USED COMPUTING – Pros and Cons

THE REFURBISHED

MARKET

When corporations need IT equipment, they call their Account Rep from Cisco, Dell, HP or IBM. Others might call their Business Partner or VAR. Better yet, they don’t call, they log-in and order their new equipment on-line!

Virtually 100% of the time, when they place an order, it is for new equipment. i.e. Servers, Storage, Networking or Personal Computers.  But why the propensity to order equipment NEW. Why not buy used equipment, refurbished by the manufacturer or by a 3rd party or independent computer remarketer? “You kidding Me? You trying to get me fired?”

the-products THE PRODUCTS

Let’s face it. We as human beings like things new. It all started with our first gifts under the Christmas tree. Freshly wrapped; new box with its crisp corners and its tight, un-torn flap… nothing like it. You open the end carefully… not wanting to tear the cardboard and pull out the custom-made insert, holding the shiny new widget, with the warranty card and documentation carefully placed below in its own clear plastic bag taped shut. Us IT guys love the art of opening our new toys. IT REALLY REMINDS US OF CHRISTMAS! That’s why we got into the business… :-)    But wait, is their a better way? With out all the wrappings and fixins’?

thepros THE PROS

The reality is over 70% of all corporations purchase some form of used, pre-owned, or refurbished computing equipment. Secondly, the typical savings is 30 to over 80% off buying it new from your manufacturers account rep or VAR. The refurbished market is BIG and growing. The industry is growing and well into the billions and billions of dollars. Heck… even BusinessWeek just wrote about it. How can I justify buying refurbished equipment for my company? Wait… “Nobody gets fired for buying IBM!”

  • SAVINGS – Buying high quality IT gear can save your department buckets full of cash.
  • AVAILABILITY- Usually available for immediate shipment. No waiting for it to be build (Build To Order- BTO).
  • MAINTAINABILITY - Majority of equipment is eligible for the manufacturers standard maintenance agreement.
  • WARRANTY- Most reliable re-marketers offer a warranty on their equipment. Expect 30 days to 1 year; depending upon the Re-marketer  and the type of gear.

thecons THE CONS

But can I really trust bringing in used equipment into my company? The risk seems too high? What if it fails on me and my network goes down? I could be out of a job! But on the other hand, if I can bring in high quality refurbished equipment and save money, then I can implement more IT solutions that will make my company more competitive and therefore more profitable. Lower IT expenditures; increase competitiveness; increase profits… hhmmmm. Sounds like a fast way to the corner office!

  • RELIABILITY – Used equipment has been USED and is less reliable… how long do I have before it fails?
  • JOB SECURITY- I can’t bring in pre-owned gear? If it fails and we have an outage, my career is over!
  • RISKY – It’s too risky… I just can’t afford to take the risk… for me or for my company.

used-truth “THE USED TRUTH”

The arguments on both sides are valid. But the fact of the matter is life and business are full of risks vs. rewards. If we want to be successful in life, we must all take risks; their are no rewards without risk. The business world is overflowing with examples of managers, high level executives and business owners that have stepped out in faith and taken “educated risks” in order to become the best in their industry! Or even the best in their IT department!

Look… we all take risks. The question remains: “Is buying used computer equipment worth the risk?” Let me continue to be your guide…

This entry was posted on Monday, November 10th, 2008 at 11:11 pm and is filed under Articles/Blogs, BUYING, FACT, ROOKIES. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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