Score Your ITAD Program

Score Your ITAD Program with the SLS ITAD Maturity Model

To support our prospects and clients as they manage and improve their IT asset disposition (ITAD) program, Sims Lifecycle Services (SLS) has developed the SLS ITAD Maturity Model. This tool has been designed to help you determine exactly where your program stands and how it aligns with your company’s compliance and data policy risks. A more accurate understanding of industry best practices and policies will help you evaluate the way retired IT assets are, and should be, managed.

When IT assets are removed from the live environment, most companies have a defined ITAD process that identifies how assets are handled as they are reused, redeployed or recycled. The foundation of the SLS ITAD Maturity Model is built on this concept, helping you examine your management process, geographic scope, data security requirements, budget considerations and how you measure success.

We have identified five levels of ITAD maturity to help us connect with you where you are, support your current program, and work with you to develop and optimize your processes. Our Maturity Model can score your current ITAD program and set both long and short-term goals for improvement.

All companies are focused on their live environment. Companies who focus exclusively on the live environment operate at what we define as the “required” level. They typically maintain a general asset list with little or no defined metrics for managing their ITAD program. Asset management at this level is mainly left up to individuals with little or no organizational redundancy, policies or standards. This lack of control can unfortunately lead to assets being lost or stolen, along with the data they may contain.

Companies operating at the highest “optimized” level of ITAD maturity, on the other hand, have optimized their programs across the corporate landscape with executive level support and centralized decision making. The ability to produce exact numbers and detailed specifications contributes to the organization’s financial performance, commercial planning and audit preparedness.

Benefits to be realized by optimizing your program are immediate and obvious. A greater understanding of your IT environment leads to greater control and positions you to command increased financial return, improved security, compliance to international and industry-specific requirements and sustainability gains to enhance your environmental reputation.

Once you have a full understanding of your corporate technological structure you are ready to more fully develop your ITAD program. Whether you’re updating, upgrading, or removing computer equipment, a mature ITAD game plan will better allow you to cover the entire IT lifecycle and not just the end-of-use phase; greater experience will help you more fully understand your range of options.

ITAD programs are the last stage of the IT management process and, unfortunately, are frequently not properly planned or fully developed. Too often an afterthought, ITAD can involve significant risks without a comprehensive and detailed strategy that is consistently implemented throughout your corporation. This makes a proactive ITAD program even more important so your company can understand and avoid undocumented and undefined processes, shortcuts and bad decisions.

Having worked with some of the largest enterprise companies in the world, we have collaborated with corporations who operate at every level of ITAD maturity. This has resulted in not only providing a world class ITAD solution but in helping our clients develop a more complete knowledge of their corporate IT structure.

A coordinated partnership opens many possibilities for improving your company’s ITAD program effectiveness, and with it, enhanced financial performance, security, and sustainability. Let SLS help ensure you achieve optimum results.

• Category: IT Asset Disposition