Published on 28-Mar-2007
Validated on 10 Jul 2009
"Since starting the buybacks two years ago, IBM Asset Recovery Solutions has already processed more than 70 of our machines—and never in lots of more than 20. It’s a real life saver that they have no minimum order. And the credit we get back feels like free money." - David Balko, Network engineer, Text 100
Customer:
Text 100
Industry:
Energy & Utilities, Media & Entertainment, Telecommunications
Deployment country:
United States
Solution:
Business-to-Business, Transforming IT
Overview
Text 100 began to retire small quantities of their notebooks each quarter, but they found most resale/recycling vendors unwilling to accept fewer than 25 units.
Business need:
Text 100 began to retire small quantities of their notebooks each quarter, but they found most resale/recycling vendors unwilling
to accept fewer than 25 units.
Solution:
Rather than storing machines until they had enough to meet minimum unit requirements, Text 100 turned to IBM Asset Recovery
Solutions, which requires no minimum quantities.
Benefits:
Text 100 now disposes of all its retired notebooks through IBM Asset Recovery Solutions. The value they recoup is essentially
a windfall, since they don’t budget for recovery costs in their planning. And Text 100 contracts with IBM Asset Recovery Solutions to perform a secure data overwrite on all disk drives.
Case Study
 | | |
Business Challenge | Text 100 began to retire small quantities of their notebooks each quarter, but they found most resale/recycling vendors unwilling to accept fewer than 25 units. |
Solution | Rather than storing machines until they had enough to meet minimum unit requirements, Text 100 turned to IBM Asset Recovery Solutions, which requires no minimum quantities. |
Key Benefits | Text 100 now disposes of all its retired notebooks through IBM Asset Recovery Solutions. The value they recoup is essentially a windfall, since they don’t budget for recovery costs in their planning. And Text 100 contracts with IBM Asset Recovery Solutions to perform a secure data overwrite on all disk drives. |
Text 100 is a full-service public relations firm specializing in technology, with more than 400 employees in 22 offices worldwide and over 100 employees in five offices around the United States.
About five years ago, Text 100 decided to equip their employees exclusively with ThinkPad notebooks, to simplify administration and ensure high performance mobility for their staff. They chose to purchase their ThinkPad notebooks rather than lease because it was a better fit for their IT strategy.
As a result, the firm began replacing notebooks two years ago, typically at a rate of eight to 12 machines every three months. They spoke to a number of vendors about disposal of the retired computers, but every vendor had a minimum order size that was too high, and Text 100 has a policy of storing as little used equipment as possible.
David Balko, network engineer for Text 100, said the firm initially didn’t have a plan for disposal at end of life but learned about all the services offered by IBM Asset Recovery Solutions on their
Web site.
Since IBM Asset Recovery Solutions has no minimum unit requirement, it was the perfect solution. And because IBM Asset Recovery Solutions pays fair market value for used hardware (both IBM and non-IBM) in working condition—including notebook computers—Text 100 realized value from their retired hardware that they could then apply toward the purchase of new ThinkPad notebooks.
Service doesn’t stop at buyback
Another IBM Asset Recovery Solutions offering that Text 100 takes advantage of is the secure disk overwriting service. Balko found that it takes anywhere from 40 minutes to three hours to perform a complete overwrite of each hard disk drive on the agency’s notebooks, and it simply was not worth the time to perform the task in-house. When he found that IBM Asset Recovery Solutions could do the job for a small fee that could typically be covered by the credit received for each computer, the decision was simple.
Finally, Text 100 lets IBM Asset Recovery Solutions make the necessary shipping arrangements for Text 100 for the retired hardware. After packing each notebook, they simply call IBM to arrange a pickup at their office. “Shipping the notebooks is usually the bottom thing on our list,” says Balko. “But now we just pack them up, and someone from IBM takes care of the rest. It’s a hands-free operation for us.”
For more information
To learn more about IBM Asset Recovery Solutions, contact your IBM representative or visit ibm.com/financing/us/recovery
Translations:
Belgian French
Belgian Dutch
Danish
Dutch
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Norwegian
Spanish
Simplified Chinese
Swedish
UK English
Products and services used
IBM products and services that were used in this case study.
Hardware:
ThinkPad
Legal Information
© Copyright IBM Corporation 2006 IBM Global Financing North Castle Drive Armonk, NY 10504-1785 USA ibm.com/financing Produced in the United States July 2006 All Rights Reserved IBM and the IBM logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. The following is a trademark of Lenovo: ThinkPad. Other company, product and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. References in this publication to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them available in all countries in which IBM operates. IBM Global Financing offerings are provided through IBM Credit LLC in the United States other IBM subsidiaries and divisions worldwide to qualified commercial and government clients. Rates are based on a client’s credit rating, financing terms, offering type, equipment type and options, and may vary by country. Other restrictions may apply. Rates and offerings are subject to change, extension or withdrawal without notice. This case study is based on information provided by Text 100, and illustrates how one organization uses IBM products and services. Many factors may have contributed to the results and benefits described; IBM does not guarantee comparable results elsewhere.