Health Care Service Corporation and IBM team up to outfit charitable organizations with quality technology equipment.

“We are just receiving our last computer from IBM, and we’ve found the whole process to be just great. The IBM people who have processed our orders have been incredibly helpful. We’re extremely grateful for this equipment.” —Terri Thompson, Indo-American Organization
Overview

Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), a Mutual Legal Reserve Company, is a health benefits company that promotes the health and wellness of its members and local communities by providing access to cost-effective, high-quality healthcare. A large customer-owned health insurer in the United States, HCSC operates the Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in Illinois, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, providing a variety of health and life insurance products and related services to individual and group customers. Because HCSC believes that healthcare decisions are best made where services are delivered, its plans are locally focused and closely aligned with the communities they serve.

It’s all about health and heart
HCSC has a long tradition of commitment to the well-being of the communities in which it operates. It works with customers, healthcare providers, community partners, government agencies and others to build and support a healthcare system that is effective for all. The company places emphasis on contributing to organizations aligned with HCSC’s strategy for building healthier communities. It also maintains its local focus and presence through support of community-based cultural and educational programs.

Doing the right thing can be challenging
One of the ways in which HCSC had contributed to its communities and shared-mission organizations in the past was by donating its retired technology, including computers, printers, faxes and phones. It distributed the equipment by working directly with not-for-profit organizations that needed computer technology.

But as the environmental laws and data security regulations evolved and grew increasingly stringent, compliance with laws such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) grew more challenging for HCSC. Equipment simply could no longer be donated without first overwriting all data contained on the hard drives. To address the data security concerns, HCSC removed the hard drives from the computers prior to donation. Although this addressed the security issues, the equipment had significantly less value to organizations because of the need to add a new hard drive and operating system in order to make the machine usable.

Not wanting to forgo its technology contributions for both charitable and environmental reasons, HCSC sought a better way to give its retired but still useful equipment to local organizations in need.

Helping hands build a new solution from the ground up
Having a long-standing relationship with IBM, HCSC turned to IBM for help. The IBM Asset Recovery program, which has a long history in the asset recovery marketplace, seemed to be a good fit. In 2004, the IBM Asset Recovery team and a small group of HCSC personnel worked to design and implement a new asset recovery process that would support the communities HCSC served while also addressing data security and environmental concerns.

The engagement began with a series of meetings in which HCSC explained its objectives for the project. Developing the solution was a collaborative effort: The IBM Asset Recovery team established an ongoing dialogue with HCSC, examining requirements in detail and discussing ideas to develop a comprehensive strategy.

After extensive planning, the team established the asset recovery process that would be used to support HCSC’s “In-Kind Computer Donation” program. It’s an asset recovery plan in which IBM provides end-to-end support, including the logistics of packing and transporting equipment, the overwriting of data on hard drives and the purchase of HCSC’s retired marketable equipment. HCSC then gets credits that can be used to acquire IBM Certified Used Equipment to be donated to local organizations. The HCSC-approved organizations visit an IBM-supported Web site and use the credits approved by HCSC to “purchase” the specific technology they need from available IBM Certified Used Equipment, which has been refurbished and tested to IBM specifications for performance and reliability.

“Mi Escuelita teaches English to at-risk children, ages 3 to 5, from all cultures, and prepares them for academic success. Timely communication is essential to managing our enrollment of 450 children and conducting our business. We will be able to carry out our mission more effectively and efficiently with the new technology."— Jan Zeigler, Director of Development, Mi Escuelita Preschool

The time is right for action
The new asset recovery plan offers recipient organizations a wide selection of late-model inventory, equipment types and configurations. Giving the groups choice helps enable them to smartly build and optimize their technology infrastructures, instead of haphazardly assembling them with donations. Additionally, IBM Certified Used Equipment is ready to use with a preloaded operating system and software and is supported by a 90-day “quality satisfaction guarantee.” If there are issues with machine quality in the first 90 days that cannot be fixed, IBM will replace the equipment. This level of support is virtually unprecedented: In many donation programs, the organization is left to make good with the technology it receives, sometimes resulting in more headaches than help.

