Hardware isn’t cheap. So when companies purchase new workplace technology, they arrive at those decisions after careful deliberation, making sure they don’t overspend or over-provision.
At least, that’s how a hardware purchasing process goes under ideal circumstances. Three years ago, organizations across the globe didn’t have the luxury of slow deliberation; they had to purchase new technology — fast. The start of the global pandemic meant that entire workforces went remote, so their employers were forced to buy additional hardware to support employees in their home offices.
Now, those same companies are facing a new challenge: three years later, what do we do with the technology we hastily bought during the pandemic?
Hardware refresh cycles are putting pandemic-era technology under the microscope.
Most companies have a documented process and timeline for refreshing their employee hardware. A typical refresh cycle falls in the range of 36 to 48 months after the hardware was first provisioned. Following this timeline, much of the technology that companies purchased in early to mid-2020 — in response to the pandemic — is now up for renewal.
But this phase of hardware refresh cycle is unlike any that IT departments have undergone before, precisely because of the urgency with which they had to deploy technology in 2020. Factor in the supply chain issues that took place during that same timeframe, and one thing is clear: IT departments weren’t able to provide every employee with the exact technology they needed.
For example: let’s say an employee who largely performs administrative work needed a laptop in March of 2020 so they could work from home. But the company’s supplier could only provide them with a high-spec machine — one that’s more suited for employees running powerful applications that require a ton of disk space and built-in capabilities. This company couldn’t simply wait until a more suitable device was in stock; they had to give this employee whatever device was immediately available.
Then there’s the more complex issue of physical laptops vs. VDI environments. In 2020, companies who were running VDIs in their offices suddenly had a full staff working remotely, with no devices that could connect to their VDI infrastructure — so they had no choice but to switch to physical laptops and deploy a large number of devices. Now, these organizations need to decide whether to keep these physical devices, go back to virtual, or implement a hybrid strategy that includes a combination of the two.
As you can see, these are incredibly consequential hardware decisions — and the difference between wasting money and saving costs lies in the quality of an organization’s hardware refresh strategy.
How can companies achieve cost savings after over-provisioning technology?
It’s become clear that the traditional approach to hardware refresh cycles is insufficient to handle the multifaceted challenge of managing pandemic-era technology. If an organization takes a one-size-fits-all approach to replacing devices, they’ll not only waste a significant amount of money, but also risk damaging employee experience by failing to provide each worker with the tools they need to fulfill their specific job functions.
For this reason, a persona-based IT strategy is more critical than ever before. Organizations should create dynamic, data-driven personas that illustrate each segment of their employee base, their core responsibilities, and what technology they’ll need.
Once equipped with these personas, IT teams can then analyze performance metrics on the devices in their enterprise, including usage, network speed, and other indicators of how devices are operating now compared to when they were first deployed. This information can help them make more informed decisions about what devices to replace, update, or keep as they are.
Last but not least, it’s important for IT to gather sentiment data directly from employees to understand how they feel about their current devices, what problems they’re facing, and what they need or want to improve their productivity and overall experience.
Here’s an example: Let’s say a marketing employee was given a high-performing laptop in March of 2020. According to the company’s old hardware refresh strategy, this device is now eligible to be replaced by a new laptop.
But their IT department is able to analyze experience data and see that the employee’s laptop is still performing at relatively the same level as it was three years ago. The employee expresses frustration with how a few specific applications are performing — so IT looks into this problem and realizes it can be solved with a simple software patch rather than replacing the hardware entirely.
In this scenario, the organization would be able to extend the lifecycle of a $2000 device without negatively impacting the experience of its user. Now, imagine if they could do the same across a staff of hundreds or even thousands of employees — and you’ll understand how a data-driven hardware refresh strategy can produce monumental cost savings.
