Successful asset management in a work from home environment

5 August 2022 by Jean Boyd

COVID-19 caused a significant disruption to the information technology asset disposition (ITAD) industry. The industry has been transformed and the importance of an actionable IT asset management program has been highlighted.

Pre-Covid

ITAD has previously been viewed as a secondary service in the IT hardware asset lifecycle. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, ITAD services were considered an afterthought. Many organisations weren’t aware of how vital these services are to ensuring uninterrupted and smooth flowing operations under testing circumstances. ITAD is now being more accurately viewed as integral to organisations, as businesses move to control their entire asset management ecosystem from end to end in a new environment.

Post-Covid

Since COVID-19, the ITAD industry had to evolve from serving government and enterprise clients in their offices, to servicing them from in remote locations. Increasingly, more organisations consider ITAD services as essential to their business. The perception of the ITAD industry has changed, and so too has the industry’s consideration of how to execute the service most effectively.

For ITAD’s the question has become: How do we adjust our service to align with these changing customer needs? What has changed?

One significant change has been the role of IT support services within larger organisations. IT support teams focused on internal office support have created new levels of support for remote workers, each with a unique set of circumstances.

The problem they had to overcome was more than just a data security management issue, but also a raft of asset management complexities. For example, how do companies now handle hardware repairs, exchanges and shipping securely and safely? How do companies manage their hardware assets when they are spread all over the place? How do they safeguard the data held on devices being used in home office environments?

Other issues have arisen as a result of increased remote working. For instance, where staff having used personal devices in a work capacity while at home during lockdown periods. Residual traces of information can still be found on these devices, so all documents and data must be sanitised to ensure sensitive or confidential corporate information remains present. Companies should also ensure that a firm policy is in place with practical procedures that staff can follow when bringing back their work devices.

How to stay prepared

One of the key benefits of working with an existing and reputable ITAD is its warehousing ability.

If an ITAD company has a solid and robust warehousing capacity, it can solve the logistical issues that have arisen due to COVID-19 and the complexities around customisable services such as augmented supply chain services, hot swap programmes and re-deploy strategies across multiple geographies. The ideal ITAD service provider handles various related services, essentially becoming a single-source provider.

In conclusion

The ITAD industry has undergone a significant transformation in recent years and COVID-19 has accelerated the change, which is largely due to an increased work from home workforce. The changes brought about by COVID-19 has highlighted the importance for businesses to have highly competent ITAD partners who have scale, geographic coverage, broad service offerings and customisable solutions.

If you would like more information about how these changes may affect your business or have any questions at all, please contact us for a no obligation consultation. Greenbox are always happy to provide guidance and answer any questions our clients might have.