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MarkITx, a company which runs a marketplace for buying and selling used enterprise IT equipment, announced the launch of Portfolio Selling through GearTracker.
The service gives businesses the ability to sell large quantities of pre-owned data center and IT hardware with an emphasis on simplicity and security.
The program, which just completed a three-month beta, is available to companies that want to cycle out old IT gear quickly, with the company claiming participants could capture up to 40 percent of the equipment’s original value.
“There have always been easy ways to unload old equipment, but none of them were good,” Ben Blair, chief technology officer for MarkITx, told eWEEK. “The most common, which was paying someone to haul it away, runs counter to most companies’ concerns for security, financial management and the environment. However, the alternative to this–which involves soliciting bids from many different buyers and brokers–is time-consuming, complicated and risky.”
For Portfolio Selling, MarkITx follows a four-step process to ensure equipment quality, protection of the seller’s data, and estimates of the equipment’s true worth, as well as guarantees for the transaction and each counterparty’s reliability.
“Portfolio Selling is easy because we do everything for the seller–they give us the list of equipment, we pick it up, we audit it for accuracy, we estimate a fair market value, and we gather hundreds of buyers to maximize the financial return,” Blair explained. “For the seller, it’s just as easy as having someone to haul it away–but with a meaningful financial return.”
Businesses can sign up for Portfolio Selling online, at which time MarkITx initiates a streamlined pickup process.
Next, MarkITx and its partners conduct a full physical audit and test every item to be sold. During this audit process, MarkITx adheres to a set of standards for secure data destruction, including Department of Defense Certificates of Destruction. Companies may also request on-site data destruction for added security.
MarkITx also provides a detailed inventory of equipment with an estimated value for each item. It is at this point that the seller decides whether to post the gear to be sold on MarkITx or have it shipped to another location.
To the seller, Portfolio Selling ends in a single transaction, but MarkITx promotes each individual item to a network of pre-approved buyers with interest in particular types and brands of equipment.
“Many companies are finding themselves with a great deal of unused equipment. It’s not obsolete; it’s just no longer necessary for their businesses. The reasons for this include widespread cloud adoption, data center consolidation, accelerated refresh cycles and the commoditized hardware world we live in today–where a box is just a box and the software is what people care about,” Blair said. “Then, when you tie it in with getting a significant financial return and an environmentally friendly solution that keeps gear out of landfills, we like to think MarkITx is a no-brainer.”