Preparing for Enrollment

As with all projects, preparing well for your device refresh project before the project start is THE key to success.  Hoping the project will go well without proper preparation is simply a recipe for failure, and none of us want that!  So, here are some things to consider before you start, and how FileWave capabilities can help:

Device Reclamation

• Step one of a refresh is usually about retrieving devices that are already in the field.  Are you needing to do that?  If so, you'll want to consider:
  • Is it important to know from whom or from where the device came?  Let's look at an example:

Brian is running a project to retrieve and reassign all iPads in his district.  2/3 of the devices will simply be retrieved, wiped, updated, and re-enrolled with new users.  However, 1/3 of his devices were on a 2 year lease, which is now at an end.  Those devices need to be retrieved and returned to the lease company.

Brian is going to do an on-site student return of devices in three locations, with a technician receiving devices at each.  Now, Brian could instruct his team to record the serial number or asset tag from each device, and compare it to the spreadsheet of leased devices, thus determining whether it goes into the "return" or "re-assign" pile.  But, that would be cumbersome, slow, and error prone.

FileWave tools to the rescue!  Because the serial numbers to return are known, a custom field called "Return?" can be created weeks before devices are returned, and that field can be populated by a simple import from the spreadsheet.  With that data, custom wallpapers can be assigned to devices ahead of return (like a yellow lock screen background), that allow the technician to simply look at the lock screen, and immediately know which pile the device goes into!

• • Or maybe we simply want to track who returned a device and who did not?

Emily is running a summertime project to replace all of the Windows devices in the Finance department.  Department is assigned as a custom field within FileWave, so Emily uses that list of devices as her guideline, and she has decided to use a custom field to track device return.  It is a simple true/false field.  And, as each device is returned, Emily will simply change the custom field from False to True.  Using FileWave Anywhere and looking each device up quickly by asset tag will be a great way to do that.

• There are a lot of different scenarios regarding device retrieval, but the key thing to keep in mind is that your FileWave tools can be used to make this process much more simple, so keep them in mind as you make your plans.

New Devices

Preparing for Re-enrollment: