Ilissa Miller Interviews the Liquid Technology Team

Steve Sidwell:

We are doing something different on this episode of the Tech Bench Podcast. This episode the tables turn, Ilissa Miller, CEO of iMiller Public Relations and president of NEDAS interviews us. During the interview, we talk about our experience in the industry, how to vet an ITAD vendor and so much more. Brace yourself, you are now entering the Tech Bench Podcast.

(theme music plays)

Ilissa Miller:

Well, welcome to the Liquid Technology Tech Bench Podcast, my name is Ilissa Miller. I’m the CEO of iMiller Public Relations. I have been in the Tech industry for over 20 years and it is my pleasure to be the interviewee on the Tech Bench Podcast program today, where I will be interviewing your regular host. The Tech Bench Podcast host, James Patrignelli and Steve Sidwell have joined me today, thank you. James and Steve, welcome to your show.

Steve Sidwell:

Thank you.

James Patrignelli:

Nice to speak [crosstalk 00:01:34].

Ilissa Miller:

Yes, thank you. James you have been with Liquid Technology for a number of years, what are some of the exciting changes that you’ve seen in this company since you’ve joined.

James Patrignelli:

What a point of view. So when I joined the company, I think that many of the certifications that we currently hold, were just in that process of kind of becoming normal for our industry, where people would then adhere to these specific standards. The e-Stewards® and R2, those where just coming into the marketplace in terms of your EPA kind of recognizing them for e-waste recycling. Kind of starting just in a more of a computer liquidator at that point in time to becoming a mature ITAD company, by becoming out to becoming any steward, also becoming nature fully certified. Not only providing that kind of buying and brokerage of technology hardware, but then also providing this full suite of ITAD services, media destruction, compliant US recycling, but also being able to have the certifications to back that off.

And that’s when we really started to see our client base grow at leaps and bounds because that’s what our clients want. They want to have that sense of security for… that their RIOS™ is being handled properly. They want to have that comfort that the [inaudible 00:03:03] is properly and that, and it’s all audible, we can provide that for them. Just seeing the company grow as a full service ITAD company, a fully certified company, and then not just grow like that, but also grow it in our footprint, not just being in New York City, but being in Chicago and then also having the ability to service our clients nationally and globally. I’ve really seen that… seen a lot in my time here over the years and I just want to say that Steve has seen a lot more being here since 2002. So I am still in very, very fun exciting times.

Ilissa Miller:

Steve you just joined Liquid Technology in 2002, I can only imagine what changes you’ve seen within the company since you’ve been there. Why don’t you share some of those insights with us?

Steve Sidwell:

Yeah, absolutely! I think that… I don’t know if we can take a step back… All right… In 2002, the dot-com bubble had burst by that point. And so Liquid Tech came out of the bursting of the dot-com bubble, as we talked about in previous episodes and we didn’t really have a focus where we have the focus now. At that point in time, we where focused directly on assisting companies with wind-downs and with actual liquidations where we’re just going in, right? Taking out all the IT hardware, giving him a checque and going on our way and resell and everything, and then recycling the rest and that was the business. We were starting to get into bigger companies, search engine companies, mortgage companies, banks, but that was very nascent at that point in time. As we grew, as we matured the industry also matured, right? Our too came about… I saw in 2004, ISO 14001 was published and it really started to target e-waste companies.

This is a big deal, at this time too we’re starting to see companies like Blancco come around, where you have actual easy to use graphical user interface, data destruction, it’s pretty point and click. And that’s a big deal too, because you’re starting to see a lot of stuff in the media about big data breaches. Liquid Tech looks at this and we said we’re already kind of in the background doing this stuff, but this needs to become a real focus of the business. That move into a consignment model, this is what a lot of companies have done. With the tank of the dot-com bubble and the maturing of the industry as a whole, we moved to servicing much bigger companies.

A Leading ITAD Provider

Ilissa Miller:

So why in your opinion, James, why do people choose Liquid Technology over other companies and what problems are you solving in the marketplace?

