Save 3% to 5% of Your IT Hardware Budget by Centralizing Receiving and Deployment

While some business operations work well when they are decentralized, receiving and deploying IT hardware isn’t one of them.

Decentralized receiving leads to all kinds of problems, including:

• Lack of control and consistency in recording new inventory
• Ongoing tracking and accuracy problems if hardware isn’t captured at the start
• Overprovisioning of hardware and software due to inaccurate and incomplete information
• Inability to maximize hardware lifecycle—you can’t move it, update it or even dispose of it if you don’t know it exists or where it is
• Paying for undelivered orders

Missing IT hardware

In our experience handling the receiving of 1.5 million IT assets a year, there is an average of 3% to 5% discrepancy in every order. Yes, every order.

If your annual budget is $50 million, that translates into $1.5 million to $2.5 million in laptops, keyboards, headsets and other hardware that you paid for but didn’t receive.

When hardware orders are shipped to end users or field techs at various locations in various deliveries, reconciling purchase orders is not always a priority or even possible. It’s especially difficult if some or all parties rely on disparate spreadsheets or other manual methods to place and track orders and shipments, with ITAM valiantly attempting to consolidate all information.

Centralizing receiving enables superior ITAM

Consolidating receiving at a single depot with a dedicated team managing all receiving and deployment enables IT asset managers to set and enforce policies, processes, use of technology, and training that enhance accuracy, availability, compliance, security and budgeting.

Some important benefits include:

• Prioritizing purchase order reconciliation, resolving any shipping and payment discrepancies to control spending
• Eliminating manual processes by deploying asset tracking software that automates, customizes and simplifies data collection
• Leveraging improved data to analyze trends to guide logistics and purchasing decisions
• Streamlining imaging, kitting and deployment
• Improving software license and inventory management—first in, first out to maximize warranty, licenses and useful life
• Creating consistency by bulk-ordering and storing supplies for kitting
• Freeing up field techs in other locations to focus on resolving employee and customer service issues

One of our clients, a major U.S. bank, has substantially improved its ITAM efficiency and employee satisfaction by centralizing its receiving and deployment.

If you’d like to discuss how we can help you quickly realize the benefits of centralizing your hardware receiving and deployment, please contact me at mloria@re-sourcepartners.com.