Simplify IT hardware inventory management

Every company possesses equipment. It's something essential that every employee needs, whether it's computer equipment, keys, a smartphone, a car, etc. The company can potentially provide all these things to have an autonomous employee with good working conditions.

The allocation of IT equipment is becoming increasingly significant in companies, and managing the flows is a headache.

When an employee leaves the company, it's difficult to remember all the equipment that was lent to them, and that's where the logistics come in 🤯!

Who has what? This question that we ask ourselves, but for which the answer is not so simple.

The (lack of) coordination

Inventory management is difficult, especially if logistics are chaotic. Between breakage, loss, oversights, orders... It is difficult to properly manage inventory turnover, especially if inventories are not carried out regularly.

Management costs accumulate, and the company and employees lose out.

Communication and rigor are key to proper functioning, but they are not always present, even unintentionally.

It is therefore possible to manage your equipment on a good old Excel file.

That being said, there are still several minor hiccups:

• Can anyone intervene on it?
• Is it necessary to appoint a person in charge, and if so, if they are not available at the time of the equipment pickup, how should they be informed? By email, a small sticky note?
• Will the information be properly taken into account?

All these questions pose a problem.

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Another complex aspect is defining the important fields without making the file too complex.

Several pieces of information will need to be found, such as the ID, type of equipment, description, reference, supplier, date of acquisition, date of equipment review if applicable, date of replenishment, quantity assigned, total quantity, and therefore the remaining quantity, defective stock, etc.

This table should then be shared with HR so that they can request the return of the equipment upon departure.

It's clear from this that this document is complex to produce because it requires a global view, a user-centric view, and a hardware-centric view.

Manual management is no longer sustainable due to the complexity of the logistics involved. Furthermore, certain information is difficult to manage using an Excel file:

• hardware obsolescence
• overutilization of equipment
• underutilization of equipment
• data on battery status, RAM, storage
• data on software updates to be performed
• the restocking

Account creation

Following the hardware allocation stage comes the stage of creating, modifying, suspending, and deleting user accounts.

Indeed, we are talking about hardware, but it is an empty shell if account management is not implemented.

Whether for the allocation of physical stock or software and applications, the time parameter is crucial: when the new employee arrives, they need their equipment and access on the first day!

This is a real headache for the company, which must control the supply chain, the relevant allocation of equipment, product maintenance, monitoring the needs of each person, and the lifecycle of user accounts.

When the company is not structured around a well-organized IT department, inventory, allocation, and access management reach levels of complexity that impact the company's profitability.

Equipment? Yes, but for whom?

HR, IT, managers, and administrators can all be equipped to distribute equipment. Of course, an internal protocol is necessary to determine who can approve equipment requests and who can allocate the equipment.

For example, a manager may be the one who approves the laptop request, and an administrator in charge of the equipment may hand over the computer to the employee who requested it (as long as they see the validated request).

Another essential point to consider is the consistency of the equipment loan with the person's position. For example, if your company provides a low-performance computer to a marketing manager and its capabilities are quickly reached, the medium and long-term performance will be degraded.

The person may have a bad image of a company that does not provide them with equipment adapted to their needs due to slowdowns.

In this scenario, we see that hardware optimization has a significant impact on the cost of its renewal.

Procedures must be implemented to assess an individual's needs based on the processing power required, as well as the software and applications to be used.

A company likes to talk about ROI. Optimal inventory management is achieved with:

• an extension of the lifespan of assets,
• supervision of technical data,
• appropriate allocation of devices based on usage,
• Knowledge of the infrastructure with management of the number of active and inactive devices.
• license management,

and will allow you to make real savings.

Inventory your IT equipment and assets related to company operations

If you have never started to list the hardware present on your IT infrastructure, a lot of work awaits you!

If you already have a base, start from there 😉

What needs to be inventoried?

• Fixed workstations, central processing units + all related peripherals (keyboard, mouse, etc.)
• mobile equipment: computers, tablets, smartphones
• peripherals: printers, scanners, etc.
• the network: everything that enables the company's internal connection and all protections (modems, servers, Wi-Fi hotspots, etc.)

Next, let's move on to the broader aspect: hardware to be inventoried related to the company's life (and also to its security upon departure!).

• Company cars
• Access badges
• keys
• Canteen cards

Pay attention to the age of your equipment; there is a life cycle of the equipment to respect, otherwise you risk recurrent failures and slowness.

From purchasing to recycling

Since January 1, 2018, companies with more than 20 employees have an obligation to sort and recycle IT equipment.

Since April 12, 2023, the State and local authorities have a recycling obligation (reuse and re-utilization of reformed IT equipment) to reach 50% in 2025.

Optimizing this management is therefore a real challenge.

Several possibilities are available to you:

• Engage a certified professional
• bring the equipment yourself to a collection point
• establish a partnership with an association to give your equipment a second life

→ IT expenditure represents a major item on which the company has the greatest room for maneuver.

→ The environmental impact of equipment is very strong, but it's also a variable on which we have the greatest room for maneuver.

= for a company, managing its fleet is an economic and ecological challenge.

I invite you to take stock at this stage of the article!

• Purchases must be carefully negotiated to avoid exceeding your budget → do you have a purchasing specialist internally, or are you assigning the task to someone whose primary job it is not?
• stockouts, restocks, and software licenses must be managed
• allocation of physical stock must be controlled
• User accounts (which require a different skill set than inventory management) must be created promptly and monitored throughout the employee's tenure and departure.
• the equipment must be recycled and its lifespan extended as much as possible
• ROI must be measured

What solutions are available?

Given this observation, what do we do? An Excel file shows its limitations and is unsuitable.

You need a stock management solution and an access management solution. Pfffiou, that's a lot.

Good news, there is a solution (and there, I appear as the hero 😁)!

Rzilient is a French SaaS solution that perfectly meets customer needs.

Several offers allow you to modulate the delegation of your fleet (partially or completely), and you have access to a dashboard providing you with a wealth of information.

No more confusion:

• you connect your MDM to Rzilient to automate inventory management
• you track your entire fleet
• you have a precise view of all the employees in your company at a given moment (interns of less than 2 months, service providers, temporary workers in addition to the classic permanent, fixed-term and internship contracts) and the assets that are linked to them
• you answer the question of who has what and where
• you have a wide and negotiated choice of equipment
• you have a technical view of the equipment with the status of the RAM, battery, storage and updates
• you have support
• You are no longer required to purchase the equipment; you can rent it!
• You delegate the collection of used equipment, and Rzilient takes care of optimizing it as much as possible. If it is still viable for private use, it can be donated to associations; otherwise, it is sent for recycling.
• You no longer have to deal with account creations, modifications, suspensions, and deletions; Rzilient takes care of it.

How is this miracle possible??

Youzer manages the account management aspect (and yes, it's a bit of our specialty 😎) and automates your HRIS with all your applications (SaaS, on-premise).

We interface with all HR sources in your organization (HRIS, Excel files, user creation forms) and synchronize this information to automate user account management.

Simply put, we automate onboarding and offboarding, providing the right information at the right time. Your users receive their accounts promptly without any action required from you. Upon departure, accounts are suspended, preventing security vulnerabilities.

Rzilient has integrated Youzer into its solution.

Which means you have the best of both worlds: a stock manager and an identity and access manager in one tool. 🎉