James Patrignelli:

Well, I’d like to think that the’re a lot of reasons, but certainly to highlight a few, for sure, I think going back to the last question that I had spoken about and I think our commitment to sustainability security is probably the number one thing. We’re really trying to stay in front of every type of industry standard that comes about, so we can make sure that our clients have the highest level of protection for their data, as well as their ability to make sure that all their ICF’s are being handled properly. And sustainability is a really big thing for companies nowadays, exactly if you have sustainability officers, so that companies really know where all the downstream materials are going. [Inaudible 00:06:47] but everything throughout the company, we’re able to provide that for them, it’s all auditable and I think that’s probably the number one thing.

Second I would say is responsiveness, we’re a really nice size company and our face, we’re not a huge multi multinational corporation that just does some ITAD on the side. We are a full service ITAD company and that is all we do. People are looking for a company that says that those are providing their services and provide them to the best of their ability. I think that working with us is the best that all we do. I’m thrilled to work with our companies, dedicated account management, dedicated operations team, they don’t have to call through a lot… hundreds of offices or, switchboards to get an account rep. They have their account reps right at their fingertips at all times to manage all their projects, whether it’s locally in the US or abroad.

Ilissa Miller:

That is definitely great, I mean, I know the frustration that any company or individual has in reaching someone to speak to these days is really challenging. It’s great to hear that you have that dedicated a team and, and a dedicated accounts team, dedicated operations team, that’s terrific. The other things that you mentioned earlier in our conversation here, is that you’ve just opened a new facility in Chicago, congratulations. How do you expect this expansion to impact your company?

James Patrignelli:

From a client perspective, we have… we’re currently servicing many financial technology companies, not just in Chicago, but in the Midwest and it’s just a natural place for us to be. We’re very active in the financial markets in New York City and many of our clients that are based here have operations in Chicago, and we also work with many companies headquartered in Chicago. Just to be able to alleviate any strain in terms of shipping equipment around or being able to service them within a moment’s notice, being right in the backyard, it’s extremely important for us. Also, a top 10 data center market, actually it might even be top five quite frankly… just being where many of the many clients that are across all verticals are storing their server and their infrastructure. Being able to be in their backyard, provide on-site media destruction, do full data center, be installed, it’s really a natural place for us to be.

Ilissa Miller:

James, your career with information technology asset disposition, ITAD as we call it began about 14 years ago and in that time, what do you feel like is the number one thing people are often unaware of when it comes to end-of-life asset management?

James Patrignelli:

I think people are pretty… I don’t want to say everybody, but a lot of people aren’t aware that many states actually have e-waste recycling laws that companies need to adhere to. And that’s basically… they have to manage their end-of-life technology hardware in a responsible way to make sure that it’s not ending up on a street corner, that it’s not ending up in a landfill or that it’s not being disposed of in a way that can adversely affect a community. I think working with a company that’s aware and operates… aware of all the local state laws and operates in all the states that a company headquartered in on, that they have the knowledge to be able to service them and provide the highest level of service. Additionally, there’s also laws overseas that they need to be aware of, certain cargo can’t be exported from different types of countries and Europe and Asia, media needs to be destroyed in some countries onsite versus based offsite.

Just being able to work with a vendor that has that experience and know that their equipment’s going to be handled in a proper manner is extremely important and then being able to have the audible reporting, to report back up through their companies, to make sure that accounting has all the equipment written-off their books properly. That if they’re ever audited by a security on that, they can prove that all their media has been destroyed or a [inaudible 00:11:03] in an audible fashion, tying the fact of serial numbers and dates and times that it was taking place. So it’s really important to us from a security perspective and from environmental perspective that people are aware of all the local and international regulations.

Ilissa Miller:

I think that most people don’t really consider much beyond security, right?… protecting their own personal data, but you really bring up an excellent point in that the different states and governments, and even countries have requirements on how to dispose of these digital assets and working with a company like Liquid Technology, is a great way to be able to outline a destruction plan, as well as safeguard information, and then provide the relevant documentation that illustrates how you do things and how you did them. It’s a really important element of what Liquid Technology brings to the business and to the customers in the market. [crosstalk 00:12:06] Talk to me about CloudLast™, why is this such an important step in cloud migration?

