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18 May 2010: In the recent BBC3 programme, “Blood, Sweat & Luxuries: Gold and E-Waste” on 11 May 2010 and viewable here: http://bbc.co.uk/i/sch78/?t=38m46s  IT equipment from several high profile public sector organisations was alleged to have made its way to a waste site in Ghana, where young children were seen scavenging for recoverable electronic components to sell for scrap value. This alleged illegal transportation of UK public sector IT waste from the UK to Africa has raised questions about how any organisation can ensure that its unneeded equipment is recycled, re-used or disposed of, in an acceptable and responsible fashion.

Andy Howell, Group Recycling Manager at Stone, the UK’s largest privately-owned computer hardware manufacturer and public sector specialists, comments, “European laws exist to prevent such UK IT waste ever reaching countries such as Ghana in this way. But, as this programme has highlighted, these laws may not be controlling the recycling market as well as they could be, with some recycling providers operating in the UK transporting waste illegally rather than recovering or disposing of it correctly.”
  
Howell continues, “I am bitterly disappointed and upset to see that IT hardware from highly reputable UK public sector organisations has somehow made its way to rubbish sites on another continent, such as those shown in Ghana.  I am certain that those organisations who were highlighted, had entered into an agreement with their recycling providers in good faith, fully trusting that the old hardware would either be recycled or that any working units would be deployed to countries like Ghana, or other African countries in desperate need of actual working IT equipment.”

Howell adds, “These Public Sector organisations and bodies have been let down badly by “cowboy suppliers” who have not taken adequate care to ensure that the systems being replaced will be responsibly recycled. Not to mention the harm that such irresponsible behaviour is doing to the environment as a whole and specifically to the countries in which the waste is dumped.”

Howell explains, “There are recycling companies out there who will take responsibility for recovering appropriate IT hardware and re-deploying it through the proper channels. Any equipment that is not fit for recovery will be recycled in line with the present stringent legislation and put back into manufacturing processes where possible.”

Following the full implementation of the WEEE (Waste Electronic & Electrical Equipment) Directive in 2007, Stone met the challenge head on and invested in excess of £500,000 to equip its own Authorised Treatment Facility, fully licensed by the Environment Agency.
Howell comments, “Whilst every other UK IT manufacturer engages third parties to discharge their producer obligations, Stone manages the entire lifecycle of the hardware it manufactures from ‘cradle to grave’, which in turn affords us control over the environmental impact of our products. In the past twelve months absolutely nothing has even gone to UK landfill.”

Stone has collected over 500 tonnes of redundant IT from its customers over the last 12 months and, in line with the recovery/re-use objective of the WEEE Directive, recovered 74%. The remaining 26% underwent a volume reduction and segregation process in-house, before the various output streams were returned to the remanufacturing industries. 0% went to landfill, and the majority of recovered (working) equipment is supplied by Stone to UK customers.

Stone also recently became the premier sponsor of IT Schools Africa (www.itschoolsafrica.org), a branch of the Isbourne Foundation (registered charity no. 1051622). IT Schools Africa supplies and supports IT donations to school projects throughout Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Tanzania. Its support not only provides for the supply of equipment and training the teachers, it also ensures the kit is responsibly disposed of at the end of its secondary life.

Howell concludes, “Through our in-house recycling plant and partnership with IT Schools Africa, Stone is able to offer its public sector customers the assurance that redundant IT hardware will be recovered, re-used or recycled in line with the WEEE legislation and ethical standards, and that their equipment will never appear in scenes such as those portrayed in the recent BBC3 programme.”

Stone Group, the technology solutions provider to the education and public sectors and the UK’s largest independently-owned hardware manufacturer, has moved to its new 100,000 sq. ft. premises, Granite One Hundred. The facility will help Stone meet the increasing demand for desktop and laptop units as the company enjoys continuing success with major contract wins, such as the recent Buying Solutions Framework Agreement and the £13 million successful bid with the University of Nottingham.

Located at Junction 13 of the M6 Stafford South, the new facility consolidates both former Stone Group sites, located in Stone, Staffordshire. As well as office space for the 50-strong sales team and a base for the 90+ team of development and support engineers, the site will substantially increase manufacturing output. The configuration capacity of the production line will increase from 50 to 150 units per hour, meaning that Stone Group will be able to produce in excess of 500,000 units per year. The facility also includes a line to accommodate upgrades to branded notebooks, and a QA inspection area with a capacity of 48 units.

