Is this the most impactful thing to manage in DEX?

Did you know that we spend, on average 21% of our waking lives working on our PC’s? What can be more foundational to Digital Employee Experience than the status of the main work device you use?

I tried to find a pithy study on how many hours per day we spend working at a screen and lost myself in the internet for more time than I intended. I came across six different studies, ranging from 2017 to 2023, all of which varied greatly, with 2:53 being the lowest time and 5:48 being the highest reported average. The average of averages was just under 5 hours… and I’d say that sounds about right – as an average… then there are people like me, who work remote almost 100% of the time – which means I’m typically on that screen for more than 8 hours a day.

At the average screen time of 5 hours, that’s 25 hours a week, which is 22% of the time you spend conscious. For many users, that number gets to 35% or even 40%.

Getting the right match of device to user need is critical. Power users with under-performing laptops will be less productive, more frustrated and perhaps more likely to leave – while you could have standard users with over-powered machines which benefit them not at all.

If you can right-size the device to the user, and ensure users are neither over or under equipped, you can save money, improve end-user experience and even reduce carbon cost (by reducing the number of new machines purchased!).

In 1E we have a solution which looks at the status of a device as being, at any given time, one of five potential statuses, which all, thanks to some quick thinking on our part, start with the letter “R”. Let’s look at the five R’s.

·????? Retain: We’re all good here. No problems exist, the machine is a good match for the user who is using it.

·????? Replace: All is not well, this machine should be scrapped. It not only isn’t a good match for the user who is using it, it’s not a good machine to keep at all. Get rid of it!

·????? Repair: Something is not right with this device. It needs to be repaired – the user may or may not be aware of the issue, but they will be if you don’t take action sooner rather than later.

·????? Reassign: This machine is ok… but it’s not a good match to the current user. Consider reassigning it to someone else.

·????? Reimage: This machine isn’t behaving as we’d expect. Other machines with the same spec are performing better across several metrics. Consider wiping and reloading the image, to see if we can get this back to where it should be.

Obviously the goal in any environment is to have as many machines in “Retain” as possible. The other statuses are in descending order of undesirable… There is no point repairing a machine which should be replaced, no point reassigning a device which needs repair, etc.

Overall we consider hundreds of data points to suggest which status a device should be in. We then wrapped all of that up into a solution called “Device Refresh” – which to my mind minimizes the value proposition of this tool.

It isn’t JUST useful when you’re replacing or refreshing devices – it monitors devices continuously to ensure they are a good fit for your users, minimizing frustration and maximizing value from hardware spend.

Now, when you replace a machine, you know why and you know it’s really necessary – you are not replacing just because the device has depreciated in book value to $0, or because the user claims it’s slow. If it is REALLY slow, you’ll know, and can take action. Data driven decisions here, will save dollars and reduce carbon cost – as the average laptop takes a whopping 326kg of carbon, considering the total impact from production of raw materials, right through to delivery to the user.

Every three devices you avoid purchasing literally avoid a TON of carbon use. We have customers who otherwise would have purchased thousands of devices (because they had hit an age limit) who now know they can keep using those devices, that the devices do not need to be repaired, are not slowing down or frustrating their users, etc. Saving millions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of tons of carbon. Better for the user, better for the company and better for the planet.

That’s a win/win/win I’m proud of having been a part of bringing to market. Do reach out if you want to find out more about how your organization can leverage Device Refresh.

This has been an episode of the DEX Files. Stay tuned, follow me to be informed when the next episode drops later this month.