By now, most people understand that the credit crisis is encouraging IT vendors or IT lessors to provide business customers additional financing options, such as trade-in credits for aging equipment. Trade-ins are popular with customers, but still not included in many IT solutions due to higher residual value risks associated with the increasing rate of IT obsolescence in x86 environments. Unfortunately, many customers may not be getting proper guidance regarding how to manage their equipment life cycles most efficiently. The good news, however, is that trade-in services help to initiate discussion around proper life cycle planning and management. By understanding IT asset life cycles, IT lessors can provide the highest trade-in credits for aging assets that, in turn, really help businesses remain competitive in their respective industries. Let me explain further.

For the most part, when customers acquire IT equipment, little thought is given to how they plan to retire the asset, say, three-to-five years down the road. Trade-in credits, however, help to initiate a discussion around smart asset retirement. From the very beginning, a business plan is structured in the lease on how to dispose of older, energy-hogging equipment. Customers also appreciate trade-in credits since they can provide a significant cash infusion to their business. This means that new technology can be acquired without major cash outlays --- so even the largest IT projects can get approved and started faster. Moreover, by installing new equipment, customers can lower costs of data center real estate, power, and cooling.

Trade-in services also help to ensure a smoother migration path to new IT environments by allowing customers to dispose of hundreds or thousands of IT assets quickly and responsibly. Many lessors’ trade-in services (like VFS’) apply to all kinds of assets, including PCs, servers, networking, and telecommunication equipment. Plus, customers can more easily initiate energy efficiency projects globally.

Trade-in services include green asset disposition and also take into consideration local regulatory laws for compliant and secure equipment removal. I know, for example, that our VFS Trade-In Program fully integrates trade-in credit and IT asset disposition services for a very compelling value proposition. VFS also includes the pick-up and transportation of IT assets in our leases, providing a tremendous convenience to customers.

Finally, there’s an “outsourcing cost advantage” gained using integrated trade-in and disposition services from IT lessors or IT vendors. The Robert Francis Group (RFG) believes, for example, that companies save 20 percent when they outsource data wiping and other disposition responsibilities to a reputable IT lessor, like VFS. This does not even consider the positive cash flow impact that trade-in credits have on a business. So the combination of both disposition and trade-in services creates a compelling value proposition as well as a smart way for customers to mitigate risks associated with IT asset retirement.