Eco IT Solutions

Category: Recycling

Asset Lifecycle Management
What is an Asset?

The first thing we should know before discussing Asset lifecycle management is; What are assets? Assets, (in the world of IT), can be defined as any piece of equipment that a person or an organisation owns. So, it can range from a mobile phone to an entire data centre of IT hardware. This blog will discuss tech assets such as computers, servers, laptops, and storage media like hard disks, SSD, etc.

Asset Lifecycle

An asset’s life cycle is the duration from when you think of buying the asset to when it is no longer usable and has to be disposed of. When the asset is ready to be retired, it is considered at the end of the Asset life cycle. The asset lifecycle consists of other stages, such as the acquisition and the usage of the asset. One of the most crucial stages in Asset lifecycle management is maintenance.

Asset Lifecycle Management

Asset lifecycle management is a timed process for assets whereby you figuratively move assets through a schedule from the start (installation) to finish (decommission & asset disposal). Since assets have a limited lifecycle, it is crucial to manage effectively and sweat them before disposal. Thus it is crucial to have a strategy in place. You could consider extending the lifespan of the assets but this would require consideration of maintenance costs, spare parts, and battling the ever-growing requirements to increase performance.

Why is asset lifecycle management important?

Every organisation has certain assets on its premises, or in data centres. Generally speaking, large organisations have more assets, and small organisations have fewer assets. Still, regardless of the organisation’s size, assets play an essential role in the organisation’s day-to-day work. Without assets, the manpower in organisations becomes useless, and vice versa.
Every asset plays its part in the organisation. Assets keep the IT side of business performing as intended, yet require maintenance over time. It is savvy business practice to sweat your IT assets as long as possible… up until the point that the assets are ready to be disposed of – along the way they may need maintenance. Tracking, optimising, and managing your assets have its benefits. Some of the benefits of asset life cycle management are as follows:

Extend the lifespan of the Assets

Managing your assets will help in extending their lifespan. Properly tracking your asset’s lifecycle will give better insights into the working condition and if/when they need repairs and maintenance. These insights will help you find the optimal time for repairing so that it is continuously operating in its peak condition.
Properly analysing patterns enables your asset to work at their absolute best with preventive maintenance when necessary. Asset Maintenance will surely help to extend the lifespan of the assets.

Reduce the downtime of the assets

If you are following an asset lifecycle management plan, it will help to reduce downtime. You won’t need to perform reactive maintenance, ultimately decreasing the assets’ downtime. Pre-planned scheduled maintenance will help avoid addressing urgent business critical tasks so you can schedule accordingly.
Also, planning in scheduled maintenance operations outside business hours will ensure time is well-spent on sudden updates.

Increases efficiency

One significant benefit of asset lifecycle management is that your assets are always in peak-performing condition. Having your assets in peak performing condition will guarantee increased efficiency in the workplace. Peak-condition assets have a longer lifespan and less downtime, improving overall efficiency.

Saves money

It is no brainer that efficient assets will help you save money in the long run. Maintaining and repairing assets will be cheaper and better than purchasing new assets. A properly executed asset lifecycle management plan will ensure that your assets have a longer life cycle. A longer life cycle means you won’t need to purchase new assets for an extended time.
Also, planned maintenance operations cost less money than sudden reactive maintenance. Scheduling your maintenance will help you to save money on unwanted reactive maintenance.

Better Future decisions

Using a systematic Asset lifecycle management plan, you can retrieve valuable information regarding your assets and their workings that could be beneficial for making future decisions. Making decisions for the budget will be easier when you know what assets need to be repaired and what needs to be replaced.
Stages of Asset Life Cycle Management

Asset lifecycle management is a strategic approach to get maximum usage out of assets and, in the meantime, reduce costs and increase the life cycle of the assets. The overall process has to be carried out in different stages.

Planning

The first stage in the Asset management lifecycle is the realisation that you need a specific asset in your organisation. You would need new assets because your organisation lacks assets to carry out your tasks. Then you figure out what assets you exactly need and start the planning process.
The planning phase can be challenging. Assets that cost you a few dollars are not a big deal, but some assets require considerable budgets, which need more consideration. It would be best to compare different products and models of assets that can deliver your organisation’s requirements and fall within your company’s budget. After exploring various options, you must fix one and proceed with the process.