Managing Hardware in a Cloud Migration with CloudLast

James Patrignelli:

We talked at length about the ITAD industry and our services and buying and selling the hardware, immediate destruction and e-waste recycling, reverse logistics, getting equipment in and out of places. CloudLast™ isn’t too different from [inaudible 00:12:34] but it’s really tailored and specific to companies that are going to the cloud and what we found is many companies that we’re working with, they are so focused on choosing the correct cloud provider. Whether it’s AWS, Google Cloud services, Azure, getting buy-in from their leadership and people throughout their organization and determining what data is going to go to the cloud or [inaudible 00:13:01], whether some bit or all of it. And, then figuring out what hardware in all their data centers, whether they’re us or abroad, it’s going to be affected by this and ended up having to be liquidated.

So we’ve done with our clients is actually sit down outside of this kind of CloudLast™ checklist, where we review all of their sites, that they have technology hardware, but we review their timelines when they think they’re going to be migrating their hardware, whether it’s going to be all an all-in-one approach, all-at-one shot, if it’s going to be a multi-phase moveable information. We’ll then provide onsite assessments, especially goes to data centers and recently we did an advertising company, the [inaudible 00:13:45] in New Jersey, Virginia, Amsterdam and Singapore, probably just site surveys at each location.

We actually did a full inventory of all their servers for them because they had guys running around doing all other things and the didn’t have time for this. And then we provided a logistics plan, we determined, all the information that’s needed from all the sites, to the sub-structure that we could and the kind data that could be in and out of there. How many racks have to be removed, that the cabling needs to be removed a ladder racks, anything underneath the floor. There [inaudible 00:14:18] environment, so we should define all the information for them so they could keep their resources dedicated for that cloud migration plan that they’re working on.

We [inaudible 00:14:27] destruction plan for them based on their security standards and then we provide a evaluation of hardware. You have to tell them based on your timelines, we believe that we could tell you X on all of your hardware and all of your data centers based on the timeline provided in the inventory that we took. Then we schedule the project out for them and we look to them as they migrate to the cloud, we come in after them and we provide the full wind-down of the data centers. So it’s been a really exciting time with the amount of cloud movement these days and we’ve really looked at very large companies on the media, financial and tech space, and it’s helped them out in a great way.

Ilissa Miller:

That’s excellent and interesting, especially as companies are looking to migrate to the cloud. I think part of their trepidation is that they have all of this equipment and gear and they don’t want to lose the time and money that’s been invested in that. And so working with Liquid Technology and offer them a migration plan that then also takes into account the value of the assets that they don’t necessarily need anymore and do a purchase back of those assets so that they can have some of that CapEx back into their overhead and invest in their operational expenditure budgets, right?

James Patrignelli:

Absolutely, I mean the amount of time and expense that they put into going to the cloud, it’s nice to have some return on the investment on the back end with the hardware, because it’s just nice to be able to cover those expenses. And usually a lot of times it can be an afterthought too, if we’ve done this migration… and oh my goodness, we forgot, now we have to wind down these data centers. [inaudible 00:16:18] we have been [inaudible 00:16:21] up with them along the way, they don’t have that last minute scramble, but at the same time, they know the entire time what that return is going to be to them and what the timelines are going to be.

How to Evaluate an ITAD Vendor and E-Waste Recycler

Ilissa Miller:

Absolutely, for a company that is looking for a e-waste recycler, what factors should they consider James?

James Patrignelli:

The most important thing that companies should do is work with the company that they can trust. There’s a lot of people in our business, there’s a lot of people that do what we do really well, but unfortunately there’s a lot of people that do what we do, that do not do everything very well. So I think a company needs to sit down and determine what’s most important to them. If it needs destruction and security and the compliance portion is… the sustainability portion of ITAB and pick a company that’s really tailored to that and actually meet their needs in terms of what their security standards are and what their e-waste recycling standards are.

I would definitely try to work with a company that is willing to meet with you, just to make sure you know who you’re going to work with on a day to day basis, somebody that’s actually willing to bring you to their warehouse, show you the process, the procedure, how they manage the hardware, how it actually comes into the facility and works its way through in the timelines that are associated with that. So that gives you a sense for how they’re going to operate with you on a day to day basis and how that relationship is going to go and give you that peace of mind that the hardware is handled properly.

And then also make sure that you work with a company that can provide you with a very high level of return on your equipment. So there’s a lot of people that will just specialize in one or two types of items. Somebody might see a phone buyer, somebody might just be interested in buying Apple laptop, but most organizations have a very diverse IT portfolio, you don’t want them to work with 10 different vendors. You want to work with a company that can handle all those tests on all the different types of hardware you have and all the different OEMs that you have are working off of and you provided a very high level, a high return of value across all technologies that shouldn’t be selling.

