Advocating For An IT Asset Recovery Program

Adapting to a new process can be daunting, and everyone often doesn’t agree on the same company needs, especially something as complex as an IT asset recovery program. This makes gaining buy-in from an executive leadership team difficult.

But IT asset recovery can’t be solved with a one size fits all solution—it doesn’t exist.

You need a tailored solution meeting your company’s specific needs, but how do you advocate for it? In this article, we’ll discuss how to combat common objections, why implementing an IT asset recovery solution is necessary, and the processes needed to have an effective IT asset recovery program.

Common Objections

Here are some common objections we hear about implementing an IT asset recovery program:

• “We already have a recycling partner. This solution seems similar to theirs, so I’m having a hard time seeing the value in this.”
• “We already have a mobile device management (MDM) team in place, and they pay top dollar for devices.”
• “It’s not worth the time it takes to recover assets. It costs us more in payroll to recover them than just to let employees keep them.”
• We just completed a refresh project, so we’re not expecting to do another one any time soon.”

Overcoming Objections

Here’s how we respond to these objections:

1. Mobile reCell is not solely focused on supporting recycling. We aren’t like traditional recycling partners who simply data wipe devices or repair devices to resell them, leaving the entire recovery effort on the IT team without additional support. Our software solution automates the recovery process, allowing our customers to achieve an asset recovery rate of around 95%—more than three times the industry average. With our solution, IT departments no longer have to wait on status information, send follow-up emails, or use manual spreadsheets, allowing them to save time and focus on more strategic initiatives.

2. Our established secondary marketplace of ready-to-purchase buyers allows companies to reallocate retired IT assets. We assist in reselling assets by identifying the best fit based on asset type, grade, and volume. Additionally, our fair market value data allows you to determine the resale value of depreciating assets based on the assets’ condition, grade, and model. Knowing your idle assets’ worth can help your organization maximize return and further additional IT projects by converting idle inventory into usable capital.

3. Our primary focus is data security, as corporate-owned mobile devices access and store sensitive company data daily. Active, retired, and lost devices are all major data security threats to any organization. Leaving corporate-owned devices unrecovered or exposed could turn into financial, legal, and reputational disasters, which are extremely difficult to come back from. Implementing a company-wide mobile device policy sets the expectations for how employees will safely use mobile devices and applications while minimizing data threats.

4. We handle more than device upgrades and refresh projects. We recover actively deployed devices throughout your program’s lifecycle, like in the one-off event of employee separation. We also centralize data and configure your recovery program to ensure your IT asset recovery needs are met, allowing you to understand the status of your IT asset recovery program and know where you need to take action.

Why You Need An IT Asset Recovery and Disposition Solution

When an IT asset recovery and disposition program is implemented, a cohesive company-wide policy is in place for IT asset recovery, which ensures that every device in the organization is recovered, processed, and disposed of through the same process.

If a standardized system isn’t in place, one-off requests or non-standard processes become the new normal. Miscommunication can arise, and companies can run across random devices in places they shouldn’t be, making the recovery process time-consuming.

Additionally, the longer IT assets remain unprocessed or not sold, the less value they have.

Mobile devices are constantly being recycled, redeployed, or resold, making the management process complex, so keeping track of corporate-owned mobile devices is crucial.

Here are some common scenarios that emphasize the importance of knowing where your devices are at all times:

1. A device is lost or stolen.
2. An employee upgrades to a new device and needs to retire the old one.
3. An employee leaves a company without prior notice and takes the corporate-issued device with them.

Company Procedures To Jumpstart Your IT Asset Recovery Program

Don’t complicate the process. The following are some standard operating procedures you should have in place to ensure a smooth and effective IT asset recovery program:

• Ensuring lock screens are password-protected using a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters.
• Enabling “find my device” or other device-tracking features.
• Encrypting device data to block unauthorized access.
• Documenting the device serial number and other identifying information.
• Keeping the device’s security software updated.
• Restricting installation of unapproved applications.
• Forbidding “jailbreaking” or any similar modifications to the device software.

* Read more on our Mobile Device Programs & Policies article.

Understanding The Impact of IT Asset Recovery Through Mobile reCell

Mobile reCell provides the go-to software-driven solution for corporate-owned IT asset recovery, designed to help organizations ensure data security, recover maximum value, automate manual processes, and deliver a sustainable solution.Corporate data is invaluable, and every unrecovered corporate-owned asset poses a serious data-loss risk for your organization.

Each asset we process completes rigorous functionality testing, NIST-compliant data erasure, and receives a Certificate of Data Destruction, so you—and your legal team—can rest easy knowing your data is secure.

Backed by a full stack of API integrations and configurable workflows, our logic-based automation drives recovery behaviors at the end-user level, allowing you to define processes and reconcile every asset to a user without using spreadsheets.

Additionally, our software solution allows companies to understand risk and filter their program data to inform business decisions.

Every asset in your program’s inventory—both idle and deployed—is given a new life before proper disposition.

We provide customized environmental impact reports to show how your IT asset lifecycle program is creating a sustainable solution—by reselling, reusing, and recycling assets—and saving e-waste materials from landfills.

Looking to implement an IT asset recovery program, but having trouble communicating the value to your executive leadership team? Chat with us.

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