[Community tips] How do you manage the removal of devices at the end of their life at your company?

[Lizzie]

Hello everyone,

I hope you are all doing well.

We talk here in the community quite a lot about setting up company devices and managing devices whilst they are in use, but something we haven't gone into too much detail is what do you do with your devices once they have come to the end of their life at your company? 

I imagine you have to consider quite a few things; such as if you are removing devices how do you get new devices seamlessly back into use? What do you do with the old devices? Do you return them to your OEM or another company to be reused? There is a large sustainability factor here that you may also consider, as well as many other things.

It would be great to hear how do you manage this? Do you have a set timeframe that you look to refresh devices? Any tips or challenges that you have discovered?

Looking forward to hearing from you. 

Lizzie

[Michel]

As a reseller we assist a lot with these kind of questions. Its interesting to see what customers decide to do:

- Use trade-in options

- Donations

- Handing out to employees

- Offering employees to buy there work phone

- Put them in storage and forget about them. 

No matter what option they pick, I always make sure to point out the importance of wiping a device. Samsung has a certification that says that a MDM wipe is making sure that all data is removed, but not all vendors have these kind of certificates. Besides that, as a company you don't get any confirmation about it. Which makes it difficult to prove that devices have been wiped in case you need it. 

I always advice to perform a certified wipe before getting rid of device. Its quick, easy and it gives you some peace of mind that corporate data is actually removed. 

[Lizzie]

Thank @Michel for your response. Yeah, you mention options here that I hadn't even thought about. 😀 It would be super interesting to hear what options are the most popular and I suppose sometimes it could be a combination of options depending on the devices. 

Your point on security is a crucial one here. Regarding your point about hearing when a device has been wiped, do you think something could be implemented to help this? Do you think it would be useful? 

[Michel]

Trade-in is by far the most populair one, reducing the cost for new devices beats going a sustainable route (but even with trade-in, customers demand a sustainable proces) 

I think such a certification that Samsung has should be the standard for all devices, a wipe initiated from a factory reset or trough MDM should always wipe all data.

But getting a certificate that proofs it is wiped can only be generated trough 3rd party software in my opinion. There is a dutch saying: You can't be the butcher who inspects his own meat. Meaning: If the butcher says its meat is safe but it hasn't been checked by someone else (the authorities ), can you really be sure that it is safe? 

[Alex_Muc]

Well, we used to physically destroy the memory chips in old cell phones in the past and have the devices and batteries recycled. 😄

For some years now, a recycling partner has been receiving our retired devices. The partner erases the devices in compliance with data protection regulations and resells the devices as used devices or recycles the raw materials from the device if reselling is not an option.
The devices are removed from the automated device enrollment and are checked for memory cards and SIM cards and reset to factory settings before shipping. Better safe than sorry.
As long as devices still receive OTA updates and are in good condition, the devices are returned to the internal cycle. (Returned devices are reused, for example, as swap devices in the event of a faulty device)

Retired devices could also be given to employees or sold for a small price. Our organization has done this in the past, but has since decided against it. I believe that you have to offer a warranty when selling, but you don't really want to offer it for such devices.