Outsourcing Excess Inventory Management and Remarketing: Solving the Headache

Let’s be honest; every company has to deal with the issue of excess inventory at one point or another. And the conundrum always has to do with how to dispose of the surplus assets in a cost-effective way while maximizing returns because IT products don’t have the longest lifespan in the world.
Surplus equipment does take up space, as you already know. But what else these assets do to your business is affect the bottomline negatively. This could be in either of two ways. One is because the company isn’t taking advantage of the latest cutting-edge technology available in the market and even if it is, second, the old equipment is losing value with each passing day spent in storage.

So, what options does a company have to make the most out of asset disposition? You may or may not be aware of traditional surplus disposition opportunities, and if you belong to the former group, chances are you understand pretty well the benefits and downsides to taking that route. To be effectively executed, all traditional options demand management time and considerable resource commitment – two things that don’t come for cheap.

This is why most recovery solutions result to company headaches and distraction from the key business. Moreover, a good number of these solutions do not have their work cut out for them in terms of handling the complexity of ongoing equipment disposition, particularly when it comes to large firms and public sector agencies.

And that’s where outsourcing of excess inventory management (and remarketing) comes in.

Reputable Service Provider

When it comes to outsourcing, choosing a reputable asset liquidation company may save you a lot in the long run, both in terms of monetary value (minimal investment, high returns and minimizing opportunity cost of having to deal with excess inventory) and decision making.

A reputable third-party vendor is beneficial in a number of ways. By now you will have gathered that a high-profile liquidator will ease the burden that comes with asset disposition and remarketing.

They have the tools and software systems to carry out a thorough inventory that involves more than meets the eye: from identifying and assessing plant equipment and idle IT assets, to cost evaluation and shipping from premises, to repair and refurbishing, to data erasure and security before finally remarketing to their established network for a good return, or recycling in other cases.

Sounds much, right? It is, and that’s why outsourcing surplus inventory management and remarketing is advisable. But you are not alone. This is a universal problem, and an expensive one at that.

Many are tempted to use other asset recovery services like internal liquidation, traditional auctioneers, B2C solutions and other available options out there. The downside to this, as they soon find out, is that it tends to be expensive in the long run, in every sense of the word: if it’s not the high disposal costs involved (warehousing, managing, shipping), it is high opportunity costs (whereby internal resources are inefficiently allocated to deal with the administrative load of this non-core function). If it is not that then it is low returns that are eventually generated.

You can go ahead and break down these costs further: financial-wise, data-wise (data that has not been professionally wiped out), environmental-wise (e-waste that irresponsibly ends up in landfills) and legal (where disposal is not in accordance with associated laws and regulations).

Another thing: when it comes to remarketing and recovery solutions, outsourcing to a different company isn’t always the most efficient route. The good thing with sticking with one professional company (apart from having a ready market) is that a consistency is established by having the same hands (and eyes) on your assets. Not only that, it reduces errors and businesses are, in the end, able to find the most value hidden in their warehouses.