Top Five Drivers For IT Refurbishment In The UK

With the secondary market for quality refurbished hardware now worth multiple billions of dollars globally, World Data Products Ltd., the largest independent provider and global market leader for refurbished server, storage and networking hardware solutions, today outlined the top five market drivers in the UK.

Providers of refurbished equipment offer a compelling alternative for IT Directors, favourably impacting the entire IT lifecycle. Benefits include
reducing direct capital costs, elimination of migration expenses, training costs, downtime and incompatibilities in the infrastructure. Furthermore, customers are able to resell their used IT equipment, profiting from their used IT systems, rather than giving away or throwing away valuable assets. With an average savings of up to sixty percent on hardware that is fully cleansed, tested and refurbished with systems eligible for vendor of third
party maintenance, more and more UK organisations are looking to refurbished hardware as a viable alternative.

“Before IT managers simply didn’t have much of a choice,” said Neil Vill, CEO of World Data Products. “World Data Products is a natural partner to enterprise IT buyers, helping to keep control in the customer’s hands. Our 5 offerings impact the entire IT asset lifecycle by reducing acquisition, operational, and maintenance costs, by optimising hardware useful life, and by maximising residual returns to the customer on any asset disposal. Our customers further benefit from improved asset manageability and
flexibility, even including freed up budget for innovative IT projects.”

Having expanded its UK operations in line with demand, World Data Products sees five key drivers for the IT refurbishment market in the UK. These include:

1. Ugly Market Conditions Intensified competition and volatile markets have complicated the IT executive’s task to support business operations and create strategic advantage from technology investments. IT can still ‘make a difference,’ but to do so, more thoughtful, even aggressive, acquisition and installed base management is now mandatory for success.
2. The Vendor vs. Enterprise Mismatch
   There has always been a mismatch of objectives between new IT equipment
   vendors and IT customers. Vendors promote homogeneous environments and short lifecycles to generate sales revenues. Their goal is to maximise profits at every stage of the product lifecycle. Vendors have historically been able to impose shorter hardware lifecycles by withdrawing support and maintenance. Customers, on the other hand, prefer heterogeneous environments and longer lifecycles in order to maximise return on
   investment and minimise total cost of ownership.

3. Shift To A Liquid IT Market A weakened economy, combined with the aftermath of IT bloat from the dot com boom, has forced organisations to scrutinise IT spend more than ever.
   Historical overspending, commoditisation, changing industry dynamics and market liquidity have matured the IT industry enough to support an active secondary market in used and refurbished equipment. Installed bases are now large enough and systems are now reliable enough that an increasingly broad and deep supply of used equipment is available, fuelling the emergence of a new alternative market for quality products for most mainstream IT purchases.

4. More Knowledgeable Buyers As customers move back into positive acquisition cycles, they have more muscle and, more importantly, more purchasing insight than ever before. A more sophisticated and knowledgeable buyer means customers are more open to purchasing refurbished equipment from carefully selected partners. Providers of refurbished equipment offer a compelling alternative for IT Directors, favourably impacting the entire IT lifecycle.
5. Increased M&A Activity The marked increase in the number of mergers and acquisitions in the UK, particularly within the last eighteen months, has created the need to redeploy excess IT equipment. As IT is acquired as part of the asset of a business, until now, many companies have been writing off excess hardware, sometimes giving it away or throwing it away, rather than reselling it on to quality second source refurbish providers and making a profit.

“We already have more than 4,000 customers worldwide and sell to large,
blue chip customers as well as smaller organisations looking to maximise
their IT return on investment,” added Vill. “We think the time is right for
buyers in the UK to do the same and take advantage of reliable, refurbished
equipment rather than always buying new, and therefore full price, for their IT requirements. In many circumstances new IT equipment simply isn’t necessary.”