The move to remote work has completely broken old IT Asset Management (ITAM) models. When workers were inside the company’s perimeter, tracking assets was as easy as scanning the local network and doing physical inventory checks.
Today, things are very different. Ivanti’s 2025 Technology at Work Report says that only 35% of IT professionals think their company does a good job of keeping track of device age or location. For the other 65%, the corporate network has turned into thousands of separate home offices, which is a logistical and security nightmare.
Updating a spreadsheet with home addresses isn’t enough to manage a fleet of distributed hardware. It requires a complete rethinking of the asset lifecycle, from buying and setting it up to supporting it and eventually recovering it. This guide talks about the operational strategies you need to use to keep your IT assets visible, safe, and under control when they are spread out all over the world.
There are a lot more problems with remote ITAM than just knowing who has which laptop. When you add in logistics, security, and the huge amount of extra equipment needed to run a modern home office, things get even more complicated.
Standard tools that perform discovery typically require connectivity to the organization’s domain to function. Remote workers can cause headaches to the ITAM team as they are invisible to the organization when they are offline or using split-tunnel VPN configurations. This means that the ITAM team is unable to determine patch status, understand software usage, or asset location.
Getting hardware and bringing it to a central office is easy. Shipping individual laptops, monitors, and ergonomic chairs to hundreds of homes is a huge logistical problem. IT teams have to deal with a lot of shipping companies, file customs forms for employees who work in other countries, and deal with packages that get lost or damaged.
A remote worker needs more than just a laptop. They need ergonomic furniture, docking stations, headsets, and monitors. Many people think that keeping track of these less important peripherals is too much work, which leads to “equipment sprawl,” where the company loses track of thousands of dollars’ worth of extra hardware.
Laptops on kitchen tables are less secure than laptops on desktops in corporate locations, as they are at risk of theft, exposure to family members installing software or accessing sensitive information, and connection to a home Wi-Fi network that has been compromised by a cyber criminal. When working with laptop security software, your ITAM software can play a vital role in mitigating these issues.
When employees move to a new state or country, the hardware they take with them is subject to the data privacy and tax laws of that place. To make sure the company follows the laws in each region about where data can be stored and how quickly equipment loses value, ITAM teams must keep track of where assets are at all times.
The provisioning process sets the mood for the remote worker’s time with the company. Strong logistics and clear communication are needed for a smooth, professional onboarding process.
When a hardware vendor or a Value-Added Reseller (VAR) ships directly to an employee’s home, internal IT teams don’t have to deal with physical boxes. This “zero-touch” provisioning model needs the procurement system, the ITAM database, and the vendor’s fulfillment platform to work very well together.
Regional distribution centers are a good option for companies that have a lot of remote workers in certain areas. Employees can pick up pre-configured equipment from secure smart lockers in co-working spaces or regional hubs. This cuts down on shipping costs and transit times.
Like smart lockers, working with retail logistics companies lets employees pick up their gear from nearby locations that are easy to get to. This method makes sure that packages are safe and can’t be stolen from porches.
White-glove setup services send a technician to the employee’s home office to deliver, set up, and test the hardware. This is useful for executive hires or employees who need complicated, specialized equipment. Even though it’s expensive, this guarantees quick productivity and a great onboarding experience.
As IT shifts to zero-touch provisioning, employees are often the last to configure IT on a new device. As a result, the unboxing experience must be sufficient to avoid day-one support calls. In addition, automated provisioning scripts must ensure proper enrollment into the correct ITAM system and registration onto the correct Mobile Device Management (MDM) platform.
When embarking on an inventory tracking project, many IT managers imagine a simple process that begins with a network scan. The reality, however, is that a more sophisticated strategy is typically required to ensure accuracy.
Cloud-based discovery agents are used by modern ITAM platforms to report back to the central database, no matter what network the device is connected to. The agent sends information about the hardware, installed software, and general location of the device as long as it is connected to the internet.
Monitoring VPN connection logs is a second way to check asset activity, but it is not as reliable as dedicated agents. If a device hasn’t connected to the VPN in 30 days, an automated workflow starts to check on the asset’s status.
For remote ITAM, agent-based collection is the best way to go. These small programs run all the time in the background and send real-time information about system health, software use, and security compliance directly to the ITAM dashboard.
Not all tracking problems can be solved by technology. As part of periodic user attestation campaigns, employees must log into a self-service portal and confirm that they have the equipment they were given, even if it is not trackable, like monitors and ergonomic chairs.
When the IT team can’t see the device, physical tags aren’t as helpful, but keeping accurate serial number records is very important for warranty claims, police reports in case of theft, and confirming the identity of equipment that is returned during offboarding.
The ITAM database is what makes remote endpoint security possible. You can’t protect something you can’t see.
Before being able to use company resources, every remote asset must be checked against a strict security baseline. The ITAM system keeps track of whether or not requirements like having active antivirus software, firewalls turned on, and up-to-date operating system patches are being met.
You can’t change the fact that remote laptops need full-disk encryption. The ITAM platform needs to keep track of the encryption status and keep the recovery keys safe. The system should also keep an eye on how well people are following complicated password rules and requirements for multi-factor authentication.
The IT team needs to be able to run a remote wipe command when a remote device is reported lost or stolen, or when an employee is fired without warning. This action is set off by the ITAM system through the MDM platform. This makes sure that company data is lost even if the physical asset is never found.
