Remote employees require extra effort from employers to retrieve their hardware when it needs to be replaced or returned. Retrieving equipment may seem like an afterthought, but without it software and company data can be left in a vulnerable state. Between shipping labels, box sizes, and tracking numbers, an IT team quickly can quickly become overwhelmed. Let’s walk through how Multiply makes this process easy for our clients. From handling all the logistics, to helping ensure your records are accurate on what should be retrieved, Multiply will make your team feel like rockstars when it comes to device retrieval!
What is Device Retrieval?
Device retrieval is the process in which your team is requesting and receiving hardware assets and other devices from employees not at your home office location. For some companies, this may be as simple as requesting your employee bring those items into the office, but for companies with the majority of remote employees all over the country this simply isn’t an option. So, the IT team becomes the wrangler of all of these requests and shipments. When this happens, it is beneficial to have a process in place that not only ensures that the company gets back all of their equipment, but that the employees involved have a smooth experience as well. Device retrieval, while not the highest priority in most IT organizations, is vital to the continued success of any business. The return on investment in those assets alone should be enough to make this a topic worth discussing, but the real reason that getting your equipment back is a must is due to data security. if you do not retrieve company assets from an employee, you leave yourself susceptible to data breaches and security issues that could be detrimental to your success.
Not sure what that process would look like for your company? A partner like Multiply Technology can help you build that process step by step, or can even take the entire thing off your internal team’s plate.
Accurate Data = Consistent Auditing
The first step in any good device retrieval process may not be what you think it is. In order to have a successful return of equipment from a remote employee, your IT team has to know exactly what hardware the employee has and needs to return. This is only possible if your team is actively auditing your employees for what computers, monitors, keyboards, and other peripherals they have on hand that are company issued. At Multiply, we help companies gather this data through a self auditing process that we manage and maintain on their behalf. By knowing what an employee has on hand, everything about device retrieval gets easier. From picking the shipping box size, to the number of boxes sent, to the expected cost of shipping the materials at all, knowing what you may receive and how many of those items you may receive in a given time period allows companies to create efficiencies across the board.
4 Areas of focus for equipment returns
In order to get your equipment back from employees in an efficient and cost-effective way, there are four areas in which you should focus your efforts.
Packaging – Are you sending the correct size packaging with enough protection for the assets they need to return?
Shipping labels – Are you providing the shipping label, or you expecting the employee to print it themselves?
Pick up and drop off – How convenient is it for the employee to drop off the equipment, or can it be picked up from their home?
Instructions – Are your instructions for packaging and what must be returned clear and in multiple formats?
Why is getting hardware assets back important?
Retrieving your company’s assets from remote employees is important for multiple reasons. The first, as we previously mentioned, is for data security and compliance. By having a return process in place, you are much less likely to have computers with your company’s information out in the wild where you have no insight into who might be able to access it. The second reason is cost-related. Not only can you make money back on the disposition of those assets, but this process can be applied to replacement assets as well which allows for less loss of time for an employee when their assets must be repaired or entirely replaced.
How Multiply Can Help!
Multiply’s team of Senior Consultants deals with device retrieval every day. We are experts in auditing, data cleanup, and shipping and logistics which allows us to partner with companies to better their equipment return experience for their teams. If you’re interested in learning more about our equipment return services, contact us today!
