Cork-based WiseTek has signed a contract with computer security group McAfee to handle the entire group's redundant hard ware. Wisetek specialises in "reverse logistics" the process by which redundant computer and electronic equipment is either sold or broken down into parts and valuable constituents, such as gold, recovered.
WiseTek will now handle all of McAfee's unwanted hardware at its facility in Little Island as well as one in Thailand and a third site that will be opening shortly in Franklin, Massachusetts, according to Sean Sheehan, the managing director of WiseTek.
The arrangement will be on a profit-share basis, with McAfee taking an undisclosed cut of the revenues generated by WiseTek through recycling its hardware.
The Irish group is one of the first in Europe to be accredited under the R2 standard for electronics recycled facilitated by the US Environmental Protection Agency and this was critical in winning the contract with McAfee, according Padraig Kelleher, the director of logistics for McAfee in Europe.
Opening a facility in the US is critical to winning business from multinationals such as McAfee, according to Sheehan. “The decision makers are in the States and the bigger companies are looking for global solutions,” explains Mr Sheehan, who is a finalist in the emerging category of the 2012 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year programme. He announced the contract during the programme’s annual CEO retreat in the US last weekend.
The business is also being driven by the increasing restrictions on what can be disposed of in landfills and the negative connotations around it. “Companies don’t want to see their brands ending up in landfill,” he says.
Mr Sheehan, a former manager with EMC, set up WiseTek in 2007. It employs 200 and has a turnover of €8 million. Other customers include EMC, Tyco and Dell.
The company has recently started assembling servers for the European market for VCE; a collaboration between Cisco Systems and EMC Corporation with investments from VMware and Intel. The products are specifically designed for companies that want to avail of cloud computing.
They won the business because VCE recognised the value of the tight controls and process developed by WiseTek for reverse logistics, according to Mr Sheehan.
