Planifier ma collecteA national big box retailer that sells tools, housewares, electronics and auto parts had an IT asset disposition challenge. While they routinely used tens of thousands of IT assets at hundreds of office locations and data centers across the country, they wanted to ensure that these assets were all handled in a consistent manner at end of life. Additionally, they wanted to ensure a secure chain-of-custody to protect assets with sensitive customer and corporate data
The CIO of the company believed that his company needed an asset solution that:
- disposes of assets in an environmentally sound manner in a best-in-class facility
- provides a fair return on remarketable and resellable assets
- ensures customer and corporate data are never compromised
Revolution’s Creative Data Destruction Options
In February 2018, a colleague recommended Revolution Recycling to the CIO, and President Mark Cooper was happy to help.
“When I talked to the CIO, I thought it was important to emphasize the suite of disposition services that Revolution has to offer since it’s this combination that sets us apart from our competitors,” says Cooper.
“We have reliable logistics partners from coast to coast, and we have creative onsite data destruction capabilities. If a customer doesn’t want their drives to leave their facility intact, we have a compact hard drive crusher that breaks hard drives in half. If the customer location is remote, or if they only have a handful of drives, we ship the unit via courier and the customer does the work by feeding the hard drives into the machine one by one,” explained Cooper. “The machine is controlled by a single button – you don’t need to be an I.T. professional to operate it. Our hard drive shredding services are available only in major markets but our small hard drive crusher can be shipped anywhere in the country as long as the address can receive a package from FedEx.”
Revolution also offers a unique one-stop shop for remarketing and resale operations, as well as end-of-life processing, as they are co-located with parent company Shift Recycling, Inc. Revolution will craft custom solutions so customers are not limited to selecting from a more standard menu of services.
A Test Job Using the Onsite Hard Drive Crusher
The CIO couldn’t wait to get started with Revolution when he heard what they had to offer. His first requirement was the destruction of a small quantity of assets in Winnipeg. While Winnipeg is not particularly remote, there are limited options for certified asset recovery companies in the area. It was a perfect opportunity to test Revolution’s hard drive crusher onsite as the CIO did not want any data leaving the facility intact.
Cooper agreed. “It didn’t make sense for us to send technicians out to Winnipeg for such a small quantity of data bearing assets, so we shipped them the hard drive crusher and they destroyed the hard drives themselves. They then packed everything up and shipped it back to our facility with our logistics partner for end of life processing.”
The crushed hard drives were delivered to Toronto the very next day. Revolution went through their various internal processes to sort and audit the equipment and to remarket anything in saleable condition. They used the value of the remarketed and resold equipment to offset costs incurred. Instead of a bill at the end of the project, Revolution sent the customer payment in the form of a cheque for several thousand dollars.
In the words of the CIO, “Revolution made a seemingly costly and tedious process very easy. This gave us peace of mind in knowing that our data was secure while ensuring that all our equipment was handled to our precise standards. And, of course, receiving payment at the end of the process was the very sweet icing on a delicious cake. We’ll be using Revolution for all of our disposition needs going forward and I highly recommend them to anyone else in our situation.”
If you have questions about Revolution’s asset disposition process or would like to schedule a pickup, contact us today. Who knows? It could be you who receives the next cheque for remarketed equipment!