4. Channel takes second look at second-user
2025 may well go down as the year the channel and their end-user customers finally put second-user IT first.
In March, Atos bagged a £150m DEFRA device management tender with a twist (the twist being that the devices Atos is supplying and managing will be remanufactured by Circular Computing).
Circular Computing CEO Rod Neale characterised it as “a clear stepping stone towards wider inclusion of second-life IT within the public sector”.
Made in the UAE, Circular Computing’s remanufactured HP, Dell and Lenovo devices come with a BSI-backed warranty.
Just two months later, HP put its own spin on the theme when it rolled its portfolio of certified refurbished PCs to the UK under the HP Renew Solutions banner.
HP will take Renew Solutions to market in two ways, namely through a select group of partners who have invested heavily in their own circular IT infrastructure (including SCC and Converge), and then secondly to the wider channel via distribution, Northwest Europe MD Neil Sawyer told IT Channel Oxygen.
“We see a British ecosystem being built as a consequence of this,” he said (see more here).
Although the financial plumbing of the channel is built on selling new, even the UK’s largest authorised partners are now aggressively boosting efforts around second-user IT.
After Computacenter and Softcat last year unveiled a new 1:1 device recovery goal and kilogram-to-kilogram takeback aspiration, respectively (see here and here), SCC in November set its sights on becoming the UK’s largest OEM-certified refurbisher.
“That’s about us aiming to produce to OEM standards, which as far as I’m concerned is the highest level we can get to,” Adrian Saint, General Manager of SCC Recylcea said.
“In 12 months’ time, I’d like to be able to report we’ve got [HP, Dell, Lenovo, Apple and Microsoft] on board and are on our way to becoming the largest UK-based refurbisher of IT equipment, so I dare to dream.”
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