IT can’t control an employee’s home router, but the company should make it clear how to protect home Wi-Fi networks. The ITAM team can help with this by keeping track of which employees have finished the required security awareness training.
In a home office, the lines between personal and business use get blurry. Family members should only be able to use company devices and install certain types of personal software if there are clear rules about what is and isn’t allowed. The ITAM system keeps an eye on policy violations by keeping track of software that is installed without permission.
Managing the remote worker’s physical environment means finding a balance between making them comfortable and keeping costs down for the company.
Providing standard equipment bundles, like “The Developer Package” or “The Sales Package,” makes it easier to buy and get help. The ITAM system keeps track of these bundles as one logical asset, making sure that the employee gets the right monitors, docks, and other devices for their job.
To follow occupational health rules, it is often necessary to provide ergonomic chairs and standing desks. Because shipping costs make it hard to return these big, expensive items during offboarding, the ITAM system needs a different way to keep track of them.
Companies need to make it clear what equipment they will provide and what the employee is expected to bring (like a desk or home internet connection). To avoid problems with privacy and liability, the ITAM database should only keep track of company-owned assets.
An increasing number of organizations are opting to provide their employees with a stipend to build their home office, as opposed to purchasing equipment and having it shipped directly to the employee. From an administrative perspective, this approach can bring many time and cost-saving benefits.
From an ITAM perspective, organizations may feel they have given up too much by not allowing the organization to customize the hardware and software combination to meet business requirements, lose the benefits of integrating equipment and having a completely tracked asset, and then allowing the employee to further customize the asset to suit their needs.
Whether or not your facility is located in a remote site, hardware will eventually fail to function as required. Instead of shipping defective hardware to the helpdesk, however, Network Depot can assist you in implementing a distributed infrastructure maintenance support strategy.
IT support teams and their associated tools need to be integrated with multiple remote control tools. However, with the ITAM agent, the support team also gets a stream of diagnostic data such as CPU, battery health, and application crashes, etc. Meaning issues can be resolved without ever physically seeing the device.
With a remote laptop in a remote location, there is little time to repair it before employees start demanding an immediate fix. To meet these tight delivery time scales, vendors offer an advanced replacement service whereby the employee receives a pre-configured replacement device in a very short timeframe. The ITAM system would then track the ‘assets in transit’ as the employee returns the faulty laptop in a sealed envelope to the vendor.
For small repairs, like a cracked screen or broken keyboard, the employee can drop off the device at a nearby authorized repair center that is part of a global network. The ITAM system keeps track of the repair status and works with the vendor to handle warranty claims.
With a regional presence of “company-owned smart or intelligent” lockers, all an employee needs to do is drive to the lockers to drop off their broken device and pick up their pre-configured replacement device. These regional smart intelligent lockers update and notify the company’s ITAM database (where assets are documented) that the new asset has been received, and the broken item needs to be repaired.
Giving remote workers the tools to do basic troubleshooting takes some of the work off the IT helpdesk. The ITAM portal should let users access self-service knowledge bases, video tutorials, and FAQs that are specific to the hardware models they have been given.
The hardest part of the asset lifecycle is getting equipment back from remote employees who are leaving. Industry data suggests that the average employee return rate hovers around 45%, representing a massive financial loss.
Offboarding Equipment Collection
As soon as an employee gives notice, the recovery process must begin. The ITAM system should automatically start a workflow that tells the employee what they need to do when they get back, make a detailed list of the equipment they have, and start the shipping process.
There will be no charge to employees for the return of company property. In order to encourage employees to return properly functioning equipment, the company will obtain the shipping labels and provide the packaging materials, such as boxes and bubble wrap, specific to the laptop.
Managing the logistics of asset recovery is often outsourced to specialized IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) partners. These vendors talk to the former employee, send out the packaging, keep track of the shipment, and clean up the data when it arrives. They then send the final status back to the company’s ITAM system.
The cost of shipping back older hardware or big peripherals (like chairs and monitors) is often more than the asset’s remaining value. A buy-back program lets the employee who is leaving buy the equipment at a fair market value that has gone down, which helps the company get some of its money back and gets rid of all the shipping problems.
ITAM dashboard content should measure the effectiveness of the organization’s recovery / offboarding process. In order to improve the offboarding process further, the following metrics should be tracked and enforced by ITAM with HR and management. % of assets returned on time (e.g., within 14 days), the value of “ghost assets” that have not been unrecovered, and the condition on return.
Managing assets across international borders adds a level of legal and financial complexity that most domestic ITAM programs don’t have to deal with.
When shipping hardware to another country, there are many rules around customs formalities, import taxes, and export restrictions. ITAM needs to work closely with procurement and legal departments to ensure that commercial invoices are accurate and the organization is compliant with all relevant technology export restrictions.
The standards for hardware are different in different parts of the world. There are different layouts for keyboards, different plugs for power supplies, and cellular modems work on different frequencies. The ITAM system needs to keep track of these differences between regions to make sure that the right equipment is bought and sent to international workers.
The ITAM database must support valuing in multiple currencies for global companies. The company’s books must show the correct depreciation of a laptop bought in Euros in US Dollars. To handle changes in exchange rates, the ITAM platform and the corporate ERP system need to work together.
Laws about data privacy, like the GDPR in Europe, say how employee data and asset location information can be stored and sent. The ITAM program must be designed to comply with these regional regulations, ensuring that tracking agents do not violate employee privacy rights and that data sanitization procedures meet local legal standards.
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