We Share

Sustainable IT is a manifestation of economic models highlighting business opportunities in circular framework rather than linear processes. It is restorative and regenerative by design and aims to keep products, components, and materials at their highest utility and value at all times. Under current established economic systems, products are produced, used and discarded, a flow with an end.

Started in 2007, Earth Hour has become one of the most recognizable movements for the environment. Held every year on the last Saturday of March engaging millions of people in more than 180 countries, by inspiring them to switch off their lights to show support for the planet. Beyond the symbolic action of switching off – it has become a catalyst for positive environmental impact - welcoming everyone to take part.

2020 has been a tough year all round and for IT industry, budgets have gotten tighter and network managers have started looking to extend their hardware lifecycle longer and are exploring newer ways to manage their networks more efficiently with a smaller budget. A challenge that comes with important considerations on quality, after sales services, logistics, immediate availability and more.

With the rise of the digital era and the tech industry being reshaped in numerous ways. It is not only the fastest expanding sectors resulting in the creation of millions of jobs, but it also facilitating development, innovation and globalization, becoming the new frontier for social development. Different companies in similar competitive environment are now exploring new channels to differentiate themselves.

The supply chain of enterprises are increasingly becoming a complex ecosystem of people, processes and technologies. A once exclusive setup of internal systems has now greatly expanded due to the proliferation of networks, internets applications and connectivity in the past decade, providing seamless collaboration between customers & service providers.

End of Life and End of Service life can often strikes a menacing tone; however, it can’t be further from the truth. Original equipment manufacturers (OEM) use the terms; End of Life and End of Service Life to indicate a stage in the equipment life cycle. Milestones that define the type of support and marketing the OEM offers for the equipment.

Over the last few months, a number of our team members in The Netherlands and Singapore have shared their insights and experiences on sustainable action in and outside of the company – as part of our Purposeful People blog series. And no doubt, it’s clear to see that our people support a more environmentally-friendly future and circular economy through refurbished IT in various ways.

I’m Tim, a Networks Solutions Specialist with Aliter for 10 years now and working in the industry for over 17 years. It’s part of my daily role to ensure that our customers get the best quality refurbished IT products – and one of the ways we do that is by offering extensive testing on all equipment. A process I am very familiar with, testing is necessary to extend the life cycle of products we receive. It’s also crucial for our quality assurance.

Aliter’s Network Hardware Technician Arjan Eising and Operations Engineer Pedro Ortega work together in operations across all of our different departments. From the start of the day, when they receive POs, through to implementing our quality control (QC) process, they work to ensure we function in the most sustainable way possible. While also delivering high quality refurbished IT products to clients around the world.

Well we’ve reached the end of 2020. A significant year, to say the least. No doubt there have been challenges for many of us – for our clients and customers, shareholders and staff. And of course, our loved ones. But I’m someone who looks for the silver linings too. And I want to reflect on some of those as we look to the new year.

As far as Aliter Network’s Purposeful People go, I think I’m the newest to the team. I took the role of Global Marketing Manager just 6 weeks ago, and it’s been a wonderful end to this year – connecting with colleagues in both Singapore and the Netherlands. A little about me. Before Aliter I held other marketing and corporate social responsibility (CSR) focused roles.

The Circular IT economy (CE) is what guides Aliter to do business the way we do. But the concept of CE can seem overwhelming, or sometimes like a collection of vague ideas from different industries. Download our infographic below to understand how your organization can adopt Circular IT as part of its operations, and turn your evolving business needs into practical application.

Global Marketing Manager Tamil caught up with Aliter CTO and co-founder Heath, on all things waste reduction and optimisation. Heath has been with Aliter since 2008, alongside business development manager Jean-Noel. He describes himself as a Jack of all Trades – or “the dude that does everything else.” And outside of work, his interests are just as varied – including judo and krav maga.

As Sales Director at Aliter Networks, and as a company, we talk a lot about e-waste and the benefits of choosing refurbished IT to combat the issue downstream. But this is a reactive approach. And while we should continue talking about the pros of circular IT, it’s high time we start looking at the upstream battle too. Taking a more proactive approach where we can.

Sales was once a dirty word, or perhaps you say it still is. But from where I stand, the culture and perspective around sales has changed dramatically in the last ten to fifteen years. As Sales Director for sustainable IT provider Aliter Networks in the Asia Pacific, I’ve got a few years of experience behind me now. My career journey began in Australia.

It is no secret that we LOVE refurbished IT equipment. So much so that our founder Jean Noel Clot has created an artistic photo series. The series features stunning close ups of refurbished network parts. Through the series we want to raise awareness around the urgent need to reduce the ever growing amount of e-waste, and actively promote extending the lifecycle of IT infrastructure equipment.

It’s been wonderful working at Aliter Networks and supporting business partners to optimize their supply chains, cost structures, and the management and cycles of their networking infrastructure. It’s work and business I know and love. Working for this Certified B Corporation in particular, with a clear, honest vision for people, planet and profit, has prompted me to take a different perspective on the business world.

We’re particularly proud of this latest case study because, as our Sales Director Sean says - “I feel like we’ve truly hit a new benchmark when it comes to supporting our clients.”The client is a Gold Mining company in Australia deploying to a site in Africa.
They needed a full door to door shipment from our warehouse to their site in less than four weeks.

