It has been more than a year since Covid-19 shut down the world, and even though things are starting to open again, we still aren’t ready for things to go back the way they were. In fact, we may never go back completely and we introduced Self-certification because of this.
One of the biggest changes for many was their need to shift to a work from home model. Companies had to quickly figure out how to equip their employees with the tools and resources they’d need to continue to do their jobs remotely. This required making sure employees had access to the hardware and software they needed immediately. In some cases, IT departments had to make quick decisions on what needed to be ordered, what could be repurposed, and what they already had on hand that would be deployed immediately.
Hardware asset management
Covid brought hardware asset management to the forefront because now it is essential to be able to easily track and manage assets from anywhere. Companies had to figure out how to order, deliver, track and manage existing and new equipment. They also needed to address new security needs the remote work environment introduced. In fact, Forrester research firm predicts insider data breaches will account for one-third of all breaches in 2021, making security for remote assets vital for success.
Initially, this new work from home model was just going to be until things got back to normal but in the past year, many companies are seeing real value in this new mode of work. A recent report by Willis Towers Watson, a benefits consulting firm states, “Employers expect nearly 2 in 5 employees will still be working remotely at the end of 2021, compared with 57% who work remotely now, although that varies by industry.”
A change like this means a host of new concerns:
- When employees do come back to the office, what needs to be replaced at the office to equip everyone?
- How do they get an accurate account of what employees currently have at home?
- How will they ensure all hardware meets compliance standards?
- What are the permanent security needs for deploying hardware?
- How do they ensure they get assets returned once an employee leaves or if the asset needs to be retired?
Thankfully, the newest release of AssetTrack for ServiceNow includes end-user self-certification as a solution to all of these issues and only takes a few minutes to complete.
Self-certification is a simple process:
- Sends an email to individuals that have hardware asset(s) assigned to them.
- Creates customized employee survey certifications that asks questions such as:
- Do you have this asset?
- Do you need it returned?
- Do you have anything else?
- Results are populated in an AssetTrack table which can be reviewed prior to updating the hardware records, or they can append the hardware records directly.
- Provides access to a dashboard that reports the number of employees in compliance / out of compliance.
- Enables automated reminder emails to those out of compliance using ServiceNow notifications.
- Includes an escalation process that can be implemented.
- Allows for scheduled processes as needed i.e., quarterly, semi-annually, or annually.
This provides asset managers the ability to develop a long-term program that can keep track of employee assets whether or not they return to the office. Asset managers are now assured they have accurate, reliable data on what assets they have, where those assets are located, which ones are still needed, and a status for all assets including those that are offline. Self-certification closes the loop on where IT hardware is.
Working from home has come with its share of headaches and has required adjustments on various fronts but keeping track of assets doesn’t need to be one of them. Do you want to learn more? Watch this video, hardware asset management in the work-from-home environment
