What a year this has been! Surely a year of “ups and downs”
While cloud services continue to grow and put pressure on the traditional “on premise model” of data processing and communications, many of our members have found new ways to grow and prosper by offering their own cloud services. While some archaic manufacturers continue to use “intellectual property rights” as their weapon of choice to combat the independent resale and repair markets, environmental laws are creating new standards which have opened up new opportunities for the independent secondary market.
Data privacy laws in Europe and now the US are defining how the data on computers and phones needs to be handled, which is turning traditional buy/sell companies into a servicing enterprises.
On the legislative front, while things are almost at a standstill in Brussels and Washington, we did successfully oppose an attempt by the US General Services Administration to cease purchasing used equipment. We saw and lobbied for several “right to repair” bills in the US and Europe, but none were passed into law.
We held our first meeting in South America and had a presence at several industry events. We rolled out our ITAD certification offering and plan to focus and expand on it in 2020.
Our Ethics process and Fraud Alerts continue to be the “gold standard” in our industry. We are looking at blockchain as a possible tool in combating fraud and counterfeit and are running a proof of concept early next year.
This year, we’ve kept our members informed with monthly Newsletters, ad-hoc announcements and multiple webinars which included “Doing Business with IBM”, “Changes in Sales Tax law”, “ITAD 101”, “Cloud Services” and “Federal Acquisition Regulations.”
You can find links to this year’s newsletters below: