3 Step IT, which specialises in IT life cycle management, achieved the highest turnover of its 20-year history in 2016. A result enabled by the company’s investments in automation, and the latest tools, and technologies.
The group’s turnover grew 15 per cent to 535.2 MEUR in 2016 (2015: 465 MEUR), with turnover growing in Finland and abroad. In its domestic market, Finland, turnover grew 13.3 per cent. Outside Finland, turnover growth was an even more impressive 16.7 per cent, with especially strong performances in Sweden, Denmark, and the UK.
Bottom line performance was also impressive, with EBITDA growing 21 per cent, to 23.6 MEUR in 2016.
3 Step IT has over 4,000 frame agreement clients globally. The company manages the life cycle of over 1.8 million devices around the world, and has operations in ten countries.
“We are extremely pleased to have grown the business, even though the economic climate in Europe was quite challenging last year. As companies search for new ways to acquire information technology, demand for our services keeps growing. Our customers need to ensure that their organisations’ IT equipment is up-to-date and works well. As we follow the principles of the circular economy in our services, we also help our customers to realise their corporate responsibility commitments,” states Carmen Ene, CEO, 3 Step IT Group.
The circular economy and assuring information security throughout the life cycle are at the core of 3 Step IT’s operations. 3 Step IT finances companies’ IT technology, and when the devices’ planned life expires, they are returned to 3 Step IT for refurbishing and then sold for second life with a new user. In 2016 over 98 per cent of returned devices were resold after their data had been securely erased.
“We already sell over 360,000 used equipment devices each year. The amount of EU legislation on the disposal of old devices grows constantly, and there are increasing demands for corporate responsibility reporting. New business models and the Internet of Things (IoT) increase the need for flexible acquisition of new technology and equipment. So the number of devices in organisations grows, and sustainable IT replacement is more important than ever,” says Carmen Ene.
IT devices are ever more used rather than owned
The goal of 3 Step IT is to become the leading European lifecycle service provider by 2021. This will be realised by expanding the service offering.
The way companies acquire IT devices has already been in global transition for a while. Access is increasingly seen as more important than ownership, so companies and organisations rent rather than purchase computers, laptops and smartphones. Device as a service (DaaS) will likely increase in the future. Cloud services also complement the service approach: when employees get new equipment, all settings and programmes are downloaded from cloud servers, so resources can be utilised more effectively. These are some of the techniques, technologies & trends that support 3 Step IT’s operations.
3 Step IT helps customers manage their IT lifecycle in a cost-effective and efficient way. Services enable flexible deployment and use of new technologies in both the private and public sectors. In this way, modern ways of working are introduced and supported effectively, and also new business models can arise.