Acquire/Procuring

You purchase the assets once you’ve locked in your choices. Acquiring isn’t limited to just buying the product. Some assets need installation and delivery into your facility. Some assets may require expert assistance to install and operate, and some assets require software to run on the hardware. Only after the asset is delivered, installed, and fully functional can you move on to the next stage.
Also, installation costs during the delivery of the asset must be added to the asset’s price. Now that the asset is installed and operable, you can use it for its intended use.

Use/Maintenance

After acquiring the asset, you are now ready to benefit from its service. The asset will now fulfil its intended purpose for which the organisation purchased it. The designated person will use the asset to carry out the task. After some use, the assets would require timely maintenance and repairs. You will need to create a maintenance strategy for the assets. Strategic routine maintenance is the best for an asset as it can save money and keep it in peak-performing condition.
Keeping in mind an optimal time to schedule in maintenance will help extend the asset’s life span and deliver maximum efficiency.
You can create maintenance management plans as time-based, condition-based or metre based according to the asset. Create a clear maintenance checklist to ensure every aspect of the asset is adequately monitored and maintained.
Use and maintenance are the asset management lifecycle’s longest and most important phases. Maintenance doesn’t just mean repairs; it could also be upgrades and modifications to the assets to keep them in peak working condition. Maintaining an asset is very important because it works towards and ensures the following things:
Prolonging life span of assets
Reducing surprise repair costs
Lesser Asset Downtime
Higher Efficiency of Assets
Higher profits due to longer lifespan and better efficiency

Dispose

Nothing is permanent in this world; just like everything, these assets must be disposed of after a particular time. After years of usage, and multiple repairs/maintenance procedures, the assets reach a point where replacing them with new ones becomes a better option than repairing them. You can perform a cost-benefit analysis to determine whether repairing the machine again would be better than buying a new one. The efficiency becomes very low and repairs cost pile up. At that point, asset disposition is the only way to go.
Disposing of the asset doesn’t mean you need to throw them away as E-waste. There are different options you can look into while removing the assets.
Is there a potential buyer for the used asset?
Can the asset be refurbished and resold?
Can the assets be donated to someone?

You can look into these options and dispose of the assets, whichever suits you. After the asset has been disposed of, the cycle is complete and restarts again. You now find a replacement for the asset, and you have to plan again. The disposed asset should never be thrown away in a landfill due to the negative environmental impact as well as the protection of your data. You can always call an E-waste recycling company to take the e-waste from your business premises, and they will take care of everything.
So, this completes the entire process of asset lifecycle management. Contact Eco IT Solutions if you want guidance regarding the Asset lifecycle management for your organisation.
November 30, 2022
What’s Involved in Proper E-Waste Disposal and Management?

Contrary to what one might think when encountering the phrase “e-waste disposal,” disposing of electronic waste – in the most environmentally friendly way, at least – should not merely involve tossing devices into a bin.

Proper electronic waste management involves exhausting all possible means for a piece of equipment to not become a piece of electronic waste for as long as possible. What practices might you expect in this journey? Learn more in this article.

Refurbishment

The proper disposal of electronic waste is simply one of the many practices in electronic waste management. Disposal should be one of the latter resorts, as we should endeavor to use and reuse devices as much as we can.

Under the umbrella of proper e-waste disposal, there is a process called refurbishing. Refurbishing refers to when specialists exhaust all ways to repair a device or piece of hardware to bring it back to its good-as-new state or recover a decent level of functionality it. They might add more memory, and hard disk space, or do some special troubleshooting if your device has unique issues. Refurbishing, therefore, extends the life span of your device.

Refurbishing becomes more beneficial when you cannot afford to buy a new device to replace your old one. Many people think that to get the best laptop for work, for example, they need to dispose of the old, poorly functioning one and buy a completely new one, with the assumption that new automatically means perfectly functioning. New devices will work great, but you would be getting more value out of your original purchase, your existing laptop if you rather have it refurbished.

Looking at the bigger picture, using your existing device for a couple more years or so also keeps it out of a landfill for that same amount of time. If a lot of people practice the same thing, we could be reducing e-waste significantly.

