The Business Case for ReturnCenter’s Box Program

ReturnCenter’s Box Program provides a highly efficient solution for managing IT equipment returns. By focusing on cost efficiency, operational effectiveness, risk mitigation, scalability, and opportunity cost savings, this program delivers significant benefits for businesses of any size.  

We invite you to use this business case to help you assess the benefits of ReturnCenter’s Box Program for your team. Looking to learn more? Sign up for a demo. 

Cost Efficiency

Time Savings and Operational Efficiency

Reduced Risk & Increased Accountability

Scalability

Opportunity Cost Savings

 

ReturnCenter offers an online calculator for businesses to assess potential cost savings, reduced damage rates, improved return times, and increased value recovery. By inputting current shipping and fulfillment costs, businesses can obtain a quantifiable understanding of the benefits of the Box Program. Learn more.

 The ReturnCenter Box Program delivers cost savings, operational efficiency, and risk mitigation for businesses of any scale. Its seamless scalability and accountability features enable higher employee satisfaction, improved security, and optimized resource allocation, making it an investment with significant returns. 

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ReturnCenter Wins Remote Tech Breakthrough Award for Second Year in a Row

Helping Companies Manage Remote Equipment Returns with Ease and Sustainability

ReturnCenter is honored to be recognized—again—as a winner of the 2025 Remote Tech Breakthrough Award. This marks the second year in a row we’ve received this award, and it reflects the continued impact of the ReturnCenter Box Program, which helps companies simplify the return and movement of IT equipment for remote employees.

As the remote workforce continues to grow, so does the need for smarter, easier ways to manage equipment logistics. ReturnCenter stands out by offering a service that takes the stress out of offboarding, supports IT teams, and contributes to sustainability goals, all at once.

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Standing Out in a Crowded Field of Remote Work Tools

There’s no shortage of tools built for remote work. But what often gets overlooked is the challenge of handling equipment returns, especially when employees leave the company or need to exchange devices. That’s where the ReturnCenter Box Program comes in.

Through the ReturnCenter platform, HR and IT teams can schedule a pickup in just a few clicks. A professional-grade shipping kit is sent to the employee’s location, complete with packaging and a prepaid return label—usually within one business day. No back-and-forth emails. No guesswork.

Award Winning Remote Tech – Why Companies Choose the Box Program

Simple to Use

All it takes is an online form. ReturnCenter handles the rest—from shipping the box to managing the return. It’s designed to be easy for both the employee and the team coordinating the return.

Visibility and Control

A centralized online dashboard gives teams a clear view of all inbound and outbound shipments, along with reporting tools that help with planning, tracking, and compliance.

Flexible, No-Commitment Model

Whether you’re managing one return or hundreds, the Box Program scales to fit your needs. There are no subscriptions or minimums, and five box sizes are available to handle everything from laptops to servers.

Works with Existing Systems

For companies using ServiceNow, the ReturnCenter app makes it easy to manage pickups and returns without leaving the platform. Plus, integration is available to IT asset disposition companies who wish to add the box program to their suite of services.

These awards reflect the broad value of the program: supporting offboarding, asset recovery, and day-to-day IT operations across distributed teams.

Supporting a More Sustainable, Efficient Remote Workforce

As companies continue adapting to remote and hybrid work, ReturnCenter helps take the complexity out of equipment logistics. By offering a practical, reliable way to move IT gear, we make life easier for HR and IT teams—and for the employees they support.

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Presentation Recap: How Nelnet Streamlined Remote IT Asset Recovery with ReturnCenter for ServiceNow

At the recent IAITAM Annual Conference, Nelnet IT Manager for Infrastructure, David Peterson, and Onepak CEO Steve Andon shared how Nelnet tackled a major operational challenge: retrieving IT assets from a large, distributed workforce. If you missed the session, here’s a quick wrap-up.

Scaling asset recovery for a high-turnover, multi-site organization

With the majority of their 6,000 employees working remotely and close to 1,000 seasonal call center staff, Nelnet’s IT environment is large and complex. Following its acquisition of Great Lakes Higher Education—adding six locations across four states—managing IT assets became even more difficult.

At the time, Nelnet was using multiple disconnected systems to manage support tickets and asset inventory. Communications between IT, HR, and other departments were handled via email and spreadsheets, creating a patchwork process with limited visibility and accountability. The mailroom was struggling with sending out boxes and labels.

“We had systems—but not a process,” David explained. “It was very ad hoc.”

Streamlining Workflows in ServiceNow

While Nelnet was in the process of configuring their ServiceNow instance, the ReturnCenter.com platform served as a transition step to consolidate and streamline all their remote asset recovery activity in one online tool. Multiple users were provided access to the platform to access the ReturnCenter turnkey Box Program.

