliance with environmental laws. This prevents harmful substances in landfills and improper recycling, reduces greenhouse gases, reduces energy consumption, and eliminates mining of raw materials.
  • There are many federal, state, and local laws on the proper handling of electronic equipment.  Utilizing a professional ITAD partner relieves the burden of compliance.
  • We can take credit for this effort in the company’s ESG program and report.

Financial return

IT departments are typically viewed as cost centers. New equipment and contract services are necessary to keep the business running smoothly for end users, but they take away from the bottom line.

When you work with a professional IT asset disposition partner, you can recoup some of these expenses through an ITAD revenue share or purchase agreement. It’s like getting paid for equipment you’re no longer using. And purchasing or redeploying used equipment after it’s been properly processed by an ITAD partner is much better than buying new. 

Your talking points:

  • ITAD partners aren’t simply an expense. They help companies recover value from their IT equipment and return funds back into the IT budget.

What to look for in an IT Asset Disposition partner

When choosing an IT asset disposition partner, you should vet them against several criteria. Among the most important are:

  • Industry certifications – The new industry standard is vendors that are R2v3 certified. Summit 360 joined a global, select group by earning this certification early. It’s a comprehensive, voluntary industry standard for used IT hardware recyclers and resellers, managed by Sustainable Electronics Recycling International (SERI).
  • Proven process – You want a vendor with a proven process and transparency about what happens in each step. Our 360 Approach guides our e-waste and ITAD offerings, with checkpoints at each step that tie back to our data security, reporting, and environmental diligence, as well as our focus on maximizing customer ROI.
  • Years of experience – The ITAD field is evolving and is more complex than ever. That’s why we recommend working with a partner with at least ten years of experience. We’ve been working with companies like yours for nearly 30 years. During that time, we’ve gained a reputation for exceeding customer expectations through incredible service and data security protocols.

Working with a partner with these qualifications means you’ll have peace of mind that your company’s data remains secure, making an environmentally sustainable choice, and maximizing your financial resources.           

Ready to sell IT Asset Disposition to your boss?

We’d appreciate the chance to share more about our ITAD process and earn your trust. To get started, let us know how we can help!