Getting the most ROI for your IT investment means being able to get the most value out of your retired assets on the resale market. Not every retired piece of IT equipment can be resold, but when they can be, there are certain strategies your business can follow to get as much as possible from the IT asset recovery process. Here are four:
1. Follow the trends
The market for technology moves quickly and fluctuates rapidly. New technology releases occur without respect to your company’s equipment refresh cycles. When too many of a certain type of used equipment hit the market at the same time, their resale value can drop significantly overnight. When equipment is in high demand, the resale value can be very favorable. An IT asset disposition (ITAD) partner with its finger on the pulse of the market can help you understand the demand and price trends in the marketplace and can help you determine when your assets will go from revenue generators to cost creators.
2. Don’t destroy drives, if you can avoid it
Pieces of IT equipment with functional hard drives are worth more than those without. The problem is the hard drives of your retired IT assets might contain sensitive data. Destroying the drives will prevent the data from falling into the wrong hands, but it will also significantly reduce your chances for maximum IT asset recovery. Data sanitization techniques are available that are considered in the industry as equally safe as physical destruction. A certified partner can perform data sanitization in compliance with the latest industry standards. On the other hand, data sanitization does cost more money, so doing it on equipment that doesn’t have resale value would be a waste. Choose your data destruction method by balancing risk and value. Again, a knowledgeable ITAD partner can advise you here.
3. Know and follow the best practices for storing and packing
If your equipment isn’t stored or packaged properly, it could become damaged, and damaged IT equipment isn’t worth very much on the resale market. If your team isn’t familiar with the best practices for storing and packing IT assets, or don’t have the time, space, or proper packing material available, your ITAD vendor should provide you with options and detailed instructions for packing to meet transportation regulations and to protect your asset value.
4. Keep complete systems together
Your techs might be eager to pull apart retired IT equipment to use components like monitor stands, power supplies, memory, and batteries elsewhere, but encourage them to resist that impulse. Systems with missing components will net lower returns for IT asset recovery. If parts are in dire need, plan ahead for your needs and ask your IT team members to set aside a specific number of assets just for that purpose.
IT asset managers have more concerns beyond ensuring maximum asset recovery value. Our “IT Asset Manager’s Guide to Disposition” discusses minimizing the cost of the ITAD process and integrating disposition data into asset management systems, as well. Download it for free by clicking on the link below.