James Bird, CEO of Stone Group, comments, “This has been a great opportunity to design a building which suits our company needs, and which gives us space to grow further. This year, we have been successfully listed as suppliers on both the Home Access and Buying Solutions frameworks, as well as winning major contracts such as the Universities of Leeds and Nottingham. This new facility will allow us to maximize these opportunities, and future successful bids, whilst maintaining our exemplary customer service record.”

The premises will also be home to the recycling facility. Bird continues, “As the only UK manufacturer to have ownership over its own recycling facility, Stone Group offers the complete solution; from manufacture, support and maintenance, to data erasure and recycling. This approach, as well as the investment in state-of-the-art facilities represents Stone Group’s commitment to innovation and service.”

Bird concludes, “I am particularly proud of our new facility and the Stone Group team, and look forward to welcoming more people into the fold. We have ambitious growth plans beyond this new facility, and will surely be looking over the coming months for new staff as a result.”

For more information on Stone Group’s new premises, Granite One Hundred, please contact Dionne Barlow.

Stone Group, the technology solutions provider to the education and public sector, today announces its successful bid to supply ICT hardware and maintenance services to The University of Nottingham (UoN), in a four year deal worth in excess of £13 million. The comprehensive package offered by Stone Group will include the provision of the latest ICT equipment, including desktops and laptops, as well as data erasure and recycling for the UK top ten University.

Stone Group has been awarded exclusive supplier status by UoN to supply desktop computers, laptops / notebooks and a computer equipment maintenance scheme. The new four year agreement, which starts on 1st April 2010, will also include secure data erasure and recycling of displaced equipment free of charge.

James Bird, CEO, Stone Group, comments, “Following the recent announcement of our successful bid to supply hardware to Leeds University, we are delighted to add another leading University to our Higher Education client roster. We believe that it is our ‘cradle to grave’ philosophy which set us apart from other leading contenders – a complete service, from unit manufacture, through to support and maintenance and finally to data erasure, recycling and reuse; indeed we are the only UK manufacturer to have its own recycling facility.”  

UoN is a modern, research-led University with over 39,000 students spread across its three UK and two international campus sites. In addition to being placed in the UK top ten, UoN currently ranks in the European top 30 and in the top 1% of universities worldwide. In line with UoN’s objective to place sustainability at the centre of procurement, IT suppliers were selected on their ability to assist in reducing the impact the institution has on the environment. The Agreement also aimed to deliver improved levels of service and quality to end-users, integration with the University’s e-procurement system, and safe disposal of equipment in accordance with the WEEE Directive.  

“Stone was selected against criteria because of the innovative and proactive approach shown during their response to this tender. Not only did they offer us significant cost savings but that these savings were aligned with a high quality through life service, including the way in which they have embraced the new WEEE environmental regulations for mutual benefit, is leading edge,” said Graham Ward, Commercial Director at the University.

Bird comments, “The extensive tender application process is designed to measure the potential supplier’s experience and capabilities, and Stone Group met these stringent benchmarks due to its proven track record in Higher Education, its focus on service and its capabilities to deliver value for money.”

Bird concludes, “The company is currently enjoying significant growth, and the move to new premises later this year will further extend our manufacturing capacity. The Higher Education market is a key focus for Stone Group at present, and we look forward to, and are actively pursuing, further success in this arena.”

Stone Group, the technology solutions provider to the education and public sector, today launches a shopping portal where college and university students can purchase new desktops, notebooks and accessories at discounted prices through the National Desktop and Notebook Agreement (NDNA) membership scheme.

The IT4 Study website, designed as a portal primarily for students of NDNA member colleges and universities, will feature both Stone Group and Samsung equipment, in addition to a wide range of accessories and peripherals. Stone Group has been an appointed supplier for the inter-regional NDNA agreement for the past four years, and was reappointed in 2009 following an extensive six month tender process. Stone Group is contracted under the NDNA agreement to supply its own branded desktop solutions and has also been awarded supplier status with Samsung notebook submissions.

The IT4 website is open to the entire higher education community; however students attending colleges and universities signed up to the NDNA scheme can access exclusive offers which are well below prices on the high street. Students of these membership universities directly benefit because the NDNA agreement dictates that students must have the opportunity to access the same equipment that their university’s IT department chooses to procure. Stone guarantees to update its price lists with the latest products every month, ensuring visitors to the site have access to the very latest kit available.

As well as discounted Stone and Samsung equipment, the new IT4 Study website will also host refurbished equipment, shaving even more off of the cost of IT procurement for cash-strapped students.

