Provide Laptop to Employee Quickly and Securely: A Detailed Guide

Ideal for in-house, remote, and hybrid work, laptops are the most commonly used IT device by many employees. But there’s more to equipping a team member with a new computer than you may think. 

For this post, we’ll unpack the different approaches for employee laptop distribution, best practices, helpful tools, and more. 

What Are the Main Models for Providing Company Laptops?

There are three main approaches your organization can take to provide a laptop to an employee. 

Deciding which option is best depends on what level of security you need, compliance standards, company policies, budget, and how much freedom you’re comfortable giving employees when mixing business and personal usage.  

COPE (Company-Owned, Personally Enabled)

With this model, your organization owns the laptop, and an employee uses it primarily for business tasks. 

However, they’re also allowed to use it for limited personal tasks, such as accessing personal email and using personal apps, with the agreement that there are certain guardrails in place. 

You can think of it as a hybrid between being a work computer with a dash of a personal laptop. 

Under the COPE model, you have full control and visibility of laptop activities. You configure it exactly as you like, install whatever software or files you’d like, and can easily manage security features. 

But unlike the COBO model, which we’ll discuss next, there’s a bit more flexibility, which can contribute to a less restrictive and more enjoyable employee experience. 

Many companies enjoy COPE because it offers the perfect mix of security and flexibility and tends to work well for remote/hybrid teams.

COBO (Company-Owned, Business Only)

Under the COBO model, an employer provides employees with company-owned laptops that can only be used strictly for business purposes, with zero personal activities allowed. 

For example, unlike the COPE model, where employees can check their personal email or use personal apps, these activities are forbidden with COBO, as it’s the most rigid of the three models. 

Under this setup, a laptop is completely locked down, and an employer controls every element of IT security. From configuration to software installation and updates to employee usage, it’s all under your thumb. 

If you’re in an industry like finance or healthcare that carries a high level of risk, COBO is usually the best systems option, as the other two models don’t offer the same degree of security. 

For instance, banks or credit union institutions would likely have to use the COBO approach because of tight security requirements. 

But here’s the thing. Some employees may find COBO restrictive because of its lack of flexibility and convenience, which can be problematic. But if ultra-high security is a top priority and any personal computer activities could pose a major risk, this is likely your best option.

BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)

This is where your employees use their own personal laptops for work purposes, either at your company location or at home. 

The main benefit of BYOD is that it can help an employer save time and money, as a person simply uses their own device, and no distribution logistics are involved. 

So if you’re on an extremely tight budget, this is by far the most affordable option, and you can distribute the money saved to other places, like increased worker compensation and reinvesting it into your company. 

That being said, we don’t recommend BYOD because it can create serious security and device management issues. That’s because personal laptops may have inadequate security, a lack of virus protection, and operating system compatibility issues (Mac vs. Windows).

In addition, it can lead to poor data hygiene, and sometimes the equipment may not meet compliance standards, which can create additional problems for your company. 

Laptop Management Best Practices

In today’s globalized workplace, organizations must cater to a variety of employee working arrangements. Some people work at home full-time, some are in the office full-time, but most work hybrid positions, where they spend some days in the office and some days at home. 

Assuming you’re not using the BYOD model, here’s a list of best practices that should allow you to cater to all types of working arrangements throughout each stage of the device lifecycle. 

Procurement

Your main objective during procurement is to find the perfect equipment your employees need based on their specific role, needs, and geography. You also want to find a reliable, reputable vendor with reasonable pricing.

Some best practices include looking for bulk pricing deals from the same vendor to maximize your ROI and performing routine equipment forecasting to predict your needs ahead of time.

Note that many companies opt for IT procurement services like allwhere because we partner with a large network of top vendors, which means quick, effortless fulfillment, where you get the exact laptops you need on time without being limited to a single vendor.

Deployment

To ensure seamless, rapid deployment so employees can be quickly up and running with minimal onboarding hiccups, you’ll want to do the following. 

• Pre-configure laptops with software, apps, tools, security controls, and access settings.
• Include additional accessories, such as a power adapter, USB hub, or protective sleeve, in a kit.
• Use accelerated shipping to get equipment to employees as quickly as possible.

Monitoring 

After an employee has received their computer, proactive monitoring should keep it running smoothly, catch security vulnerabilities in advance, and minimize disruptions that could result in downtime. 

Typically, the best way to streamline monitoring is to use IT asset management services, which let you see your entire asset inventory from a single dashboard. That way, you can see which employee has what laptop, the current location, and when it’s in transit or storage. 

You can also conveniently sync new devices to your inventory with ease. 

Besides that, you can receive upgrade reminders to prevent oversight, initiate actions for repair, resale, or recycling, and see repair options. 

Retrieval

Here you’ll want to:

• Send employees easy-to-follow retrieval kits so they can conveniently send laptops back 
• Use security features like data wiping or remote locking to protect sensitive information during transport
• Use an advanced tracking system to follow the shipping status from start to finish

And if you’re looking for hands-off retrieval, you can use a laptop retrieval service to handle logistics and communication, while ensuring secure transport. 

Retirement

There are three main boxes to check at the final IT asset lifecycle stage of retirement. 

First, ensure security by using techniques like degaussing and using a secure chain of custody. 

Second, maintain company compliance, such as recording documentation during the disposal process and following laws and standards like the GDPR and HIPAA. 

Third, reduce your environmental footprint by prioritizing reuse and replacement when possible and only partnering with providers that are certified for responsible disposal. 

Other Best Practices for Managing Remote IT Assets

• For software, be sure to A) always follow license compliance and B) use automatic updates to get notified when a license is approaching its end date.
• Track the full IT asset lifecycle end-to-end, including all of the stages listed above, to gain an overarching perspective for maximum visibility.
• Use analytics to identify strengths and weaknesses in the asset lifecycle so you can make data-driven decisions to continually refine the process.
• Use bare minimum access settings to prevent unauthorized access and strengthen overall security.

Equip Your Team with Company-Approved Devices Through allwhere

If you’re looking for a reliable way to drastically streamline device procurement without having to do it yourself, allwhere can help. One of our specialties is providing teams with quality laptops from today’s top vendors anywhere in the world. 

Again, because we source from a vast network of vendors, we’re able to get the exact equipment your company needs, regardless of the specifications, without being tethered to a single vendor. 

So even if one vendor is out of stock, we can quickly locate an alternative for smooth, hassle-free fulfillment. 

Besides that, we handle logistics and communication to save you time, reduce your workload, and eliminate headaches. 

Get started with allwhere today.