Once their ServiceNow instance was ready, Nelnet deployed the ReturnCenter App for ServiceNow, connecting IT asset recovery directly into its existing ServiceNow workflows. By pulling employee contact data from Workday and embedding return logistics into the offboarding process, ReturnCenter helped streamline coordination across the desktop support, IT asset management, and HR departments.

 

“Integrating ReturnCenter saved time across IT, HR, and our mailroom, freeing up resources and reducing errors.” David shared. “We went from paper forms and Excel sheets to a unified, automated process that actually works,”

Better efficiency and resource alignment

Nelnet saw immediate gains:

 

They even reallocated internal staff to support the return process more flexibly—without needing specialized IT knowledge.

“The ReturnCenter App allowed us to eliminate multiple manual handoffs and streamline our workflow within ServiceNow,” David said. “We finally got the process to a place that felt manageable,”

Why it matters

David summed it up best: “This process turned something that felt overwhelming into something we could finally get ahead of. ReturnCenter didn’t just make the process faster—it made it work.”

By automating remote IT asset recovery within ServiceNow, Nelnet created a streamlined, scalable process that serves both IT and HR in a hybrid work world.

Thanks to everyone who joined us live! If you’d like to learn more or see how ReturnCenter for ServiceNow could support your organization, contact us.

Right-to-repair movement continues to grow

Marissa Heffernan, Resource-Recycling.com, January 31, 2025

The momentum behind consumer electronics right-to-repair bills that has been building since 2021 doesn’t seem to be ebbing, with 10 bills introduced so far this year and supporters anticipating far more to come.

Over the past several years, California, Colorado, Minnesota, New York and Oregon all have enacted consumer electronics right-to-repair laws, which generally require OEMs to make available to independent repair shops and consumers the parts, tools and documentation needed to fix covered devices.

Oregon and Colorado’s laws also ban the use of software to ensure a device will only operate with specific individual parts, called parts pairing.

Liz Chamberlain, director of sustainability and head of the right to repair advocacy team at iFixit, said the right to repair is “continuing to take off,” and not just in consumer electronics – among wheelchairs, farm equipment and digital items, 49 out of 50 states have filed some kind of right-to-repair bill over the past several years. Wisconsin is the only state that hasn’t.

“The train is rolling, the balls are rolling, everything is rolling,” Chamberlain said. “We wondered if, given that we have passed it in five states, we would start to see things kind of ramp down, and instead we’re seeing the opposite.”

Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of The Repair Association, said she’s tracking 25 states introducing bills for a variety of products.

“It’s crazy right now,” she said. “Bills are being filed all over the place.”

And “each state that passes a bill makes it easier for the next state to pass a bill,” she added.

Lawmaking approach varies by state

In terms of legislation, 10 bills touching specifically on the right to repair consumer electronics have been introduced so far this year.

Legislators in Connecticut introduced HB 6053, which at this stage is a single-page bill stating that the “general statutes be amended to provide consumers and independent repair providers with the ability to repair consumer electronics.”

To access the full article, click here. 

Learn more about ReturnCenter’s commitment to sustainability

How AI is shaping the future of sustainability

Sammy Lakshmanan, ESGDive.com, January 2, 2025

The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence is redefining how industries operate, and its influence on sustainability is no exception. AI will be a value play and a key enabler of sustainability, according to PwC’s 2025 AI Business Predictions. AI can help businesses address top investor priorities, such as reducing carbon emissions, building resilient supply chains and advancing renewable energy adoption — all while helping to balance a growth strategy, meet regulatory demands and mitigate climate risks.

To harness AI’s value, companies can align AI initiatives with sustainability priorities, refine data collection for meaningful insights and actively manage AI’s environmental footprint. The payoff for such investments could include sustained business outcomes that balance sustainability with growth and profitability, smarter decisions that facilitate regulatory compliance and faster progress toward a low-carbon economy.

Investor sentiment underscores the urgency to get this right. PwC’s 2024 Global Investor Survey found that 64% of investors support increased spending to reduce carbon emissions, and nearly three-quarters would prioritize businesses taking tangible climate actions like innovating products (77%), strengthening supply chains (80%) and scaling renewable energy (72%). Pairing these efforts with AI can help businesses drive efficiency, uncover opportunities and deliver measurable results.

AI is accelerating the energy transition

AI has the power to revolutionize energy systems and transform how energy is generated, distributed and consumed. Companies can leverage AI-driven insights to optimize renewable energy integration, improve grid performance and reduce waste. For instance, energy providers are using AI to fine-tune wind farm operations, while agricultural enterprises are employing AI to boost energy efficiency in irrigation and storage processes. These applications highlight how predictive analytics can deliver more accurate energy demand forecasts, enabling industries to allocate renewable resources like wind and solar more effectively.

To access the full article, click here. 

