TES partners with UPS

The COVID-19 pandemic led to an increase in the number of remote workers. TES, the information technology asset disposition firm headquartered in Singapore, says the trend toward remote work likely will continue even after the pandemic. Therefore, the company has launched a corporate retail returns solution with UPS. Using the service, remote employees can return their aged IT assets in what TES says is a “safe, simple and sustainable way.”

By partnering with UPS, TES can offer its ITAD services customers access to a network of UPS retail locations. UPS offers such an outlet within 10 miles of 84 percent of the U.S. population, according to TES, which has U.S. locations in Atlanta, Seattle and in Fredericksburg, Virginia.  

Two return options are available: direct to mobile or pointing letter. With the direct-to-mobile option, the employee who wants to return her IT asset is sent a QR code to her mobile phone. Alternatively, a pointing letter can be sent to the employee, providing directions to return the device (along with the letter) to the local UPS store.

TES says the UPS associate handles it from there, following a defined workflow to determine the relevant contact information from the customer, securely packaging the device in recyclable and reusable packaging and returning it to the nearest TES facility for processing. 

Eric Ingebretsen, TES chief commercial officer, says that while the company has been collecting IT devices from remote employees for quite some time, it took more of an “ad hoc” approach rather than developing an optimized solution. He says that was because of the small volume of devices generated by this sector. “COVID has changed everything,” Ingebretsen says.

“We felt we had to come up with more optimized solution for home users. We always knew that we could do better,” he says, adding that the issue never rose to the top of the priority list until the pandemic. “COVID was definitely the catalyst.”

Ingebretsen says TES has good visibility into its clients' plans regarding remote work, adding, “Most are not going back to full time in the office.” Instead, he says, many of TES’ clients will take a hybrid approach, with employees spending more time working from home rather than exclusively in the office. “We are not seeing any indication that it will go back to the way it was before.”

Ingebretsen says Amazon is an example of a company that has optimized reverse logistics, and UPS plays a part in that. Therefore, TES approached UPS. The shipper had an “out-of-the-box” solution, he says, that got TES nearly 80 percent of the way there. After some customization, the companies arrived at a solution that would provide the chain of custody and security TES and its clients required.   

“UPS was the right partner for us for a couple of reasons,” he says, citing the number of retail stores available as one of those reasons. Ingebretsen says UPS’ retail locations eliminate the forward-shipping inefficiencies associated with sending boxes to remote employees.

“It makes it easier for the user from our perspective as well,” he says. This is because the remote workers do not have to worry about whether they have securely packaged their devices to protect against damage in transit. “All they have to do is bring it to the UPS Store.”  

When the UPS Store employee receives the device, he scans the QR code or enters the information from the pointing letter. This provides information on the originator—the user and his or her company—where the device is being shipped from and what TES facility it is being shipped to. It does not include the serial number of the device, though this is something TES could include in the future, Ingebretsen says.

The UPS Store employee then will pack the device using the detailed packaging instructions UPS has developed and that TES has vetted. These instructions include the size of box to use and the foam inserts to be included for a range of IT devices, Ingebretsen says.

UPS provides traceability in transit with real-time tracking of these shipments, he says, which also was a factor in selecting the company.

For TES clients that want data sanitization performed prior to shipping an asset, their corporate IT departments can provide instructions for performing an initial wipe. Ingebretsen says this generally isn’t forensic-level sanitization but is sufficient for shipping. For those that require more security, USB pass keys can be provided to wipe the device to NIST standards. He says most of TES’ clients don’t require that degree of sanitization prior to shipping.

Ingebretsen says TES is seeing roughly 1,000 devices a month returned from remote workers. “We expect that to go up,” he adds. However, Ingebretsen says some companies have put off their IT spending, opting to keep their older devices in service longer.” He says this bubble will burst eventually.  

Once a package arrives at a TES facility, it is treated as any other device would be, Ingebretsen says. The device is scanned to identify the originating company before entering TES’ standard process of reviewing, testing and sanitization.

Europe and Asia do not have the same UPS Store retail infrastructure, Ingebretsen says, so TES is looking for a similar solution with UPS that doesn’t have the retail store aspect. “Europe is next to be optimized,” he says.

“We want to make these solutions easy for our customers.”