www.computing.co.uk/computing/analysis/2203869/providin -
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Published on: 11/22/2007
Last Visited: 11/28/2007
Recipients are given a choice of receiving pre-installed software or not, says Computer Aid chief executive Tony Roberts.
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"One of our projects in Kenya has an agreement with Microsoft East Africa, for instance, where they have the option to use the full range of Microsoft software, whereas we are only licensing for the operating system," says Roberts.
And on very rare occasions people choose to receive PCs with open source software, he says.
An organisation that decides to donate equipment to Computer Aid also receives the services of a commercial decommissioning company free of charge.
Data-wiping a PC is the most important part of the process for corporate donors, says Roberts.
Computer Aid wipes data from donated computers using a data-destruction product called Blancco.
"It was the first product approved by the US Department of Defense and the UK secret service," says Roberts.
Blancco uses a multiple overwrite process which does not simply reformat or delete data, but overwrites it multiple times until the data is completely unrecoverable.
Computer Aid has had a partnership with Blancco for a number of years as part of the data-wiping firm's corporate social responsibility programme.
"We are a beta testing site for Blancco so when more advanced data destruction algorithms are introduced we are at the leading edge," says Roberts.
Advanced technology processes are not something one would usually associate with a charity, so the organisation is keen to communicate its high level of technical expertise and professionalism.
"When people engage with us they discover the level of services we offer, with professional staff and the world's leading data destruction solution," says Roberts.
And the service also covers the equipment that is not used because it is either defective or below the minimum specifications.
Computer Aid has a responsibility to make sure the computers it cannot reuse are disposed of responsibly, says Roberts.
"We ensure it never leaves the European Union and is treated by a licensed waste management company to the highest environmental standards, ensuring zero per cent goes to landfill and all plastic and metal is reused," he says.
Although Computer Aid covers the cost of the disposal, it tries to balance the small amount of income made from recovering precious metals in electronic circuitry with the cost of decommissioning the cathode ray tube monitors.
The cathode disposal is without doubt the most expensive, difficult and hazardous part of decommissioning, says Roberts.
The cost fluctuates depending on the commodity price of the copper and smaller amounts of gold, silver and palladium in electronic circuitry.
So far the figures add up and the system works to the benefit of the thousands of recipients who have had their lives improved by access to technology they would otherwise never have used.
Last year Computer Aid shipped 23,000 PCs.Roberts hopes next year will be a bumper year and aims to ship 30,000 PCs to more than 100 developing countries.
"We supply organisations that could never afford to buy computers commercially," he says.
And now the UK market is saturated, every corporate computer will be replaced in a two-to-three-year cycle.
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