Hello again and welcome to my monthly blog. I have always focused on issues related to electronic recycling and the IT market, but this month I’m on my soapbox a little. Hope you don’t mind.

My electronic recycling business, BCD Electro is a small business in a world of giants brought about by the lure of big bucks in a “green industry” as well as our mid-continent and business friendly location in Dallas. Just about all of the big boys in the electronics recycling business have locations in this area, and the vast majority are newcomers. I say the more the merrier, and I see opportunities to buy from these behemoths and take advantage of my companies 30+ years of product knowledge and sales expertise.
There does reach a time, however, when I must toot my own horn a bit, and promote the advantages of small business:

1. Attention – Small businesses are so close to their markets they can experience what their market experiences. They can deliver CEO level experience to any size client. Who can connect with a client better, a small business or a large business that already has many clients your size or much larger and is spread too thin?
2. Growth – Small businesses can adapt to customer needs. They can create products and services that fit a clients highly personalized requests at a moments notice.
3. Alliances – Smart small businesses have networks of strategic partners that address the needs of their clients with the best and most efficient ways…..always.

Think small!

Please contact BCD Electro for more information

bharris@bcdelectro.com

]]> http://www.bcdelectro.com/wp/2012/04/22/think-small-small-business-that-is/feed/ 0 http://www.bcdelectro.com/wp/2012/03/19/a-tale-of-two-standards/ http://www.bcdelectro.com/wp/2012/03/19/a-tale-of-two-standards/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 17:45:36 +0000 bharris http://www.bcdelectro.com/wp/?p=56 Continue reading →]]>

I read recently on the ifixit site that in the developing world entrepreneurs start family businesses selling recycled and/or repaired goods to their customers. This is how they put food on their table. Stopping all exports of used electronic equipment would mean these developing countries entrepreneurs would lose their businesses. Isn’t it better that these electronics be reused rather than shredded?

Yes, there are some poor to non-existent standards being followed in developing countries, but with proper vetting, you can find the good ones. Developing countries are perfect for the labor intensive, repetitive processes in recycling material correctly. Hand sorting still produces the most re-use and the fact still remains that to extend the life of an electronic product is the best form of recycling. R2 and e-Stewards both require that companies re manufacture and recover all possible parts before disposing of hardware. Shredding electronics should remain a last resort. Reuse and repairing hardware as much as possible is the ultimate recycling. Once electronics finally reach their true end of life, get them to recyclers that can reclaim as much raw material as possible.

Not every recycling company will handle your e-waste properly. How can you tell which recycling companies you should trust? There are two competing certification groups in the US. E-Stewards and R2. Both worthy certifications, but it still remains to be seen which one will prove out. Some electronics recycling companies, BCD Electro being one, have opted to hide and watch. The decision to be made after either one proves out, or a major customer insists on it.

Please contact Bob Harris at BCD Electro for more information

bharris@bcdelectro.com

www.bcdelectro.com

Mark your calendars for March 30! Visit BCD Electro and over 200 other exhibitors at CrestEXPO – THE cross-sector commercial real estate trade show of Dallas/Fort Worth. The show will be Friday, March 30 from 9:30 AM to 5 PM at the Dallas Convention Center (Hall C).

Network with local property managers, architects, engineers, interior designers, brokers, appraisers and more, attend one of the many continuing education opportunities, participate in one of the auctions, association events, and more – all at crestEXPO 2012. Think BIG!

Thousands have already pre-registered to attend. If you have not done so already, visit http://www.crestexpo.com/attend and sign up to attend for free before the end of February. They’ll have your badge waiting for you at the registration counter.

If you’d like more information on exhibiting, very few booths remain. Contact CrestEXPO at nick@crestexpo.com or 972.803.4185.

Please contact Bob Harris at BCD Electro for more information on electronic recycling.
bharris@bcdelectro.com
214.630.4298

The National Association for Information Destruction (NAID),  reported that top executives from 300 firms ranked data security as one of their top critical issues. Environmental concerns are leading them to consider reuse of IT assets they might once have destroyed. Other organizations lease IT equipment. Both scenarios require methods to securely remove confidential data without physically destroying drives. Recyclers and refurbishers looking to win customers that have data breach concerns, and, are focused on going green, are using NIST approved and certified data erasure to present a safe option for disk sanitization that outperforms many other disk wiping utilities.

NIST 800-88 data erasure overwrites information while leaving the disk operable….. preserving assets and the environment. Many hard drives have hidden and locked areas that potentially include remapped sectors, which standard multi wipe data wiping freeware and less sophisticated overwriting tools cannot access or erase. The NIST method offers  advantages for electronics recyclers and their customers.

Studies indicate that the life energy use of a computer is mostly manufacturing (81 percent). Operation is 19 percent. Extending a hard drives usable life by data wiping and reuse is a valid approach to reducing energy consumption associated with manufacturing and destruction.

NIST 800-88 erasure standards using Linux based reporting tools can be most effective because they will erase data in remapped sectors. A broader range of support for network hardware, such as enterprise servers, storage area network (SAN) environments and fiber channel disks can be had with this method as well.

Most importantly, the capability of NIST 800-88 with Linux based automated and serialized reporting can keep track of the drives that have have sanitized. This method also provides  a validation certificate showing the overwriting procedure was completed successfully or not. Companies that rely on their electronics recycler for data breach protection must insist on auditable data breach protection.

The cost for data erasure is minimal, data breaches cost companies $5 million on average, plus damage to corporate reputation and regulatory non-compliance.

Call BCD Electro at 214 630 4298 for more information or email bharris@bcdelectro.com

We are in another period of disruptive technology in IT with Cloud Computing. Although seldom accurately described during their disruptive periods, these disruptive transitions usually bring with them wonderful technologies.

