When you have a medical issue, you likely go to the doctor. If you’re having car trouble, you see a mechanic. If you have complicated taxes, you probably have them prepared by a CPA. Why? Because they’re experts, and you can trust those experts. You want your health, vehicles, taxes, and more handled by professionals. The same can be said for your ITAD program and why you should work with a professional ITAD company.
As you likely know, or have seen us discuss in other posts, ITAD, which stands for IT asset disposition, is the process of disposing of unwanted, excess, or obsolete electronic equipment safely and responsibly. When creating an ITAD program, whether in-house or working with an ITAD company, you want to ensure that it’s structured adequately so your organization’s risk is mitigated, the cost is minimized, and your value recovery is maximized.
ITAD should not be taken lightly, which is why it’s highly recommended that you partner with someone for at least part, if not all, of your program. There are many reasons why working with an ITAD company is considered best practice. We’ve bucketed them below into 4 main categories:
- Risk Management and Mitigation
- Green IT
- Value Recovery
- Experience
Risk Management and Mitigation
Managing and mitigating risk is one of, if not the most important reasons to partner with an ITAD company vs. trying to tackle the process yourself. At the heart of ITAD, you’re disposing of IT assets that may or may not house important and sensitive information about your clients, your employees, or both. The ramifications of not disposing of this equipment properly and handling the data responsibly will be felt far and wide from damage to your brand, loss of trust from customers, fines, lawsuits, and more.
Data Security
It has been said that ITAD should always be viewed through the lens of data security first. ITAD is a critical prong in a data breach prevention strategy. If you don’t know how or aren’t disposing of your IT assets properly, your customer and employee data could be compromised.
If there is a breach or even the potential threat of a breach, not only is that data compromised, but so is your company’s brand reputation, which isn’t something that’s easily repaired. Not to mention you need to ensure you’re compliant with any data protection regulations.
For those of you attempting to erase the data in-house before disposing of the equipment, it’s important to note that research has shown about 40% of drives that companies think they’ve erased still contain data. In all reality, most companies don’t have a core competency in data erasure. That’s why a professional, certified ITAD service provider is a key partner.
Regulations and Compliance
There are rules and regulations around data protection and IT assets disposing on a state, federal, and international level. Beyond ensuring your data is protected, your ITAD company can help you create an audit trail or a detailed report of each item that came out of service. If you don’t have an audit trail, it’s hard to say with the utmost certainty and prove that you handled the disposal of these assets properly. Especially when it comes to handling customer data, you want to avoid a breach or the potential for one.
Money
There’s a monetary risk at stake if you don’t handle your ITAD responsibly. Not only could you face fines or lawsuits, but your overall business could take a hit due to the loss of trust from customers.
Brand Reputation and Lawsuits
Think back the last several years to companies that have had data breaches. Maybe you still do business with them; perhaps you don’t. But if you’re a customer of theirs, is your trust ever fully restored? Money can buy a lot of things, but it can’t buy trust. Don’t put your brand, reputation, and revenue at stake. You might think that you’re saving money by trying to manage ITAD yourself or having a less than reputable company handle it, but you’ll pay much more in the long run if something goes wrong.
Physical Space
While this might not seem like an important reason, by having an ITAD company manage your program, you’ll free up space by not having old equipment and hardware sitting around. Why is that important? Well, not only does it matter for freeing up space, but if you have equipment lying around that’s not secured, and that hasn’t been appropriately wiped, someone could easily walk off with that asset and gain access to that data. Or you could just simply lose track of the asset. It might be stuck in an empty office somewhere, safe as can be. But if you don’t know exactly where that computer is, you can’t guarantee that the information and data on it haven’t been compromised.
Green IT
Green IT is a close second when it comes to reasons for working with an ITAD company. While, of course, you want to mitigate risk and ensure your customer and employee data is safe, there’s also a duty to the environment when you’re working with IT assets. You want to avoid these items ending up in landfills. Toxic waste material makes up nearly 70% of landfills. When you partner with an ITAD company, they will handle the Green IT piece of ITAD and work to avoid adding to that 70%.
