Corporate Off-Lease Computers is an outgrowth of its corporate parent Port Detroit Commercial Trading Co. In 2001, it's founder, Ken Roesler had just retired from General Motors Corporation as the Information Officer for North American Vehicle Brand Marketing. Combining years of Information Technology experience in programming, systems analysis, re-engineering and project management with extensive business experience in production control, global product sourcing and logistics, Roesler launched Port Detroit Commercial Trading Co. to export information technology to emerging economies.

When friends, who owned their own businesses, asked Roesler what he was doing with his time, Roesler explained the cost value proposition associated with off-lease computers. After such discussions, friends would say “we want to take advantage of this for our businesses”. Consequently, Corporate Off-Lease Computers was chartered as Port Detroit Commercial Trading Company's domestic marketer for off-lease information technology tools.

Port Detroit Commercial Trading Company works with five domestic IT leasing companies. Working with several sources, guarantees our customers a variety of brands, consistency of supply, quantity and competitive pricing Roesler says. These computers come out of some of the US's largest corporations. Corporations rely on leading edge technology to carve out competitive advantage in products and productivity/cost. This drive to stay competitive forces corporations to frequently refresh information technology tools and is best accommodated by leasing rather than buying their computers.

In most cases, Roesler says, these off-lease computers meet or exceed hardware specifications required by off-the-shelf business application software. These quality, name brand, business grade computers, with significant use life remaining, offer smaller businesses a great, cost effective way to take advantage of computers as a way to improve their competitiveness. So, as he quips, if a business is thinking about buying new hardware, I ask them, what price they're willing to pay for excess capacity? In most cases, they won't use more than 20% of the capability/capacity of a new machine. How many other ways does a small business have to spend the cost of that unused 80%?