Canalys has called for more incentivisation among vendors to maximise the circular IT opportunity for the channel.
In a recent report, the analyst acknowledged that some vendors are “slowly moving towards circularity”.
But too few are putting their money where their mouth is to spur action among their channel partners, it said.
Riffing on the popular ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ mantra, in the report Canalys laid out the ’12 Rs’ that define effective circularity in the channel (two of which are ‘reward’).
“Although Cisco and Dell stand out as early movers in this area, the vendor community needs to turn its commitments to circularity into action by rewarding partners for supporting the circular economy,” Canalys analyst Ben Caddy stated.
Money talks
When it comes to how channel partners want their vendors to support sustainability in the channel, Canalys said it had consistently found that financial incentives rule the roost.
This applies both to hardware take-back and reselling refurbished or remanufactured IT.
There is “still a general lack of incentivisation for the collection of used hardware and the reselling of refurbished IT”, Canalys concluded however.
It showered Cisco and Dell with praise for “leading” industry efforts to incentivise hardware takeback.
Launched in April 2022, Cisco’s Environmental Specialisation offers partners on new hardware of up to 9% upon the return of old Cisco products, the analyst noted. Some 900 partners – mostly in EMEA, have bagged the accreditation two years on.
Dell is incentivising circular IT by offering a 7% rebate to partners that resell its Dell Asset Recovery Services, Canalyst added. From the beginning of Dell’s new financial year in February, the discount applies not only to devices and servers, but also storage.
Despite being branded as “early movers”, Dell and Cisco did not escape criticism, with the latter pinged for not rewarding partners for reselling new Cisco kits, rather than the remanufactured Cisco Refresh portfolio.
Channel in better shape on circular IT
The channel is “recognising the growing demand and opportunities in supporting circular IT”, Canalys said, noting how partners – including distributors Esprinet and TD-Synnex-owned Shyft – have upscaled their ITAD operations via acquisitions, Canalys said.
Others are upscaling through organic expansion with Advania set to have the capacity to refurbish up to one million devices a year at its new circular IT centre in Sweden.
Canalys said its ’12 Rs’ model highlights the roles that vendors and partners can play to support the circular economy in a mutually beneficial manner.
“The disposal of IT assets (even through recycling) must become the ‘last resort’ option,” Caddy stated.
“The industry has made progress in this respect, but to create true circularity, vendors must allow refurbished or remanufactured products to become the norm, not just an alternative for eco-conscious customers.”
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
