Surplus Technology Solutions

It’s not out of the ordinary for an organization to have surplus technology or IT equipment, especially after they have experienced a level of growth. 

The term surplus technology is used to refer to a situation where an organization or company has more resources, assets, or technological equipment than they need or can make use of at a given time or period. Usually, the resources far surpass the amount that an organization of whatever size can effectively utilize at a given period or stage of its growth.

A company doesn’t just wake up one day and find out they have way more tech than they need and use. There are a lot of simple things that can lead to this. And sometimes because of how simple they are, they tend to go unnoticed until the problem is a big one.

Surplus technology can stem from:

1. Advancements and upgrades in technology.
2. Changes in requirements, laws, or economic conditions.
3. Completion of projects.
4. Adoption of new technologies to stay current.
5. Mergers leading to the accumulation of redundant technology. 

Though it may seem harmless, the presence of surplus technology in your company has its implications and can very much reduce the efficiency of the organization and budget.

Problems With Surplus Technology In Your Organization

• Extra Cost

Added cost of owning surplus technology. These excess technologies do still incur costs and are put into the usually limited resources of the company or organization in the form of maintenance, repairs, storage space, and so on. These things reduce how many resources are available to go around to the assets that are actively in use.

• Space

In most cases, the surplus tech take up a good amount of space or storage. This can make the workspace appear cluttered and disorganized in some way. It is easy to put old tech in a cabinet, storage closet, box, or in the corner of your warehouse.

• Loss of Value

These excess IT assets tend to lose value and become obsolete. When they are not properly managed, they lose value as time passes, especially when they are not properly cared for or stored.

Seeing how these excess technologies can be hazardous to an organization and the resources of the organization, it begs the question: How do you deal with excess technology? 

How to Deal With Excess Technology

Here are the things that you can do to deal with the excess technology in your company or organization. 

• Evaluate your inventory

You must know all of your assets for you to even properly manage them and know what your excess technologies are. Take time to look through your inventory and find out all the excess technologies so that the other steps can be relevant.

• Redirect and repurpose where possible

Having discovered where all your excess and redundant tech is, redirect those technologies to where they can still be relevant or of some use to your organization. Redirect these resources to departments, human resources, and even projects so that they can still be relevant to you.

• Resell or trade-in IT assets

As long as the IT assets are still usable and not outdated, then you can consider selling the electronics in bulk to regain a portion of the value to replenish your budget.

• Recycling and donations

As an organization with excess technology, you should be open to the idea of giving out your tech in the form of donations to places that can make use of them. You can also decide to dispose of them in an environmentally friendly manner if they are useless and cannot be salvaged by recycling. To do this you will want to find a company that offers IT Asset Disposition Services.

Efficiently managing surplus technology allows you as an organization to optimize resource allocation, reduce costs, and ensure that your technology assets align with the organizations current needs and strategic objectives.