A report by Cascade Asset Management

This third annual benchmarking report provides information and research on security, environmental, and financial issues related to IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) and the more general IT Asset Management (ITAM) discipline.

This report was built from data Cascade compiled through (1) a December 2016 customer survey, (2) an evaluation of more than 200,000 assets processed by Cascade in the past twelve months, and (3) a review of related industry research.

This year’s report focuses on how organizations can further develop their ITAM and ITAD programs to better mitigate risk, lower overall program costs, and optimize the use of IT assets.

As a benchmarking tool, we encourage you to use the information to help understand how your ITAM/ITAD program compares to others and how you can further improve your systems to better attain your desired outcomes.

Effective IT asset disposition begins with a coordinated IT Asset Management process. Successful ITAM strategies help organizations generate value from their IT assets and reduce risk. The IT Asset Manager is responsible for managing the disposition vendor, ensuring personally identifiable information is destroyed, and reporting asset status for financial accounting.

Cascade has found that the most effective ITAM programs involve stakeholders from IT, risk management, facilities, environmental health & safety, finance and procurement. Because the CIO and other executives of an organization can be personally liable for the improper disposition of IT assets and loss of data during disposal, it is a good idea to include them in the ITAM program, too.

Most of our survey respondents indicate they’ve operated a coordinated ITAM program for more than two years.

While there are many issues to consider when setting up and managing an asset disposition program, we’ve found that people responding to our surveys consistently rank these five criteria in the same order year after year. “Security” is always the number one consideration for people setting up and managing ITAD programs.