Managing Your Company IT Assets Through Increased Home Working

Employers and employees have embraced working from home with amazing adaptability, but among the many challenges to overcome, adherence to IT asset management and disposal policies has often taken a backseat. 

What is IT Asset Management and Why is it Important?

IT asset management typically focuses on company-owned assets, and on controlling device and data usage and security. Most companies, particularly those dealing with sensitive customer information, provide company laptops and phones to employees who need to work outside of the office environment, to ensure control over data security. 

However, the sudden onset of the pandemic left many companies without the time or the equipment to set-up employees to work from home as they usually would.  Initially, many employees were reliant on personal devices for completing work. Over time, a significant proportion of company-owned IT equipment, set-up to be used on secure office networks, has been moved to employees’ homes to enable efficient home working. 

Regardless of the device used, the overall responsibility for data security lies with the employer. Data breaches can be extremely costly to companies, which is why it's important that IT asset management and disposal policies and procedures are updated to reflect new working practices for 2020 and beyond.

Can I Safely Use a Personal Device For Work at Home?

It’s a matter for each company to determine whether personal devices can and should be used when working at home, but it's important to ensure that any device used for customer or company information is logged and protected. This can provide a significant headache for IT managers as they try to unravel access beyond company devices. Millions of employees across the country have adapted to working from home under the terrible circumstances we’ve all faced, and companies that haven’t been able to provide suitable IT equipment have benefited from this flexibility. Whilst it's understandable that the pandemic has forced many organisations to give up full control of data handling and IT asset management, the company still remains responsible, and must now ensure controls are put in place. Data managers will need to review processes to control the amount of data held locally on devices. It is also crucial for devices to be appropriately secured to protect content.  Proper consolidation of devices and data access will allow a company to plan data destruction and computer disposal with employees. 

Secure Data Destruction and IT Asset Disposal

Ensuring that your company has a plan for IT asset management, and continues to help employees manage devices and data is critical. When a device that has held company information is recycled or disposed of, data can still be held on the device. This data could then be retrieved, even if the device was factory reset. It’s extremely important that all IT equipment being used for company purposes, including personal devices, is sent for appropriate end of life data destruction and IT asset disposal to avoid any sensitive customer data falling into the wrong hands. 

Reuse and Revive IT Equipment

Secure data destruction is beneficial for protecting the information held, but also to allow devices to be safely reused and allowing product lifecycles to be extended. This is the maximum value retention we add to data destruction and working to a circular economy. The circular economy is ensuring as many components or devices as possible are reused for as long as possible to maximise their lifecycle. CCL (North) Ltd. make it a core business objective to drive re-use as much as possible, and our professional data destruction service helps facilitate this.

Hassle Free IT Asset Collection

A professional organisation, such as CCL (North) Ltd. will ensure 100% of data is destroyed on a device, and that appropriate evidence is supplied to demonstrate that you have fulfilled your duty of care to destroy data and dispose of IT assets securely. Contact CCL (North) Ltd. today to assist with your IT disposal and secure data destruction needs.