I think there’s a lot of factors to consider and what’s nice is that you can go to talk to e-Stewards® and R2 and you’ll find companies like us right on their website. And then now you can just pick up the phone call and schedule a visit.

Steve Sidwell:

And James, one thing that you talked about I think is really important is when you’re going out there, right, and you’re doing your due diligence, because that’s really what it comes down to, is that you want to be able to demonstrate to, and basically anybody who asks. Because is it going to be the CEO who is determining which recycling vendor to use, or which partner to use for the retail of these six months old goods that were bought for project that has wound down quickly because the new project came up that was more important.

Whatever reason these guys… that your company is getting rid of stuff, the important thing is that you did documented due diligence, that you can really demonstrate to anybody who asks at any time, meaning that it’s in writing, what you’ve done. You’re going to go to, let’s say, e-Stewards® because you want to work with an e-Stewards® vendor. If you’re going to go through an R2, you’re going to go through an R2 vendor, you can go with people who are both, like Liquid Tech. How do you find that out, right?. So you go to the websites and you find these companies, they’re listed right there, you can call them up, you go to their website. Does their website look like it was written by a 15 year old kid? Does it look like it’s all really boring? Do they have, is it consistently updated? Call them up to find out.

Are they reporting on stuff, are they trying to keep ahead of the curve, like James was talking about before? And when you’re talking about meeting with them, that’s one of the most key things is actually going out there, sitting down with the company, having them come out to you. If you have a project that’s worth half a million bucks and they can’t show up, you probably want to work with a different vendor, right? That’s what a lot of the stuff comes in, but talk to them, right? You start doing your risk assessment. What does that mean, right? That means what could possibly go wrong with the relationship. Let’s say that you give them a bunch of stuff and they don’t pay you. What kind of repercussions or is that going to have for you as an employee and for your company?

Let’s say they don’t recycle this stuff properly and it turns up in a warehouse in the middle of somewhere along with a couple other 100 million pounds of CRTs. How would you have prevented against that? A lot of time, it’s really difficult. I start by asking questions, what’s your downstream process, what’s your risk assessment process internally, who do you deal with? Do you have somebody in charge of this, are there actual individuals in your company, right? In meeting in the liquidators company who are responsible for risks? Who are responsible for data security? Who are responsible for environmental audits? How do you perform your environmental audits, when you work with a vendor?

How do you guys audit your downstream vendors and downstream vendors, being basically if it’s a liquid that gets in all kinds of servers, right? If they’re… only the CPU is valuable, let’s say we’re going to take the CPU, to test them, clean them, send them for resale with all the rest of it is going to get recycled. But how does it actually work, right? So it gets broken apart into various different components, which go to different downstreams who specialize in that type of stuff. We go through those downstreams and we actually physically go there and make sure that the process that they’re saying on paper is legit, actually is legit, right?

We need to see like sample bills of lading for shipments, making sure that they’re sending the stuff where they say, they’re sending this stuff. Now as this is what we do for a living, we’re good at this, but we also have the time to dedicate to this. As a company, make sure that you’re working with somebody who takes it as seriously as you feel like it should be. And if you don’t know, that’s where you really want to start asking questions. There’s a lot of blogs out there, there’s a lot of information, really go and find it because at the end of the day, it’s all going to come back to money and your job.

Ilissa Miller:

That makes perfect sense, you said earlier, you have to have that trust with the partner, like Liquid Technology when you’re looking to dispose of these assets. Data is the new oil, right? Everyone is looking for that data, anything that’s dropped on a street corner, to a landfill is getting mined for information and by working with a company like with Liquid Technology, you’re chewing the safety, the security and the sustainability of the empowerment, whenever you’re disposing of these assets. Really important stuff for companies to consider. Thank you both for your time today. Thank you, James, really enjoyed chatting with you and looking forward to watching Liquid Technology continue to grow and to listening to your podcasts. Thanks so much for allowing me to host you today, really appreciate it.

Steve Sidwell:

Thank you.

James Patrignelli:

Thank you [inaudible 00:24:16]

Steve Sidwell:

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