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Updates from February, 2010

  • Product Take-Back as a Service (PTaas)


    Tammy 11:30 am on February 19, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , secondary market

    Servoterra is the only Product Take-Back as a Service (PTaaS) platform designed specifically for the OEM and their customers. Operating a take-back program today is like generating your own electricity when the service is offered on-demand just by plugging in. Product take-back is costly, inefficient, and leaves most of the product re-market value on the table until now. ServoTerra is innovation just by plugging in.

    Built on Force.com, ServoTerra’s PTaaS platform enables the OEM to establish and control a secondary market channel for remarketable products while eliminating the risk of cannibalizing Sales by eliminating the broker. The secondary market exists for remarketable products as evidence by the highly fragmented, multi-billion dollar, broker controlled asset recovery industry. This industry is designed for the benefit of the Broker, not the OEM. The time is now to transform the industry for the benefit of the OEM and their customers.

    Take-back programs give manufacturers the physical responsibility for products at the end of their useful lives. Approximately 40% of products taken back have value in a secondary market for remarketed products. So why do most OEM’s end up destroying products that still have demand? The reason is OEM control or lack of it in the channel and the risk of cannibalizing Sales.

    Product take-back programs have both environmental and business facets. While much is written about the environmental benefits, little is written about the business benefits. This is largely by design as the take-back programs and the asset recovery industry have competing agendas. Taking the environmental high road makes good PR, but in reality, it’s the business benefits that define success.

    The challenges for the OEM’s in today’s market are:

    • Loss of visibility and control of products on the Secondary Market
    • Risk of Sales cannibalization with Broker control of the Secondary Market
    • Cost to develop, administer, and operate Product Take-Back
    • Difficult to receive market value for remarketable products without control of the Secondary Market
    • Customers do not provide forecasted visibility into future product trade-in requirements.

    The other piece of the equation is the OEM customer. Today, the OEM has limited visibility into the customer’s acquisition or tech refresh planning activities. Our platform allows the OEM’s customers to post their end-of-life assets on the platform as a request for take-back. In addition, the customers can post their needs for new or remarketed products. The result is an optimized supply and demand balancing approach for product trade-back outside the control of the Broker. In other words, re-market those products having re-market demand and send the rest to recycling. This is visibility into customers that the OEM does not have today.

    The benefits of PTaaS are many:

    • Increase revenue while lowering costs
    • Eliminate the risk of Sales cannibalization
    • Remove Broker control of the Secondary Market
    • Provide early visibility into customer product replacement needs
    • Drive leads to the Sales organization
    • Balance supply and demand while getting sticky with your customers
    • Enhance your place in the competitive landscape

    Servoterra offers the only Product Take-Back as a Service (PTaaS) platform designed specifically for the OEM to lower cost and maximize product value over the life-cycle. No matter the products manufactured, your business will benefit from operating a Product Take-Back program in the cloud. The result is improved financial and sustainability performance for the OEM and their customers.

    To learn more write us at contact@servoterra.com.

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  • The Effects of Virtualization on Secondary Server Markets


    Tammy 10:18 am on February 10, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , on-demand, , secondary server market, used hardware assets, virtualization

    As the technology industry has witnessed this year, the recession has ramped up interest in virtualization faster than anticipated. The adoption rate has blossomed beyond expectations with users continually striving for efficiency (http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Data-Storage/Big-Enterprise-IT-News-in-2009-725734/). As adoption continues, and it shows no signs of stopping, the secondary server market will soon be inundated with a large surplus, thus lowering their value.

    Companies moving towards virtualization should consider selling their servers sooner rather than later to ensure the highest return on their investment. The Reverse Logistics Association reports that companies who plan the entire lifecyle of their IT Assets in advance enjoy significantly higher returns. The current process of disposing of used hardware assets is extremely inefficient with hands touching the equipment every step of the way, creating both a security risk and increased costs. The industry is heavily burdened with brick and mortar expense that syphons value and returns pennies on the dollar to the asset owner. See the new on-demand model by ServoTerra using SaaS technology where higher returns are ensured as well as a simple, safe process of IT asset disposition.

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