Data Erasure

Proper e-waste disposal also involves data erasure. There have been a lot of instances where sensitive data was recovered out of old cell phones and computers found in e-waste dumpsites or landfills. Worse, there were even computers or servers previously owned by companies or institutions which contain a lot of people’s sensitive information, from personal data of employees and clients, transaction records, and medical histories, you name it.

Today’s computers have come a long way, and they are really good at storing data. Similarly, IT enthusiasts, professional or not, also keep up with this quite well, and when devices find their way to someone who has the right skills and the wrong intentions, sensitive data may be exposed. So, if a device or server has to be disposed of, sold, or transferred to different management, specialists have to perform data erasure on these first. Wherever your device ends up after it’s taken out of your hands, you have the assurance that you or your staff are safe from data breaches.

Recycling

If your device or hardware has no more function left in it, its physical parts can still be used. It can be picked apart to produce scrap metal, which can then become raw materials for other new products. Examples of valuable metals are nickel, copper, zinc, and tin.

Parts such as wires, cables, plastics, circuit boards, and glass may also be used as raw materials for other products. They may also be sold as spare parts for other computers that need to be refurbished.

Recycling is one of the best ways to reduce electronic waste. The success of recycling e waste proves that the value of one device goes way beyond what it is as a unit, and therefore, the loss of function of one part may not always necessarily decrease the value of others. Technology was built to be resilient like this, and that is why there are so many creative ways to make use of electronic waste.

Proper E-waste Management Requires Individual and Collective Responsibility

When we think of dumpsites and landfills, the first image that comes to mind is heaps of plastic bags and containers. We often forget about electronic waste, which is understandable, since these are not so easily disposed of. However, once we take a step back and see just how much electronic waste is being accumulated by the whole population over time, we begin to realize just how important it is for each person to do their part in managing electronic waste.

The simple decision to have your device refurbished, resold, or transferred (after data erasure), or submitted to a recycling facility goes a long way!

We at Eco IT Solutions can help

If you have devices, servers, or other pieces of electronic waste that need to be disposed of, reach out to the team over at Eco IT Solutions. From refurbishing to data center decommissioning, we’ve got you covered.

Call us at 02 8055 3775 or email us at info@ecoitsolutions.com. You may also contact us via our website’s inquiry form.

November 17, 2020
E-Waste Disposal & How To Do It The Right Way?
As technology advances more rapidly, so does the waste it leaves behind. Therefore electronic waste disposal becomes more important than ever before. Gone are the days of large white computers; they are now replaced by slim and sleek desktop setups or easy to carry laptops.

CDs, DVDs, VHS, cassette tapes, and even the radio itself are now all obsolete – all the movies, music videos, TV shows, and songs you like can be accessed on the internet. Companies develop new products nearly every year to get consumers buying new models more often than they need to.

While these developments help make people’s lives a thousand times easier, the electronic waste produced as a result may end up causing more harm than good. But with a little discipline and creativity plus a whole lot of love for the environment, households and companies alike can learn and apply proper and sustainable e–waste disposal. In this article, learn about electronic waste and how it can best be taken care of.

What Exactly is Electronic Waste?

Electronic waste or e-waste is an umbrella term for any electrical or electronic device or equipment that is near or past its end of life. IT equipment disposal should be carried out for IT assets of businesses which is a specialized form of e-waste disposal. Examples are:
- Home appliances or white appliances such as microwaves, oven toasters, refrigerators, air conditioners, and fans
- Communication devices such as smartphones, computers, laptops, and other pieces of hardware
- Entertainment devices such as DVDs and CDs and their players, television sets, speakers, and video games
- Other electronic items such as remote controls, electrical wires, and chargers
- Office equipment such as printers, copiers, computers, IT hardware such as servers
Why Should You be Concerned with Electronic Waste Disposal?

The last thing anyone needs is for their e-waste to end up in a landfill. Electronic waste contains hazardous materials that pollute land and water and are also extremely harmful to human health. In Australia alone, millions of electronic waste get thrown out every year.

To prevent these from ending up in a landfill, the Australian government responded by putting together the National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme which provides businesses as well as residents easy access to e–waste disposal and recycling services. The problems of laptop disposal and computer disposal in Sydney and around Australia are largely eased by this government initiative. Having said that, a lot more needs to be done, and businesses can help lead the way.

