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What WEEE can do for you

Posted on 29 Jul 2005 at 15:37

As well as selling your company's old IT equipment to other businesses with less demanding requirements, service providers like TAM offer a staff sales programme. The company says that while selling old PCs to staff initially seems like an ideal way to get rid of redundant equipment, the costs associated with the administration, security, software licences and support soon add up. So TAM takes your obsolete equipment, refurbishes it and then integrates it with software and peripherals to your employees' individual requirements. TAM promises all equipment is subject to the strictest safety inspection and tests, it runs a customer services desk that can liaise with your staff directly, and it takes care of any liability and support issues.

CASH BACK

So, how much are the ageing laptops on the desks of your sales team worth? Not much if your company has a policy of running systems into the ground and only buying a replacement when the system finally breathes its last breath six years down the line. But Riches said companies that work on a shorter refresh could reclaim a significant amount of money: 'Many companies are on about a three-year refresh, and IT managers will cotton on to the fact that their three-year-old laptop is still worth £150.

'Overall, the net amount of money they could put back into their business is 5 to 8 per cent of whatever they're spending on hardware per year. Every company is different, but for a company with 400 employees they might be spending £300,000 per year on IT. They should be getting £25,000 back just by being a bit smarter about products at the end of their life. All businesses should be doing it without exception.'

Riches said a study his company produced with Accenture revealed some interesting insights into the way business users treat their PCs. The research showed that IT departments get a lot of calls from users when the new PCs or laptops are first installed, but IT phone lines soon calm down once people are used to their new system.

However, technical support staff receive a suspicious number of calls about broken systems during the last six months of the lifecycle. 'People get brassed off. They think, "I've been here for five years, I've got a lower-spec laptop than someone who's been here for five minutes. If mine breaks, I get a new one". So they get broken,' said Riches. 'If you take that bath-shaped curve and look for the optimum point in terms of value, then you overlay that with where the price of the product should be, you'll find that laptops should be refreshed every 20 months. That's the cheapest thing you could do, because it puts up your volume, so you get a better price.'

Action plan

The WEEE Directive promises to offer UK businesses an added incentive to make the most of the equipment they previously regarded as worthless.

Rather than being a burden, some suppliers are already achieving early compliance in a bid to create a 'green' brand, and many buyers are embracing the concept of environmental awareness under the banner of what the government likes to call 'corporate social responsibility'. But it's the potential financial gains that go hand in hand with the efficient disposal of products that will capture the attention of many IT managers and managing directors.

Look at the IT equipment your company is throwing away. The responsibilities, burdens and benefits of the WEEE Directive can be a can of worms, but it pays to have a clear strategy. This could be just the incentive your company needs to reclaim some money that would otherwise be thrown away. For larger firms, the savings could be enough to pay for another IT support worker.

Author: Paul Trotter