2025 Is Here: How IT Teams Can Thrive

As 2025 begins IT teams find themselves navigating a perfect storm of challenges. With tighter budgets and fewer resources, these teams are being asked to maintain or increase productivity, ensure security, and adapt to the ever-expanding remote work environment. It’s no small task, and for many IT leaders, it feels like the deck is stacked against them.

The question is clear: how can IT departments do more with less while meeting the demands of a decentralized workforce? 

Doing More with Less: A Familiar Challenge

Budget cuts and resource constraints are not new to IT teams, but the pressures have intensified in recent years. The expectation to deliver seamless technology support and efficient hardware management remains unchanged, despite having fewer hands on deck.

Tasks like employee offboarding, lease returns, and device disposition, while critical, are often tedious and time-consuming. These administrative burdens pull IT professionals away from strategic projects. 

In this constrained environment, every minute and dollar counts. IT teams need solutions that reduce friction, automate processes, and maximize efficiency without sacrificing control or visibility. 

The Remote Work Reality: A New Layer of Complexity

At the same time, the rise of remote work has transformed the IT landscape. Employees are no longer concentrated in a single office—they’re spread across cities, states, and even continents.

This shift has created logistical nightmares for IT departments tasked with recovering, tracking, and processing IT assets from remote locations. It’s no longer as simple as collecting a laptop from an employee’s desk; every return requires coordination, communication, and careful management to ensure devices arrive safely and securely. 

Without the right tools, chaos can ensue. Devices get lost in transit, tracking becomes a black hole, and IT teams are left scrambling to piece together fragmented information. For businesses, the costs of these inefficiencies can quickly add up—both in terms of time wasted and the risk of data breaches. 

The ReturnCenter Box Program: A Solution for 2025 and Beyond

Enter the ReturnCenter Box Program, a game-changer for IT teams navigating these challenges. Designed with the realities of modern work in mind, the Box Program offers a seamless, scalable solution for managing remote hardware returns. Here’s how it works:

Streamlined Logistics: The Box Program makes returning IT assets as simple as possible. Businesses send pre-labeled, trackable boxes to employees, who can securely package and ship their devices back without added hassle.

End-to-End Visibility: With built-in tracking, IT teams can monitor every device from shipment to receipt. No more black holes—the entire return process is transparent, ensuring that no device is lost or unaccounted for.

Scalability for Remote Workforces: Whether it’s one device or hundreds, the Box Program scales effortlessly to meet the needs of growing and dispersed teams.

Time and Cost Savings: By automating key steps and reducing manual oversight, the Box Program frees IT teams to focus on higher-value tasks, helping businesses save both time and money.

The ReturnCenter Box Program is also available through ServiceNow. This integration provides identical tracking and end-to-end visibility, allowing IT departments to handle all the same lifecycle transitions without ever leaving the ServiceNow interface.

By leveraging this native integration with ServiceNow, IT teams can schedule asset shipments, simplify workflows and eliminate manual data entry. Download the app and start using today. 

Thriving Teams in 2025

As we move into 2025, businesses can’t afford to let inefficiencies in IT asset management hold them back. The challenges of doing more with less and managing a remote workforce aren’t going away—but with the right tools, they can be overcome. 

The ReturnCenter Box Program empowers IT teams to meet these challenges head-on, transforming logistical headaches into streamlined processes. By adopting smarter, scalable solutions like the Box Program, businesses can position themselves for success in a rapidly changing world.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

This year, make a resolution to equip your IT team with the tools they need to thrive. Learn more about how the ReturnCenter Box Program can revolutionize your IT asset management—and start 2025 off on the right foot. 

IT Sustainability Think Tank: The economic benefits of going green

Carmen Ene, ComputerWeekly.com, December 16, 2024

Despite the news cycle being awash with coverage of the dire consequences of climate change, environmental advocates have struggled to make the case for a sustainable transition in 2024.

In some parts of the world, politicians have weaponised action on the environment, pedalling the misconception that sustainability is expensive, burdensome, and a threat to affordability and prosperity. Amidst a cost-of-living crisis and rising global energy prices, this has resonated, weakening support for a swift end to fossil fuels.

The EU’s resolve on climate policy is under pressure, too. Last month, the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that the EU would simplify three core pieces of environmental legislation, reversing changes that were made only in the last Parliament.

In this complex environment, it is not surprising that some businesses have become more hesitant to embrace sustainable alternatives and even revised their environmental, social and governance (ESG) targets, wary of the complexities of sustainability reporting, the perceived cost of implementing green solutions, and the impact on competitiveness.

However, the evidence tells a different story.

A 2014 Harvard University study  comparing 90 “High Sustainability” companies with 90 “Low Sustainability” companies over 18 years (1993-2010) found that high-sustainability companies significantly outperformed their counterparts across key economic indicators, including proxies for economic growth and financial leverage.