“Purchasing IT equipment is one of the biggest challenges for the majority of students with very little spend,” says James Bird, CEO, Stone Group. “We have built the IT4 Study website to help reduce the cost of IT ownership, working alongside Samsung as a strategic partner for 2010. Stone Group is also a Samsung-approved service centre, delivering on-site and return-to-base services utilising home-grown engineers. With the backing of our 50-strong mobile engineer team, we will be able to offer customers from the IT4 Study website the very best after-care service, without subcontracting to a third party.”

Stone Group is the only hardware manufacturer to include warranties that will provide an engineer to come and fix a notebook on-site, and with the largest independently owned service team of over 50 engineers, 97% of computers are fixed the next day.

The new IT4 Study website can be found at www.it4study.co.uk. Full details of Stone Group Ltd can be found at www.stonegroup.co.uk

Stone Group, the technology solutions provider and the UK’s largest independently-owned hardware manufacturer, has partnered with managed ICT services company Calyx to help businesses defend themselves against extra liabilities ahead of the changes to the Data Protection Act 1998 in April, which will see fines for insufficient care with sensitive data rise to £500,000.

The partnership will result in the development of encrypted hardware products and services and a dedicated online portal – http://calyx.stonecomputers.com – for financial services organisations. Applying its public sector experience to this new market, Stone Group is supplying the encrypted hardware units to enhance the managed services provision Calyx delivers to its extensive financial services customer base. 

Calyx is an independent provider of managed ICT services across the UK and Ireland and has comprehensive experience in the financial market, supporting organisations such as KMPG, Permanent TSB and Openwork, the Independent Financial Advisors (IFAs) subsidiary for Zurich. Stone Group specialises in the supply and support of ICT and audio-visual solutions to schools, colleges, universities, local government, the emergency services, the NHS and MoD.

Commenting on the partnership with Stone Group, Rich Garner, Service Delivery Manager (Openwork) at Calyx, states, “Calyx was tasked by Openwork, which consists of 3,500 IFAs and financial organisations as a directly authorized franchise network, to deliver an encrypted platform which ensures protection for the IFAs should a laptop be misplaced or stolen. Whilst Calyx is able to offer infrastructure support and market know-how, we needed a reliable source for the hardware itself – having previously worked alongside Stone Group, I was confident of its capabilities to meet this challenge.  Flexibility of approach sets the company apart, and I knew that Stone Group was the correct choice to deliver this project in a timely manner.”

This new offering comes ahead of the upcoming Data Protection Act fines overhaul, which becomes active on April 6th this year. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) will be able to make organisations to pay up to £500,000 as a penalty for serious data breaches, in a move to protect citizens’ data in our increasingly online society. Matt Knowles, Group Financial Services Manager, Stone Group, comments, “As recent high profile examples show, data protection is particularly important in the financial sector, and under the new guidelines it will be very easy for an organisation to fall foul, even unknowingly, and become liable to potentially crippling fines.”

Garner adds, “For IFAs, it is also about reputation and trust. In partnership with Stone Group, we are offering a solution which gives financial organisations the confidence that their clients’ data is protected to the highest level.”

Through the scheme, two laptop options and a desktop option are available with AS 256-bit hardware encryption (the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) adopted by the US government) designed to meet both FSA and FIPS compliance. These devices are available to purchase or lease via the dedicated Openwork Financial Advisers portal. Knowles adds, “The web portal is a key part of the offering for Openwork, as it allows us to reach a large number of prospective customers efficiently. Via the portal, IFAs can fill out an application for leasing equipment quickly and easily, which is a vast improvement on the laborious paper-based application usually required.”

Knowles continues, “The leasing option is very important for these organisations. Most IFAs are either sole traders or a Limited company meaning that it is tax beneficial for them to lease such hardware rather than buying outright from their capital allowance.”

Garner adds, “Openwork also wants to discourage IFAs from using outdated hardware that is over five years old- as old equipment can put data protection strategies at risk - so leasing initiatives such as this gets them into the habit of refreshing technology every couple of years. This in turn reduces spend on extraneous IT support costs.”

The encrypted hardware project can also be placed in the larger recycling picture at Stone Group, which takes a ‘cradle to grave’ approach to its products. Knowles comments, “At the end of the product’s lease life we will irretrievably clean the data and recycle the unit ourselves using our own in-house plant. We’ll also recycle any displaced equipment, meaning that IFAs receive an all-round data service”

Knowles concludes, “The collaboration with Calyx represents an important step change for Stone Group, and access to a market we have so far not approached. Combining our experience in protecting and handling particularly sensitive public sector data, with the financial services market experience of Calyx, a hugely attractive service can be provided to financial institutions that ensures absolute peace of mind in data protection.”