Device Deployment: Your Guide to Friction-Free Tech Distribution

Deploying devices quickly and efficiently is a must in the modern workplace. Whether it’s strictly in-house or a fully remote team scattered worldwide, you need to get the right tech into your employees’ hands without any hiccups. 

Device deployment accomplishes this while preventing unnecessary friction, as long as you take a strategic approach and follow best practices. 

What is Device Deployment?

Device deployment consists of preparing and distributing devices to team members, ensuring they’re fully functional and aligned with IT infrastructure. Devices can include desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones, as well as wearables or any other mobile devices that are integral to operations. 

Note, however, that device deployment goes much deeper than simply getting tech into the hands of team members. 

It involves:

• Device delivery
• Installation
• Registration
• Device configuration
• Managing settings
• Security setup
• Employee training and support
• Device management

At the end of the day, device deployment is designed to streamline the process of distributing devices throughout organizations. That way, you can seamlessly integrate devices so employees can efficiently use them in daily operations without wasting time, energy, or money.

This means smoother workflows with fewer disruptions.

A good deployment model also helps organizations stay in compliance with industry security standards and plays a key role in maximizing digital security. 

With nearly 33.8 million attacks on mobile devices in 2023 — a 50% increase from the previous year — cutting-edge cybersecurity has never been more important. 

Device Deployment Process

To ensure efficient device deployment, organizations must take a structured, phased approach that allows them to move from beginning to end with minimal disruption. 

That way, they can get devices to the appropriate team members and be certain everything is up and running and ready for rapid implementation. 

While the exact sequence can vary slightly from company to company, the general device deployment process consists of five main steps.  

1. Hardware Procurement

Simply put, this involves obtaining the devices your team needs, such as desktops, laptops, tablets, and accessories. 

During this initial stage, you identify the specific types of devices you need, the quantity, technical specifications, security requirements, compliance standards, and so on. 

You must also take into account compatibility with your existing IT infrastructure, as well as budget. Some other factors include vendor reputability, warranty, and delivery time. 

You have two main choices with hardware procurement.

You can handle it yourself. Or you can use professional IT procurement services, which take the hassle out of the process, streamlining mobile device deployment, as well as long-term device management. 

2. Device Enrollment into an MDM Solution

Once a device has been acquired, the next step is to enroll it into a mobile device management (MDM solution). 

An MDM solution is what allows your IT administrator to connect, control settings, and secure a device. In turn, it can be integrated into your network and managed from a centralized location, which allows for proper compliance, data storage protection, and heightened security.

If you’re curious, some of today’s top MDM solutions include:

• Jamf Pro
• Kandji
• JumpCloud
• Scalefusion

3. Configure Company Security Settings

Again, security is one of the biggest concerns facing today’s organizations with device deployment. With bring-your-own-device policies and widespread IoT device implementation becoming more common in recent years, tight security has never been more important. 

Therefore, the third step in the deployment process is configuring new devices in accordance with organizational security settings to ensure operating systems are up-to-date and protected against vulnerabilities. 

Some specific steps involved with settings configuration include creating strong passwords, using end-to-end encryption, and setting up a firewall and antivirus software like Samsung Knox. 

It’s also common to set up multi-factor authentication to require multiple steps and identify verification before signing into a device. 

4. Account Creation, Allotting Privileges, and Access Rights

The fourth step involves creating an account for each team member and adjusting access control settings to determine what level of access each person has to a device. This is fundamental in maximizing security and not taking unnecessary risks with device usage. 

As a general rule, a user should be granted the minimum amount of privileges to perform their job tasks and nothing further, as this reduces security risks while ensuring consistency across the board.

5. Deliver a Ready-to-Use Device to an Employee

Once a device has been enrolled and the settings fully configured, it’s delivered to an employee so they can begin using it right away. 

Rather than having to purchase hardware, install apps, fine-tune security, and so on, it’s ready to go right out of the box while meeting your company’s specific requirements. 

In turn, this saves an employee time from having to deal with setup and configuration, thus maximizing productivity while also reducing frustration. 

Common Device Deployment Issues

As we’ve learned, device deployment aims to maximize efficiency when distributing devices across teams. It’s all about quickly getting devices into workers' hands so they’re ready to go right out of the box. 

But like any type of tech provisioning, there’s always the potential for challenges arising along the way. 

This is especially true if your device deployment process is rolled out at scale. While even scheduled deployment to just a handful of employees can come with setbacks, the potential for issues greatly increases with larger teams. 

And if your team largely consists of remote workers, this can come with its own unique set of challenges, as employees are scattered across multiple locations. 

