Partnership with art institute creates ITAD synergy
At Sipi, we talk quite a bit about our tailored ITAD programs and how they can reduce risk while increasing value for our clients. Sometimes, however, there’s even more involved in creating a successful ITAD partnership — elements that larger vendors can’t (or simply don’t) provide. And the previously hidden benefits, once revealed, can be surprising.
The Challenges
Through one of our existing customers, business development manager Nina Nielsen from Sipi was introduced to a new contact. This organization — internationally recognized as a leading fine-arts institution in the United States — was finding that their then-current ITAD vendor was coming up short on initial promises.
“This institute had an immediate problem. Certificates of recycling or erasure, that they needed quickly, weren’t available in a timely manner. Employees were losing valuable time hunting them down for audits,” says Nina. “As a pillar of sustainability in the community, it is imperative that the institute has access to the certificates that
provide compliance with environmental and legal standards. Not to mention the need to save on staffing time and resource costs.”
Given the locations residing in a large, congested metropolitan area, the institute was particularly concerned with pick-ups and freight costs. Nina adds: “With many inter-related buildings, some with tricky layouts or small spaces, carrier efficiency was creating a big issue.”
Finally, being an art institute, they had a very special challenge to handle non-IT related commodities. Specifically, how to dispose of metals and similar substances when the need arose.
The Sipi Solution
This organization was wary of taking on a new disposition partner. “Our contact had vendors come in with promises of high returned value and spectacular remarketing programs for IT assets, but they didn’t deliver,” says Nina. She proposed a pilot program, which would give Sipi the opportunity to show them the benefits of a true ITAD partnership.
Shortly after the pilot began, the institute also traveled to the Sipi Asset Recovery and Sipi Metals facilities themselves, wishing to fully vet the new partnership. Through this, they gained a great appreciation for how Sipi runs its day-to-day operations and chose to continue the pilot program.
The results of the pilot went far beyond expectations.
*The company name, in this case study, has been intentionally omitted to ensure the safeguard of further ITAD activity
The Results
With Sipi’s online reporting, a customer portal was built for them immediately, the certificates they needed for audits and compliance were available to them quickly, at their convenience.
The Sipi team provided the institute’s facilities with packing materials ahead of time, further increasing freight efficiency.
With Sipi Asset Recovery’s unique expertise and connection to Sipi Metals, Nina was able to build in programs specifically for the institute regarding metal assets. This helped them both to dispose of and potentially recover value from metals that needed to be disposed of. Sipi was also able to assist them with the processing and preparing of metals for use by students in their projects — a unique combination of services only Sipi could provide.
Nina, through her industry contacts, was able to connect the organization directly with fully vetted downstream vendors for a variety of purposes. This was a unique approach to lowering overall cost for their ITAD program while delivering the personal service Sipi is known for.
With a mission of caring for our planet, the institute held a Sustainability Forum, open to the community, at which Sipi Metals CEO Marian Cameron spoke. In conjunction, sharing their knowledge of environmental compliance, Nina and David Garrett (Sipi’s VP of Compliance) were invited to participate in the institutes’ Student Sustainability round table.
Not only did Sipi Asset Recovery solve the immediate issues the institute was facing with their then-current ITAD vendor, but our team also went above and beyond — this is the true spirit of partnership. Nina and Sipi’s Customer Experience group were able to assist our client in unique ways, finding opportunities to reduce costs, increase recovered value, ensure environmental compliance, and generate goodwill among students and employees.
“Sipi has built a strong foundation with our client, and we intend to continue growing our partnership,” says Nina. “The program is financially successful, but the entirely unique benefits that only we’ve been able to offer are making even more of an impact than they imagined.”