We’ve said it before – refurbished network equipment is better for the environment. But what about the environment itself? Unless your role involves dealing with network equipment or infrastructure, ‘the IT network’ is often regarded as something that just hums along in the background. Nobody really takes notice because...well, it’s not the ‘sexiest’ field. It’s not often the hot topic on the agenda.Until it is...

Since the end of 2019 Aliter Networks has been a certified B Corporation. But what does that really mean? It means, as an organisation, we are focused on being a force for good. A company that aims to make a positive difference to the world, through the IT industry. This video describes in more depth what it really means to be a certified B Corp.

Javier Marti Marcos is a sales executive for Aliter’s burgeoning Spanish market, working from our head office in Almere, The Netherlands. We were touched to learn that in his spare time, Javier, along with his sister Maria Martí, who is an artist and illustrator, created a beautiful children’s storybook – Voyagers of the Circle – with a deeper message around the value of our planet.

As the pandemic has impacted supply chains, some electronics manufacturers have struggled to produce new equipment. Could this be the best time for enterprises to opt for refurbished and reusing preowned IT equipment? Recently, the German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle (dw.com) interviewed both our Network Consultant Arjen Workum and our APAC Sales Director Zimin Chen.

Remember 2019? When the economy was growing, many businesses were running smoothly & the sky was the limit? Global IT spending growth was at almost 3.9%. Plans and budgets for 2020 were made and the outlook was positive. Until the pandemic arrived and changed the world. A smooth running IT environment is now more important than ever. And this situation calls for out-of-the-box solutions.

The client is a New Zealand based public health organisation with >6000 employees, operating three hospitals, providing a variety of specialist care services to a population of around 1.000.000 people.They ran a fleet of legacy network equipment with little support of the OEM, when they needed to refresh their network with limited budget.

There's no doubt the world is quite entrenched in new ways of working and living now, thanks to the pandemic. And there's a lot of news and social media out there about the challenges now, and ahead. But it can be a little overwhelming at times. So we hope you're able to take a moment to see the lighter side of life (and news) too.

The customer is a global provider of financial planning, insurance, investments, wealth management and banking. They have a total of 25 offices at different locations in both the USA and EMEA region. The company's network manager was in need of an end of sale item to maintain a vital part of network infrastructure.

For a telecommunications service provider client, speed and accuracy are critical to ensure that their clients can offer 24/7 services to their customers. Quick service delivery is key, but was not always achieved with their former supplier, sometimes taking six weeks to deliver the required IT equipment. When the company procured Aliter Networks' services, we were able to deliver equipment within one week.

Timing is a key component for this contracted systems integrator, whose major client is an international US bank. They install IT systems for their client’s ATM machines and other electronic payment services, including bank statement printers, self-service terminals, cash register systems and networks. To meet their US client’s needs, they needed to find high quality & budget-friendly integrated services routers.

In light of unprecedented events, we’re all aware that working in the office isn’t business as usual around the world right now. Across the globe, large corporations are taking steps to place health and safety first, with necessary precautions, and asking staff and teams to work remotely from home, with business travel bans. You likely find yourself in the same situation at the moment.

A large French National organisation with education bodies throughout France, which services vocational institutions through to high schools, must provide for over 35,000 IT students on CCNA “bundles” each year. While also staying within budget and meeting their sustainability goals.But Aliter provided the organisation with refurbished Networking equipment allowing them to do just that.

Aliter Networks recently became a certified B Corp company. With this certification, Aliter joins a growing group of sustainability focused B Corp organisations around the globe, including Danone, Tony’s Chocolonely, the Guardian, Patagonia, the Body Shop and Engie.“The B Corp Certification confirms that we are on the right track with our circular IT strategy,” says Aliter's CEO Odette van Zijdveld,

Meet Sean Doyle – our APAC Sales Director, based in Singapore. He recently delivered our first EMEA and APAC webinars. Among other interests, Sean is passionate about sustainable IT, and extends this into his personal and professional life. We caught up with Sean to gain some insights into his daily life, and our new Singapore office – which is now over a year old.

In Aliter's webinar, "The Business CAse for Circular IT: An Alternative to your OEM's strategy", we looked at IT investment and strategy, and discussed linear vs circular IT. Many organisations take a linear approach - following what is easiest and most cost effective, replacing their IT hardware every 3-5 years. A decision largely influenced by OEMs.

The world is waking up to making smarter, more sustainable choices that impact the triple bottom line – social, economical and environmental benefits. In particular, you've probably heard a lot about ethical fashion, and the plastic-free movement. But you don't hear as much about the business we're in – sustainable and circular IT. So let’s look at what e-waste is, and how to avoid it.

This International Women's Day 2019, we're shining a light on just some of the many women who are leading the way in the development, support and uptake of the circular economy. From food, fashion, design and IT, these 9 women are leading the conversation in helping to create sustainable change through re-thinking, reusing and recycling. First up, let's set the scene with Kate Raworth.

IT has helped to enhance efficiency and streamline processes in almost every industry. And while that's something we're grateful to see (and benefit from), Aliter is interested in how IT goes beyond industry - to make a social impact. Here are 10 companies we think are making a difference with IT (in no particular order!) Read on about what they're doing, and why we're inspired.