Here are some of the most common device deployment issues organizations face.

Compatibility 

Technology is constantly advancing, with new updates continuously being rolled out all of the time. As a result, one of the biggest obstacles companies face is ensuring new device deployments are compatible with existing IT infrastructure. 

If your current infrastructure is outdated, for example, it may not support new devices you’re trying to integrate, which can mean headaches for those responsible for deployment.  

Besides that, there may be a situation where different operating systems or software apps don’t sync with one another, which can create system instability. 

User Training

Three main things can go wrong on the user’s end. 

One is they may simply be resistant to using a new device or operating system, which can undermine your efforts and reduce the overall effectiveness of the deployment process. 

If someone prefers Samsung devices, for instance, they may be reluctant to switch to another brand. 

Another is experiencing difficulty with configuring a new device, installing apps, managing settings, or connecting to a network. Any time there’s a newly deployed device — especially for remote work — there’s always the potential that a user will struggle with the setup. 

Third, inadequate training may create further issues and lengthen the learning curve. For instance, if users are rushed through training and don’t have a chance to fully get their bearings, they may run into problems, which can diminish rather than increase their productivity. 

Security Concerns

Any time sensitive data is transmitted across desktops, laptops, or mobile devices, there’s always an inevitable security threat.  

Data breaches, malware, viruses, and password attacks are just a few examples of issues that today’s organizations are up against. 

Also, whenever employees (even the most trusted) have access to critical information, you always need to be aware of insider threats, where bad actors can deliberately exploit your data.

If someone uses a company device as a personal device, the odds of an issue occurring are even higher. 

User Experience

This can include: 

• A lengthy, complex, or confusing setup process
• Poor onboarding, which leads to frustration
• Compatibility problems when connecting different products like Apple devices to Android devices
• Issues migrating data from an old device to a new one
• Slow loading times
• Security concerns

A negative user experience is problematic because it creates unnecessary friction and can diminish productivity. 

Best Practices for Device Deployment

To minimize compatibility issues, it’s important to ensure that any devices you receive from vendors during deployment are compatible with your current IT infrastructure. 

Before ordering company owned devices, make sure that you’re on the same page and perform comprehensive compatibility testing before you roll out new devices to your workforce. 

Another critical precursor to successful deployment is getting your employees on board with your deployment plan to break through any resistance to change. 

This can often be done by clearly highlighting the benefits of using new devices (more efficiency, streamlined workflows, etc.).

Also, be sure that each device is delivery-ready, meaning it’s fully configured, apps are installed, and settings are fine-tuned so an employee doesn’t have to struggle with staging and setup. 

As for security measures, this starts with creating comprehensive security policies that cover all of the bases. Ensure all connected devices have things like antivirus software installed and access management settings have been properly set up. 

And if you’re using multi factor authentication, be sure that it’s set up as well. 

Also, create a policy regarding the personal use of devices. For example, ensuring company owned devices are strictly used for work purposes should decrease the chances of security issues. 

When it comes to UX, continuously work to refine your device setup and onboarding so that they’re as quick and efficient as possible. 

It’s also nice to have a dedicated resource, such as a content library or chatbot, available on demand to help employees find answers to their questions. 

Finally, create a perpetual feedback loop where team members can share their experiences and pinpoint inefficiencies that can be resolved to make device deployment increasingly efficient over time.  

Effortless Device Deployment with allwhere 

Let’s recap. Device deployment focuses on the end-to-end process of preparing, configuring, and delivering devices to employees so they’re ready to go right out of the box. 

When done correctly, this can offer several rewards, including deploying devices quickly and efficiently, boosting employee productivity, and maximizing ROI. 

That said, device deployment comes with inherent challenges that can thwart your efforts — mainly compatibility issues, user training, security concerns, and UX problems. 

If you’re looking for a better way to deploy devices while covering all of the bases, allwhere deployment services can help in virtually every aspect. 

We specialize in deploying IT equipment hassle-free while providing a smooth, streamlined onboarding experience. We offer a wide selection of devices from today’s top vendors and do all the heavy lifting for zero touch deployment on your end. 

With our global procurement, you can choose the exact devices and accessories you need to meet the needs of your workforce. 

We handle all the logistics with our managed mobility services to ensure your team gets the right devices on time with no drama. And we offer simplified tracking so you can monitor all of your IT assets in one convenient dashboard. 

Whenever you need to retrieve managed devices, we can take care of that as well. You can use a basic laptop return service for a single target device. Or you can get bulk retrievals for multiple devices at once. 

Learn more about how allwhere works here.