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XMA director on how circular IT is gaining traction in the UK

Andy Wright says public sector organisations in particular want to squeeze capital out of their redundant hardware

Momentum for circular IT is gathering pace in the UK, particularly in public sector organisations, according to XMA director Andy Wright.

The concept of circulator IT is that an organisation refreshing its hardware would pass its old kit to a third party, rather than throwing it away. It would then be resold.

Speaking at a roundtable event at HPE Discover in Las Vegas, Wright said that cash-strapped local and central government buyers are looking to squeeze every last penny out of redundant infrastructure.

The commercial director referred to one of XMA's customers in particular, the London Borough of Enfield, which would previously have discarded its IT, but instead partnered with XMA to release the value in the hardware.

"It has allowed them to take a slightly different view of how they manage their assets," he said. "In the past they would use a partner who would take away the assets at no cost, but then there was no return value to the customer. They were just provided a certificate of destruction.

"But by working with XMA and HPE they can realise value in those goods, so we've started to write them cheques as they go through their Windows 10 refresh at the moment.

"That has allowed them to invest more in the future and transform how they do business, but it is also then a sustainability agenda, which is becoming almost a natural part now of what we are all here to do for customers.

"We are also now providing them with pre-owned hardware from HPE which is great because we know the quality of what is coming back into the ecosystem is high and it allows us to ensure we are avoiding any counterfeit products."

HPE launched its circular economy initiative at Discover last year. It is designed to keep older IT in use for longer, with the aim of reducing e-waste. End users can hand redundant hardware to the vendor, including via partners, in exchange for cash.

HPE claims that it helped companies claim back over $330m (£259m) through reclaimed IT over the last 12 months.

It said that 89 per cent of the hardware it retrieved over the last year has been reused, with 97 per cent of the rest broken down to its raw materials and recycled, with just 0.3 per cent discarded.

XMA's Wright said that he has been surprised at how willing some businesses are to use second-hand tech.

He added that margins for resellers are the same as those for new hardware, if not better.

"We've found that it's quite amazing, the sort of customers that will use older technology," he said.

"So we have an example of the UK MoD requiring older technology.

"They had built a particular solution that they were saying could use new technology, but they had spent a year testing [with the original tech], so it would have been another year.

"But it has been an interesting process for us and we are starting to see a lot of interest from customers."

HPE is encouraging partners to sell pre-owned hardware, paying out a three per cent rebate which it says is in line with new hardware.

It will also pay a referral fee for all opportunities for upcycling services greater than $50,000.

This will pay three per cent to Silver and Business partners, and five per cent to Platinum and Gold partners.

Wright said that while XMA is pushing the solution to customers, businesses are also approaching the firm asking if there are solutions available - partly for financial reasons and partly because they are conscious of their environmental footprint.

"It is definitely in their decision-making process and at the front of mind," he said.

"They are asking us and we're trying to enable our sales team to go and talk about it, and they are asking us about it, particularly if they need platforms that are a bit more dated."