Hewlett-Packard partners with Infoactiv to deliver an effective and streamlined e-waste program
Company Background
HP delivers vital technology for business and life, with solutions spanning IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services and imaging and printing for consumers, enterprises and small and medium business.
HP operate in 14 countries across Asia Pacific, including Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
HP works toward a sustainable future through developing programs to reduce their environmental footprint, as well as those of their customers and partners. Operating globally, the HP Planet Partners program was established to minimise waste going to landfills and provide customers with a convenient and environmentally sound end-of-life solution.
e-waste / HP Planet Partners Program
HP began recycling in 1987, and since this time, has led global environmental solutions, recycling more than 340 million kilos of products and supplies. Partnering with Planet Partners, HP has set up a program that showcased their environment commitment throughout the entire lifecycle including design, manufacturing, packaging, customer use and recycling, called HP Planet Partners.
HP’s Business Challenge
Centralise and streamline the e-waste program to improve efficiencies
To ensure that the Planet Partners program operated successfully, it was important that equipment is recovered from customer sites and shipped to a nominated disposal agent in a timely, cost-effective and traceable system.
In order to achieve this it was critical for HP to identify transport providers that were equipped to supply a competitive and efficient transportation structure. The successful supplier needed to manage the variation of pickups from one item to larger volumes, raw product and packaging requirements and complex customer collection across a large region.
A single solution was needed to consolidate all processes in the supply chain and improve efficiencies across the board.
“The identification of cost-effective transport providers that were able to supply both small and large volumes and cover standard transport services to specialised, tailgate or rite-on-site services, was a challenge,” explained Barry Newland, General Manager at Infoactiv.
The Solution
Infoactiv’s Helpdesk, Transport and Reverse Logistics Management
“We evaluated the end-to-end supply chain for the e-waste program and established areas where efficiencies needed to be improved and how technology was able to play a role in this equation,” explains Barry Newland, General Manager at Infoactiv.
“In order to provide a cost effective and managed reverse logistics process that enabled the recovery of equipment from customer sites and co-ordinated delivery to their nominal disposal agent, we had to find efficiencies in places that were at times hard to identify.”
HP previously identified that to effectively work in partnership, an organisation with a prior understanding of their processes and needs would be key.
“Infoactiv was already providing logistics services and solutions to HP,” said Gloria Oh, SCF Program Manager. “So to appoint Infoactiv to support the business of the Planet Partners Program made sense.”
“We found Infoactiv to be very forward thinking and truly understand HP requirements and that of the customers. Infoactiv was the ideal partner of choice for HP, they are proactive and forthcoming in their suggestions to overcome issues- a partner we can trust to deliver true customer satisfaction”, confirms Gloria Oh.
Infoactiv currently manages the program through a range of specific activities. These include physical logistics, equipment recovery, asset management/tracking, customer liaison and end-user management and communication, centralised program management through to safe disposal and environmentally-friendly recycling of products with no waste being disposed in land-fills.
The Benefits
Streamlining processes delivers cost efficiencies and flexibility.
Infoactiv provides the HP Planet Partners/ e-waste program with a single partner for all their logistics queries and solutions. “The help desk support team provide an efficient and professional service. When new personnel join the support team the transition is always seamless and they are quick to understand the unique business requirements and processes”, states Gloria Oh, “this translates in time reduction on resource training for process knowledge.”
One of the key benefits realised was significant cost efficiencies. Infoactiv introduced a solution whereby costs could be reduced through using “bulk and consolidation” and leveraging on an “empty return truck” from locations such as Melbourne to Perth, along with use of hourly hire vehicles for specific pick-ups & deliveries. “Over the past twelve months Infoactiv has been able to effect transport savings in excess of $55K by utilising these alternative solutions”, confirms Gloria Oh
Solutions implemented by Infoactiv for HP’s e-waste program delivered a versatile and flexible offering that was capable of meeting the dynamic and changing needs of HP, reduced costs through streamlining processes and was scalable to enable growth to expand into new areas to service additional customers.
Effectiveness of Planet Partners Program is Enhanced with Infoactiv
Infoactiv’s solutions exceeded HP expectations. Peace of mind was achieved due to the support of a robust and accessible support team. Quality procedures and a high degree of professionalism ensures that sensitive and confidential information remained undisclosed, without hampering the open flow of communication required to deliver a successful outcome.
The Future
HP appoints Infoactiv as prime vendor for all future e-waste activities and events
The Infoactiv framework is designed to be flexible enough to adapt as volumes increase and create additional efficiencies and cost-savings for HP.
The ongoing requirement is to the continued recovery of E-waste computer equipment from customers throughout Australia to defined service parameters using cost-effective management services.
“Infoactiv’s proven track record, consistency, customer satisfaction and an ability to provide the required services at cost effective rates resulted in HP re-appointing them as their prime vendor for the e-waste programs, such as Planet Partners Program, EMR, Trade-up & any special promotional events.”
Infoactiv supports HP and Domayne run successful IT recycling event.
HP partnered with Planet Ark and Domayne to host Australia's first IT Retail Recycling Event. This event allowed consumers to return their IT waste to 10 Domayne stores over to receive a discount towards their HP product purchases.
Infoactiv supplied Logistics support, planning and advice both prior to, during and post the event. Infoactiv
conducted all contingency planning for the event, ensuring all waste bins were delivered on time and accommodated eleventh hour changes to the waste destination without impacting the event execution.
Infoactiv managed each of the 10 locations across metropolitan and regional New South Wales to ensure waste was stacked correctly to
maximise space and reduce / mitigate costs for contingencies during the event, thereby minimising cost to HP and ensuring a safe environment for Domayne staff.
Infoactiv has been managing professional trade shows and events since 1999,
but more specifically e-waste community events, campaigns and "green" launches
since 2003. Through these e-waste events in particular, we have collected in
excess of 7000 tonne, successfully diverting this waste from landfill, with
recycling activity conducted in
Australia through environmentally friendly processes.
For more information on Infoactiv’s products and services, please email info@infoactiv.com.au
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