Many see The Cloud as a bothersome challenge to the status quo, but the period after this initial disruption of the established order in my opinion, will become the status quo.
At CTIA – The Wireless Association, Cisco CTO Padmasree Warrior said that by 2013, the number of devices connected to the Internet will reach 1 trillion – up from 500 million in 2007. According to Warrior, “we’re heading into the Internet of Things.”

The outcome of this is hard to predict. In the past, even people in the know of these types of occurrences have been off base with their predictions. I have seen a few of these disruptive technology events in my 30 years at BCD Electro. About 1981, the IBM PC, and the early clones caused a shortage in some very cheap TTL chips that sent prices soaring 10 times or more. Independent distributors of surplus chips were the heroes of the day when they were able to uncover and deliver some of these chips that were in allocation.

This time the disruption may have a broader scope, some are predicting an effect on the whole IT supply chain. There may be very few companies, be they large or small, that can hold prices and compete against open markets such as are being created today. Jevon’s Paradox shows that cost reductions in goods and services, actually increases the amount spent in total. Is this the Laffer curve of spending? This will produce a large quantity of legacy IT equipment and resources for environmentally conscientious recycling may be squeezed.

In ITAD, or IT Asset Disposal, like many other environmentally conscious service businesses, price has become easily researched by online searching. Other considerations are more difficult to determine such as data breach issues, timeliness of service, downstream accountability and zero landfill policy.

In a post cloud migration world, there will be considerable challenges in the recycling of legacy IT systems. Data wiping correctly to avoid data breach issues as well as cost of maintenance and power requirements if left installed come to mind…..what other considerations can you think of?

Outsourcing a company’s ITAD, including IT recycling, data wiping and data destruction, desinstalling legacy equipment and other post cloud migration activities to a cheaper provider who specializes in a recycling platform, is a good way for CIO’s to save budget money that can be spent on more core competent activities.

Call BCD Electro at 214.630.4298 or visit our website at www.bcdelectro.com for more information.

Dallas,Texasresidents and surrounding communities will have the chance to get rid of that old computer at BCD Electro’s “GO GREEN Recycling Event!” Saturday, October 15th! Save the date!

We are teaming up with Farmers Insurance Group – Bob Williams, to provide the “Go Green Recycling Event” which allows attendees to dispose of electronic equipment responsibly at no cost!

When: Saturday – October 15th

Time: 10AM-2PM

Where: Farmer’s Insurance Group – Bob Williams / Richardson – 1301 Lake Park Way Richardson, TX 75080

Items Accepted: Computers, laptops, Monitors, LCDs, Printers, Phone Systems, Production Equipment, Subassemblies, Fax machines, copiers, networking equipment, and consumer electronics.

BCD will destroy all data on any storage device free of charge, using our NIST 800.88 compliant erasure technology. Certificates of Erasure will be emailed upon request! We invite you to come out and visit while responsibly disposing of your electronics!

We will see you at the drop off! Recycle responsibly, stay green my friends.

Improvement of service levels and continuous improvement:
Fast changing technologies, business models and requirements is the stuff business is made of now. Innovation is required and expected, and is becoming commonly written in to outsourcing contracts. IT recycling is a commodity service product so it was only about relationships, quality of service and price mostly in the past. These days it is also very much about innovation and improvement.We have implemented a couple of new improvements recently at BCD Electro:
Our recently completed NIST 800-88 media sanitation service with automated serialization has allowed us to lower costs of data breach protection while improving the sanitation effectively. NIST 800-88 includes all addressable locations. There were some locations that were left with data on the old triple wipe DOD type methods. This method will lower your recycling costs.
See guidelines for sanitation at:
http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-88/NISTSP800-88_rev1.pdf

Next was the passing of SB 329 which establishes a television recycling program requiring manufacturers to take back and recycle a percentage of TVs, based on theirTexasmarket share.  This has made the recycling of all electronics containing a CRT easier to recycle and has lowered our costs of recycling….this will lower your recycling fees also. Governor Perry has received accolades from environmental groups for the passing of this bill (finally).

BCD Electro receives Microsoft Registered Recycler status:
We now install original Microsoft Operating systems on our refurbished computers. Our Microsoft trained technicians thoroughly test and refurbish systems sold in our online sales venues. We are proud of the quality product we are able to offer, and to extend the lifetimes of many products that would just be ground up for their constituent parts otherwise. Check out our store at www.bcdelectrostore.com.

Let BCD Electro be your strategic electronic recycling partner.
It is about partnership….we lay out how BCD can build better relationships, improve service levels, improve cost management and improve collaboration and communication.
We don’t need any more event driven relationships. We plan it out to avoid us just selling you, and you just calling us when there is a problem.

Dallas,Texasresidents and surrounding communities will have the chance to get rid of that old computer at BCD Electro’s “GO GREEN Recycling Event!” Saturday, October 15th! Save the date!

We are teaming up with Farmers Insurance Group – Bob Williams, to provide the “Go Green Recycling Event” which allows attendees to dispose of electronic equipment responsibly at no cost!

When: Saturday – October 15th

Time: 10AM-2PM

Where: Farmer’s Insurance Group – Bob Williams / Richardson – 1301 Lake Park Way Richardson, TX 75080

Items Accepted: Computers, laptops, Monitors, LCDs, Printers, Phone Systems, Production Equipment, Subassemblies, Fax machines, copiers, networking equipment, and consumer electronics.

BCD will destroy all data on any storage device free of charge, using our NIST 800.88 compliant erasure technology. Certificates of Erasure will be emailed upon request! We invite you to come out and visit while responsibly disposing of your electronics!

We will see you at the drop off! Recycle responsibly, stay green my friends.