E-Waste Disposal: Best Practices to Follow

When you believe it is finally time to dispose of your electronic waste, there are four steps for you to follow: reuse, refurbish, secure data erasure, and recycle. These methods can be used for secure computer disposal, secure hard disk disposal, and any other possible electronic waste that needs to be disposed of.

Reuse

If you don’t want to use it anymore, have someone else do the reusing. If your mind is set on buying new, don’t throw away those items just yet. Consider selling, donating, or giving them away. You can sell or give most e-waste items away at a portion of their original price.

You can also break it apart and sell its working parts. Most of the time, only a few damaged parts cause an equipment dysfunction, but throwing the whole thing away would mean ignoring the value of the parts that would still function.

A technique called remarketing can also take those items out of your hands. An e-waste remarketing service provider will first identify how best to advertise your equipment; if they see it still has a resale value, they will purchase it from you and resale your IT assets. The best ones offer data wipe services to ensure your sensitive information from any electronic item does not fall into the wrong hands.

Refurbish

Refurbishing simply means having your items repaired. It would be helpful to think about how you can extend the longevity of your electronic devices or appliances first. Exhaust all possible ways: avail of repairs or replace parts. After that, you can use it again or sell the newly repaired item. This will also encourage you to get more serious about electronics early at the buying stage and reduce pressure for e-waste recycling. Consider quality and length of use, especially if you’re buying in bulk.

Refurbishing refers to when specialists exhaust all ways to repair a device or piece of hardware to bring it back to its good-as-new state or recover a decent level of functionality it. They might add more memory, and hard disk space, or do some special troubleshooting if your device has unique issues. Refurbishing, therefore, extends the life span of your device.

Refurbishing becomes more beneficial when you cannot afford to buy a new device to replace your old one. Many people think that to get the best laptop for work, for example, they need to dispose of the old, poorly functioning one and buy a completely new one, with the assumption that new automatically means perfectly functioning. New devices will work great, but you would be getting more value out of your original purchase, and your existing laptop if you rather have it refurbished.

Looking at the bigger picture, using your existing device for a couple more years or so also keeps it out of a landfill for that same amount of time. If a lot of people practice the same thing, we could be reducing e-waste significantly.

Secure Data Erasure

Data Erasure is one of the most important considerations to make when disposing of data-bearing electronic waste. Erasing your data from devices could possibly not be enough to ensure security, this can be extracted (or recovered) by people with the right skill set for malicious intentions.

As an organization, there may be confidential information, proprietary data, and sensitive customer information. All information must be protected. Companies that provide secure e-waste disposal solutions need to ensure data security, and this is one of the important elements of e-waste disposal.

For an organization, it is important to secure the data from computers, servers, storage devices, and all other data-bearing IT assets. Secure destruction of the data before disposing of e-waste is very important. Organizations must know the differences between data erasure and data destruction to find appropriate services before disposing of their e-waste. Secure data destruction services should be an important consideration for businesses as well as individuals.

Recycle

When reusing is not an option anymore, just make sure your electronic waste ends up in a recycling facility and not in a landfill. There are many advantages to recycling. As mentioned above, e-waste contains hazardous materials (lead, mercury, and cadmium to name a few) that can contaminate the environment.

But aside from that, e-waste can also contain valuable materials like tin, nickel, copper, aluminum, and plastic which can be used to create other new products. This process supports a bright environmental solution called the “circular economy.” In a circular economy, nothing goes to waste: using the right tools and techniques, anything can be broken apart to create something new.

Recycling is incredibly convenient as some ITAD specialists also focus on a convenient waste collection service on top of recycling and remarketing. Just call up your e-waste recycling services provider and they will do all the heavy lifting (also literally) of e-waste recycling so you don’t have to.

Proper E-waste Management Requires Individual and Collective Responsibility

When we think of dumpsites and landfills, the first image that comes to mind is heaps of plastic bags and containers. We often forget about electronic waste, which is understandable, since these are not so easily disposed of. However, once we take a step back and see just how much electronic waste is being accumulated by the whole population over time, we begin to realize just how important it is for each person to do their part in managing electronic waste.

The simple decision to have your device refurbished, resold, or transferred (after data erasure), or submitted to a recycling facility goes a long way!

