Agencies increasingly want a full device lifecycle management approach, also known as Device as a Service (DaaS), to gain budget certainty and the ability to quickly expand or contract their IT asset footprints as needed.
Whether they’re equipping contract personnel or summer interns, agencies can pay a simple monthly fee per device to put a fully provisioned laptop or mobile phone in their hands, with all the kitting and accessories — just log in and go.
Historically, agencies kept unused devices on shelves for months waiting for a period of expansion, but DaaS sees a vendor handle the full lifecycle, including asset tagging, management, provisioning, software updates, repair, decommissioning and sanitation.
Agencies can even establish different device baselines, specifications and configurations for different roles: end users, power users, leadership, developers and IT staff.
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Handling the Device Lifecycle, From Asset Tagging to Disposal
The Defense Information Systems Agency acquires its hardware assets via DaaS and ensures their core security, software and licenses are covered by a single contract. All devices must enroll in DISA’s mobile device management platform.
Elsewhere, the U.S. Census Bureau turned to CDW Government for the deployment of about 640,000 Apple-based laptops and 70,000 Windows-based laptops to support the 2020 census, resulting in a significant increase in production and a decrease in IT investment.
CDW automated the provisioning of these devices before kitting and shipping them and supported them throughout their lifecycles. Traditionally, customers are on their own for support, but CDW Government has a help desk for advanced warranty exchanges, hot swaps, hardware dispatch and device management.
The company further handled security policies, operating system update compliance, auditing and reporting, and asset inventory management, including location reporting. CDW Government supported ad hoc requests for device locations for laptops, smartphones and other devices that were within 100 miles of storm epicenters, so the bureau could notify employees to seek shelter.
When the census was completed, CDW Government collected those devices using reverse logistics, sanitized them in accordance with National Institute of Standards and Technology recommendations, audited logs and then disposed of the assets.
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Starting With a Use Case and User Roles
When implementing DaaS at an agency, the first step CDW Government takes is to understand the use case and the average workday for different user roles. From there, it’s a matter of determining the right configurations for each role in terms of hardware and software to be provisioned for devices.
Be wary of vendors promising zero-touch provisioning, because many still expect the end user to spend several hours following step-by-step instructions for manually provisioning their devices after powering them on for the first time. True zero-touch requires nothing manual.
This article is part of FedTech’s CapITal blog series.
