Technology Lesson Learned - ' New lesson plan ' (
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"Their biggest problem was very low efficiency rates at getting products back," Houghton said. "Our system for technology change management provides the service of helping customers do the things they need to move equipment around."
New lesson plan
Redemtech and k12 worked together to define business and technical rules to make it easy to figure out whether a system should be salvaged or scrapped by measuring it against specific financial and quality objectives. All this information is combined into a SmartFile that collects all the business rules associated with the business requirement at a detailed technical level, Houghton said.
"We know what their redeployable standards are and the rules of how to refurbish the equipment, what type of image should be put on each computer, the necessary personalization for the next student, cosmetic restoration standards, and all the other business rules that make the technical process," Houghton said.
In addition, the solution provider automated the process for asset recovery, reuse, security, deployment and quality control with its Retrac system. "When Redemtech receives a computer, they do a registration and discovery of the equipment, review the monitors, computers and printers, and find out if anything is wrong with them," Rigoni said. "We give them a cost threshold of $100 for repair costs and if it is under that, they make the repair and put it back in the inventory."
When a computer is retired, Redemtech wipes out all the data on the hard drive, remarkets what can be sold and recycles the rest. "Redemtech has had a policy of setting the bar high for e-waste environment," Houghton said. "We don't incinerate, we don't landfill and we don't use prison labor."
Recently, K12 turned over the entire reclamation process to Redemtech. "We just send the information to them and they handle the whole thing for us," Rigoni said.
Redemtech now gives students leaving the program a Web tool to go online and request a recovery. About 60 percent of students are using it, while the remainder receive e-mails and phone calls to prod them into returning the equipment.
"We provide simple customer service combined with an easy process," Houghton said. "We make it as friction-free as possible and we are persistent but friendly in getting K12's equipment back for them."
As part of its efforts, Redemtech helped K12 find a new source of computer equipment, peripherals and parts to reduce costs and improve delivery times. The system now offers custom Web tools and automated communications to reduce customer service calls, and custom reporting for asset accounting. The system also automates the destruction, verification and logging for FERPA compliance.
Advanced track
By all accounts, the methodology Redemtech employs has produced huge improvements. In 2006, K12 deployed 18,600 computers in all. "We shipped out 11,000 brand-new ones as part of a refresh project," Rigoni said.
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