Have Eco IT Solutions Take Care of your E-waste Disposal

At Eco IT Solutions, we are committed to doing what’s right for the environment. Our services such as e-waste collection, secure data destruction, and e-waste recycling make it easy for you and your company to do the same. From secure data destruction and decommissioning to e-waste recycling, we’ve got you covered. Let us know how we can be of help. Call us at 02 8055 3775 or email us at info@ecoitsolutions.com. You may also leave us a message via our online inquiry form.

FAQs

[ecoit_faq]
July 13, 2020
What happens to the old stuff?

It is widely known that about 90% of e-waste ends up in a landfill. That is ecologically dangerous, irresponsible and wasteful.

Eco IT Solutions, one of the major APAC “end of life/lease” (EOL) IT specialists, has established a joint venture (JV) in Australia to bring its best practice here — reuse, repurpose and recycle — to show that there is still value in superseded computing, networking, and communications hardware.

Dean Michael is the local partner and manager of the JV that has the backing of ex OEM & major reseller employees to make this work.

The remainder of the interview is given below as a Q and A.

There are many companies offering EOL services – what’s different about Eco IT Solutions?

We have a 360° view of a customer’s needs – not just the disposal of EOL computing. Our main motivators are to help customers comply with the European Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) directive and the 1998 Data Protection Act – or their Aussie equivalents.

For starters, we do not just buy back EOL equipment. Many other companies offer that service, so we have to be different. Where we are better is that we have access to many more markets for refurbished and repurposed equipment – Europe, US, BRIC countries, South Africa, and Australia. Because of that, a lot less is going to end up in the waste stream. A lot more is reused, and that’s good for everyone.

While the economy of scale is in handling multiple units we will also look at smaller quantities – anything to keep it out of eBay or auction houses.

Surely the challenge is to put a fair price on the equipment – that must be risky?

The general “industry” rule is that EOL — say a three-year-old lease expiry — is worth around the same as the payout residual, say 10%. Then you have decommissioning costs, data migration, data erasure, packing, and shipping – all before it reaches us. The buy-back price helps the client cover those “hidden” disposal costs and often very much more.

Optionally you can ask us to handle it on consignment which may bring in even higher values for when we can find a new buyer.

Because we have access to larger global markets we may have buyers for say, old UC systems, or to those who want used workstations to cost-effectively extend the life of an installation – we often can offer more than straight “second-hand merchants”.

Isn’t labour your biggest cost?

Yes, the cost of testing, data erasure, reinstallation and ensuring tech stuff works before resale is costly. But that is our responsibility – not the client who has sold it. We have to warrant goods – usually for a year – as fit for purpose, so it is our risk if warranty return rates increase (we target for less than 5%) or we simply get stuck with unsaleable lemons. And there are issues with software licences where a used PC is worth less than the cost of an operating system or the productivity software installed on it.

You seem focused on refurbishment as a way to avoid e-waste?

It’s a tragedy that EOL cycles so heavily influence equipment replacement. A three-to-five-year-old PC or notebook has a lot of life left in it especially if you add more memory or upgrade hard disk space. Some businesses can’t afford ‘new’ and would rather pay a few hundred dollars for a great used commercial-grade machine than use cheap white box clones.

Then there is a demand from larger companies wanting to maintain existing equipment – IT Lifecycle extension.

We are finding that there is a burgeoning market in ‘spares’ – just like an automotive wrecker. Tried buying DDR 2 ram lately, or a smaller hard disk that works with an older BIOS, or want to match an older UC handset?

All this is better than shipping it off to an auction house or landfill – refurb/re-use/repurpose creates the maximum value for all.

When we have to scrap things it is done 100% to the ISO process, and best practice means all metals and plastics are recycled – there is little e-waste.

Where are your clients coming from – this is a young business?

Global referral from repeat customers is a start. Burning shoe leather works also. But it’s amazing how quickly we have cemented our reputation here and are getting more calls from finance providers, major ASX companies, government, and education. Even small business is catered for.

So ends an interview with what could be best described as a human dynamo – this Millennial is tech-savvy, totally focused, highly efficient, and will succeed.

Eco IT Solutions’ Sydney office is at 11 York St, Sydney, email info@ecoitsolutions.com

My take is that this company, its international backing and systems, and its local manager have long-term ‘legs’.

Article originally featured in ITWire magazine.

Written by Raw Shaw

March 10, 2019