Reuse
Reuse is an excellent option for Green IT practices because it extends the life of the equipment. Why does that matter? It reduces the need to manufacture another one, which minimizes the use of natural resources. The company you partner with will either refurbish the equipment themselves or find a credible solution to do so.
Resale
An ITAD company will handle the resale of this equipment once it’s been properly decommissioned and refurbished. They should also work to get you the best price possible.
Recycle
Lastly, your ITAD partner will recycle the equipment once it has reached a point of obsolescence and reuse just isn’t an option. When it comes to Green IT, recycling is the next best option because it converts the materials back into raw commodities, eliminating the need to mine ore for new equipment, which is one of the most damaging activities on the environment. Most professional ITAD companies also have a zero-landfill policy, guaranteeing that if it can be recycled, it will.
Value Recovery
Other than data security and risk mitigation, your CEO is most concerned about this. Could you unplug your old computers, laptops, networking or server equipment and sell them yourself? Of course. Are you getting the best value for the recovery of those assets? Probably not. The reason for that is because when you work with an ITAD company, they have an established network of buyers, know what your assets are worth, have experience in buying and selling these types of equipment, and how to get the best value for you.
Experience
Have you ever heard the saying, “Let the experts handle it?” Well, in this case, it is best to let the experts handle it. You know your business better than anyone, and you are the experts in what you do. There’s a reason that ITAD companies are good at what they do; it’s because they’re experts and have the experience to back it up. With that experience comes additional benefits, like:
Cost Savings
While it’s hard to put a price on ensuring your company and customer data is secure and mitigating your overall risk, there are savings that come with working with an ITAD company. As we said, you may think you’re saving money by trying to tackle this on your own, but you’ll likely pay much more in the long run if something goes awry. We recommend factoring this into your budget upfront, so there’s no question about implementing a program and partnering with a vendor when the time comes. Beyond just the cost savings of avoiding lawsuits, fines, and loss of customers, plus the return you’ll get from selling the old assets, you’ll also save on:
- Logistics: Your ITAD company will handle the logistics of getting the assets from point A to point B. They will or should have trucks, pallets, packing materials, the labor to remove the assets, etc.
- Administrative Costs: By outsourcing your ITAD needs, the process is managed for you. You don’t have to pay an internal resource to oversee and manage the removal, disposal, and resale of these assets. By saving in this area, it can help offset the cost of hiring an ITAD vendor in the first place.
- Resources: Could your IT Director manage your ITAD program? Most likely. But should they? Do you want to pay someone their salaried wage to be managing something that an ITAD partner will likely do for far less and with far more experience?
Tracking and Reporting
As we mentioned above, another reason to work with an ITAD company is not having to track your assets once they’ve been unplugged and removed from your facility. Your partner should have a detailed account of each piece of equipment, serial number, where it’s at in the process, status, etc. That way, you and they know exactly where everything is, and you have an audit trail, should you need one.
Asset Management
Many ITAD companies will come to your location, properly remove the assets, package them, haul them away, wipe the data, and then handle the refurbishment or recycling of the equipment. It’s very easy to improperly remove assets, especially if you have a lot, which can damage them. By having an expert handle it, you reduce the risk of your assets being damaged and increase your chances of getting the most value for the recovery of those assets.
Peace of Mind
At the end of the day, this is something you can’t buy. By partnering with a reputable ITAD company, you can rest easy knowing that your assets, data, reputation, and company are all in good hands.
You {probably} wouldn’t try to perform surgery on yourself or replace your car engine in your driveway. You might prepare your own taxes, but if they’re extremely complicated and you know you’re at an increased risk of doing them improperly, you’d likely seek professional help. While ITAD is something you can do in-house that doesn’t mean you should. There’s a tremendous risk with doing so and your time, talents and resources are likely best spent focusing on your core business while the experts focus on their core business- ITAD.
Still have questions around ITAD? Let’s connect.
