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Facebook1. Use technology to streamline the process. If you are already managing the performance of your IT assets, leverage your asset management program to aid your asset disposition process.
2. Make decisions for the final destination of your equipment prior to decommissioning. This will save time, money and avoid risk by eliminating numerous steps in an already cumbersome process.
3. Wipe your data while it is still online. Don’t leave precious data on your systems while it sits in storage. Frequently data breaches occur within the walls of the organization.
4. Know the value of your IT equipment ahead of time so you are equipped to make a reuse, recycle or remarket decision intelligently.
5. Stay in control of your IT assets even after they leave your facility by insisting on total visibility of price and final destination from your vendor.
Updates from tammy RSS
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Top 5 Ways to Improve Your Disposition Process
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Product Take-Back as a Service (PTaas)
TammyServoterra 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 landscapeServoterra 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
TammyAs 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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Start the New Year Fresh; Clean out Your IT Closets!
TammyIs your IT closet full? Has your company been filling a room full of hardware assets with no plan in place for disposal? It may be a daunting task, and with limited resources and tight budgets, there are no spare IT cycles to deal with the growing stash of used computers, servers and laptops once refreshed. One thing is for sure – the longer the systems sit in a closet, a warehouse or a spare office, the more value they are losing every day. In an advanced technological world, IT assets do become obsolete at an increased rate. Not to mention, security breaches often occur while the hardware is still on the premises of the company. Companies mistakenly assume their IT equipment has no value, so they are in no rush to dispose of it. However, IT managers that dispose of their IT assets quickly are being rewarded for their efficiency with higher returns and an additional revenue stream for their company. In today’s tight economy, IT managers who uncover new found cash are bringing real value to their company.
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Why Auction Sites Net Lower Returns for IT Assets
TammyAuction sites have been wildly popular among consumers looking for that unique and hard to find item. But when taking that same approach in the B2B space for used and excess IT equipment, sellers are left dissatisfied with the results. Why?
1. Auction customers are looking for a bargain. They are hoping to secure goods for below market value and the return is simply not worth the time and effort of IT managers needing to dispose of assets.
2. Once a bid is placed, the seller is obligated to sell the item. This lack of flexibility puts sellers in a bad position if the bids are not high enough.
3. Sellers are not anonymous on auction sites and not all sellers want to reveal who they are, so they avoid auction sites to maintain their privacy.
4. Auctions require patience. The most viable bids come in during the very last hour of an auction and even after 40 bids, the price can still be too low. Companies would rather give it all to a broker for pennies on the dollar than spend the resources required to sell on an auction site.With advances in technology, improvements continue to be made. ServoTerra has developed an open B2B trading eXchange on the Force.com platform, which addresses the weaknesses of the auction site and generates higher returns overall. In one test across platforms, it took 400 auction bids to generate an offer 40% lower than what was offered in 3 bids over the eXchange. Learn more at http://www.servoterra.com.
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5 Mistakes Companies Make
Tammy5 Mistakes Companies Make When Retiring IT Assets
1. Warehouse the retired equipment allowing it to lose value every day
Once equipment has outlived its usefulness, it can consume valuable floor space, as well as impact your bottom line if not dispositioned quickly. The traditional way of retiring assets is to first replace them, run them in parallel for a period of time, and then de-install the old equipment. The best practice is to offer it for re-sale at this point. However, the owners of these assets understand that this equipment is fully depreciated and do not spend time managing it. The equipment has value that can be optimized by applying a small amount of planning before the units are replaced. ServoTerra offers an asset planning tool and trading platform that allows the owners of assets to sell them while still in use reducing downtime to an absolute minimum.
2. Assume that because an asset is used, it has no value.
Used IT assets have value, even when sold at wholesale. Even while IT assets depreciate, they still have residual value even to the point where it is recycled. Some companies feel that once an asset is fully depreciated, there is no compelling event to address them and over time the recovery value can drop significantly. ServoTerra’s Asset Planning tool looks at the equipment NOT as a depreciated asset but as having value throughout its entire lifecycle and provides a platform for these assets to be sold and reused to build new. According to a recent report, 15% of companies still throw e-waste in the dumpster!
3. Receive pennies on the dollar from middlemen who sell the assets and leave with the majority of the profit.
More than 70% of the asset disposition market is controlled by middlemen who add little value to the equipment but resell it for up to 60% margins. They must offer you the lowest price possible in order to resell it for a profit. Why give this margin away when you own the equipment and could receive the bulk of the profit by placing it on the eXchange? By connecting buyers and sellers directly on the eXchange, sellers can benefit from a global marketplace of qualified buyers and competitive offers, receiving the highest possible price for their assets.
Bulk selling “Pallets” or “Lot’s” is very popular today because some seller’s believe they are not selling only quality product but are off-loading undesirable product as well. They hand the assets to the middleman as he is offering to “take it all”. However, the middleman will account for the undesirable products by increasing his margins.
4. View their depreciated assets as a cost center instead of a profit center
Depreciation is a great tax strategy. However, in a typical “tech refresh” event you might be happy to get 5% of your original purchase value from your assets being de-installed and sold to at least mitigate your costs. What if the resale value of this equipment was actually 20% of your original value, would you be happy to forfeit the majority of that value to a broker or trade-in program? That cash goes right to your company’s bottom line increasing your profit margins and with margins getting thinner in these tough economic times, you need those dollars to the bottom line now.
5. Get three bids, accepting the largest, but have no idea if it reflects the true value of the assets
Having tools that give you the ability to understand the real value of your equipment is key to managing your costs and profit. What system is currently in place in your company to measure your return on your depreciated assets? Most companies do not have one and do not understand the market value of their used assets and therefore do not know their ROI.
Most current systems are not set up to plan the retirement of these assets at the optimum time. It makes sense to upgrade when they are at their highest value. Our SaaS Asset Planning tools give you this ability. You can plan and implement resale events netting you a higher return on your investment. Since it’s a customized business network, you control every aspect of your trading. If you do not have the infrastructure, our customer service organization can assist you in managing your assets helping you to trade easily.