To access the full story, click here

Producing circuit boards from leaves would prevent millions of tons of e-waste

Scientists take inspiration from trees to make electronics greener

Christie Wilcox, Science.org, November 25, 2024

In a literally green technological advance, a team of researchers has found a way to replace the conventional printed circuit board (PCB) in electronic devices with a biodegradable alternative made out of tree leaves. Reported earlier this month in Science Advances, such “leaftronics” could help reduce the tens of millions of tons of electronic waste, or e-waste, humanity produces every year.

The idea is “very exciting” and “quite promising,” says Lan Yin, a materials scientist and engineer at Tsinghua University who works on developing biodegradable electronics but was not involved in the study.

E-waste is everywhere and piling up fast. In 2022, manufacturers produced 62 million tons of e-waste globally. And that figure is expected to increase by more than 30% by 2030, because modern electronics are designed to be disposable, says Rakesh Nair, a postdoctoral researcher and engineer with the Institute for Applied Physics at the Dresden University of Technology (TU Dresden). “We can easily make electronics that last for 10 or 20, 30 years, but we deliberately make them so that you buy the new model,” Nair says.

By mass, circuit boards—the panels that electronic components attach to—make up as much as 60% of e-waste. PCBs are typically made of extremely tough plastic or fiberglass infused with epoxy, an unrecyclable substrate that is “the core of the problem,” says Hans Kleemann, an experimental physicist at TU Dresden and Nair’s adviser. “It really stops you from all these important things like recycling and reusing components.” So Kleemann, Nair, and colleagues set out to find a greener alternative.

Nair first thought of using paper for the boards but was dissuaded by the amount of water and pollutants needed to generate paper. One day, when looking at the large magnolia tree near his institute, “it just clicked”: He could use its leaves instead.

To access the full article, click here

Learn more about ReturnCenter’s commitment to circularity and sustainability 

Solving our e-waste problem could help save forests

Forests are being destroyed to clear land for mining. We can save trees by wasting less of what we already have.

EnvironmentAmerica.org, November 27, 2024

What do cell phones and laptops have to do with deforestation?

More than you might think. The metals and minerals used to manufacture many of the electronics we use every day need to be mined from the earth. As demand for materials increases, more and more land is cleared to make space for mining.

Forest destruction for mining is sweeping the globe. Tropical forests are being razed to make way for coal mines in Indonesia. Much closer to home, over 120,000 hectares of forest in Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee have been lost to surface coal mining in the last 20 years.

But there’s a far better way to meet our material needs than destroying forest ecosystems.

How much forest does mining destroy?

Mining across the world has skyrocketed in the last 20 years, as manufacturers race to provide the materials for electronics and energy companies dig for coal to fuel power plants. Over the period between 2001 and 2020, a recent report estimates that the world lost nearly 1.4 million hectares of trees due to mining.

That’s a massive area – picture an area of clear-cutting three times the size of Grand Canyon National Park. And many of the trees that are being impacted are those the planet can least afford to lose. Much of the loss was in primary tropical forests.

Primary forest is habitat that has never been significantly disturbed by humanity. It’s full of mature trees and tons of biodiversity. Destroyed primary forest won’t recover in our lifetimes. We need to preserve as much of this vital ecosystem as we can before it’s gone.

The real area affected by mining-related deforestation is likely even bigger than the estimates, since the estimate did not include deforestation for mining-related infrastructure like roads and storage facilities.

To access the full article click here.

Learn more about ReturnCenter’s commitment to sustainability

Should you make your IT devices last longer?

Steve Brooks, Enterprise Times, November 4, 2024

Atos has published a report on digital workplace sustainability. The report “Increasing digital workplace sustainability: Data-driven strategy to accelerate progress together” finds that there are high levels of waste across the IT industry. It also found that using a data-driven condition-based approach can extend the lifespan of assets. From the standard 3-5 years to potentially as long as ten years.

While one might think that employees want the latest and best technology, in fact, 75% of employees are happy to keep their existing devices. Especially if they understand the environmental benefits of doing so.

Leon Gilbert, Senior Vice President Digital Workplace, Atos, said, “We wanted to leverage the vast quantities of data available to Atos and our partners to challenge convention and pinpoint new opportunities for enterprises and their IT service providers. Some findings surprised even our experts. We can now see how the financial, environmental and social value of every device can be increased while still delighting users.”

What is in the report

The fifteen-page report is based on 25 data points from over 28.5 million devices. With information provided by Atos services, Nexthink digital experience management platform, Tier 1 and Circular computing. The datasets used include device agent data, user behaviour analysis, digital experience metrics, aggregated help desk data, IT service management data and analytics, and asset disposal data.

The report also references a range of secondary sources and provides a comprehensive insight for IT leaders looking to increase the sustainability of their IT estate.

The main section of the report is divided into four sections:

To access the full article, click here. 

Learn more about ReturnCenter’s commitment to sustainability and building the circular economy.