In the same way that it drives you crazy sitting at home waiting for someone from the cable company to show up, it can be exasperating waiting for your company’s IT asset disposition (ITAD) vendor to provide the services you requested.

Let’s extend our cable guy analogy a bit further. When you’re sitting at home waiting for the cable guy to arrive, what drives you crazy the most is that it’s pulling you away from more productive or more enjoyable activities you could be doing. At work, dealing with an IT asset disposition vendor that is hard to work with can cause the same problem. As an IT manager, you almost always have something better to do to keep your organization’s IT operations running smoothly and your staff working productively.

We’ve written before about how a good ITAD vendor isn’t just a garbage man, there to pick up your used junk and move on. A good ITAD vendor is a partner, available to simplify the process and lower the risk of IT asset disposition in any scenario throughout your enterprise through a combination of strategic planning and services for data destruction, chain of custody, onsite packing, remarketing, and recycling.

Does your IT asset disposition vendor:

• Provide clear answers to all your questions within a reasonable timeframe?
• Respond to your requests for pickup at any location, nationwide?
• Provide you with a single point of contact (phone or email) who knows your company requirements and can have things taken care of the way your want and need?
• Show up when expected with the right equipment and labor?

If it doesn’t, it might be time to shop around for a new vendor. Why waste your time on IT asset disposition headaches when your vendor could be handling those for you?

From a service perspective, here are a few expectations you should have of your next ITAD vendor:

• If you call with a question, the person you talk to should be familiar with your account and should be able to quickly get you the answer you need.
• If you have some equipment that needs to be handled differently than your normal pickup, your vendor should say “no problem” and take care of it for you, according to your requirements.
• When you request a pickup, your vendor should confirm the date and time of it in writing.
• Your vendor’s onsite team—whether they are packing your assets or doing data destruction—should be courteous and professional.
• If you request a pickup on a specific date because that’s the only day you have available, your vendor should say, “Will do.”
• Every stakeholder in your organization should get the reports and documentation they need from your vendor, in the form they need it.
• Your vendor’s process should be transparent. They should be happy to tell you about how they process your equipment and where all of the assets and material goes.

You might not have much choice in cable providers in your area, but you do have a choice in IT asset disposition vendors. For more information on choosing a vendor to suit your company’s needs, download our free guide, “The IT Asset Manager’s Guide to Disposition.”