The first step your organization should take toward creating a next generation IT asset disposition (ITAD) program should be to perform an assessment of your current program. After performing such a self-assessment, your organization should be able to identify steps in its current process that are inefficient, unnecessary, or out of line with company goals, as well as gaps in the process and objectives that have been overlooked.

Questions you can answer by performing an assessment include:

 

• Do you have a defined, consistent process across the organization?

 

• Are the results of IT asset disposition aligned with your organization’s strategies and goals?

 

• Are all the stakeholders in agreement on those strategies and goals?

 

• Is everything in the disposition program compliant with industry standards and state and federal regulations?

 

A large part of the self-assessment should be to gather input from all the stakeholders in your organization. Ask them about their goals for IT asset disposition and what challenges they see in the process. Be sure to include stakeholders in every level and location of your organization. Stakeholders in IT asset disposition can include:

 

• IT management

 

• Asset management

 

• Data/information security

 

• Risk management

 

• Facilities

 

• Environmental

 

• Finance

 

• Public relations

 

The next step after stakeholder interviews is to identify gaps in your IT asset disposition process and opportunities for improvement. Create a list of priorities, such as cost, liability, data security, environmental stewardship, optimization of value, a clear chain of custody, and resource management.

 

The final product of your self-assessment will be a complete understanding of the asset disposition goals and challenges facing your organization. You can use this as a framework for planning your next generation ITAD program and a benchmark against which to measure its success.

 

An IT asset disposition solution provider can help you with your self-assessment and work with you to create a disposition program—customized for your organization—that takes into account the requirements of your stakeholders, your available resources, and your company’s goals and priorities.