Olivia Rogers, the community relations manager at HCSC, runs the asset recovery plan from the client side. “The first step is for one of our approved community organizations to contact me if they’re interested in participating in the program,” she says. “If they are a good fit, I send them to the IBM Web site, where they can create a wish list and let me know how they plan to use the equipment. Once I approve, IBM handles the rest of the process.” The “rest” includes routing the order, shipping the equipment to the approved organization and reporting all activity back to HCSC.

HCSC began immediately accruing credits following the inception of the program, and in 2008 the company started donating equipment to local organizations under the In-Kind Computer Donation program. To date, more than 100 organizations have received more than US$500,000 in equipment, ranging from PCs to servers. Most nonprofits redeem credits for desktops, monitors, laptops and accessories that give their staffs and volunteers access to modern technology. Beneficiaries of the program include local minority-owned businesses, ethnic organizations, senior centers, shelter services, food banks, educators, antiviolence groups and many other charitable causes.

Granting wishes
HCSC granted the Make-A-Wish Foundation in Texas the largest program donation as of December 2008. With the credits, the foundation purchased desktops, monitors and laptops to upgrade older systems and to add new systems to offices in Irving, Fort Worth, Midland, Tyler and El Paso. It also purchased servers to support data archiving, e-mail, Web development, database servers, Microsoft® SharePoint sites and other back-end business applications that support the organization’s operations in north Texas.

After receiving the first shipment of equipment, Jordan Marshall of Make-A-Wish Foundation wrote to HCSC:

“I just wanted to say thank you so much for extending your incredibly generous offer our way. Our IT guy let us know that he has received the first shipment of equipment and everything is incredible. What an amazingly generous gift! Your contribution will greatly cut back on our operational expenses and allow us to allocate those dollars toward our mission of granting wishes for children with life-threatening medical conditions.”

Rogers says, “To me, the best part of this program is hearing the genuine heartfelt appreciation of organizations that can now do things that they couldn’t do before. It’s exceptionally rewarding. Reading their thank you notes, I can almost hear the appreciation in their voices.”

HCSC benefits too
The In-Kind Computer Donation program provides HCSC with an innovative approach to supporting community-based cultural and educational programs by leveraging its corporate assets without requiring additional capital. The strategic funding comes from the fully depreciated and written-off IT assets. The IBM Asset Recovery program provides financial flexibility for the company because it can decide how to allocate the credits it earns. And if economic conditions dictate, HCSC can choose to apply the credits toward its own needs.

The IBM Asset Recovery program has saved HCSC many IT-staff hours by eliminating the need to prepare equipment for disposal. In addition, the In-Kind Computer donation program has been self-funding from its inception. It generates positive recoveries by factoring in all direct costs, including logistics and service charges. Because HCSC is customer-owned and has a targeted charitable contributions budget, the self-propelled program has been instrumental in enabling the company to meet its charitable giving objectives.

The IBM Asset Recovery solution provides HCSC with a consistent, enterprisewide process for legal and responsible IT asset reuse—or for disposal of nonmarketable equipment. In addition, the program tracks asset disposition by machine serial number for auditing purposes. It also addresses data security risks by helping to ensure that all data is overwritten with documented support. Finally, it facilitates environmental stewardship by repurposing assets that HCSC no longer needs.

We can do more together
The In-Kind Computer Donation program, which leverages the value of the IBM Asset Recovery program, is an optimal collaborative effort among IBM, HCSC and the recipient organizations. Each party involved puts something into it, and each party gets something out of it. Rogers explains, “We feel like we’re equal contributors in this endeavor and that our input and effort add value. We’ve grown together through the program. It’s a model of effectively engaging with business vendors and the community.”

For more information
To learn more about IBM Asset Recovery solutions, visit:

ibm.com/financing