VendorPanel partners with ThingsAt to enhance IT asset management

VendorPanel, a procurement solution company with approximately 75 employees in Asia Pacific and North America, has announced a partnership with ThingsAt, an innovative Device as a Service (DaaS) provider. The collaboration aims to streamline VendorPanel's IT asset management, improve compliance, and boost overall productivity.

David Bubner, COO of VendorPanel, explained, "We went through a competitive process with a handful of renowned tech suppliers sourced via the VendorPanel Marketplace. The company decided to outsource its device management and standard operating environment (SOE) management to ThingsAt which has freed up its IT team to focus on core business, critical to the company's future success."

Device as a Service (DaaS) simplifies IT management by outsourcing End-User Computing (EUC) management, which covers everything from device procurement to management, compliance, and end-of-life solutions. ThingsAt's CEO, Ruy Franco, elaborated, saying, "Device as a service is so much more than hardware leasing. DaaS provides complete end-to-end lifecycle services for all devices, including laptops, desktops, and mobiles. This ensures staff members have exactly the right devices, running at peak performance, all the time."

ThingsAt has standardised the VendorPanel laptop fleet, categorising users into three personas to match technology with specific needs. Franco stated, "Grouping the range of users across three personas allows for fit-for-purpose technology, which improves the experience for users and optimises asset use. It also means we can provide alternative machines and order agnostically for VendorPanel if they decide to switch vendors."

The partnership includes device insights and proactive compliance management. Users are contacted when a device has an issue, ensuring that performance or security problems are addressed early and monitored. "If anything goes wrong or is about to go wrong, we are alerted immediately. We pick up the problem, let them know about it, and then we deal with the issue," Franco added.

Bubner emphasised the benefits realised from the collaboration, noting the streamlined processes for new and existing employee laptop onboarding. "ThingsAt has helped streamline our new staff technology onboarding process as well as the existing employee laptop refresh process. Using preconfigured devices, the process for getting up and running on a new laptop is much easier, and we can ensure that all appropriate tools and protections are in place, ensuring our systems are secure."

The ongoing monitoring of the laptop fleet by ThingsAt has also been advantageous. "Monitoring includes picking up where devices may have dropped out of compliance and reaching out to those users to get their machines back into compliance," Bubner said. "ThingsAt also watch out for performance issues and have been proactive in suggesting warranty tickets be raised with the manufacturer to ensure that our laptop fleet is performing at its optimum."

ThingsAt also manages device end-of-life, working with partners to securely wipe and either recycle or destroy devices based on their condition. "We coordinate all their device financing so that new devices are added onto the financing agreement at the point of ordering, so they don't have to pay outright," Franco explained.

Bubner concluded, "Financially, it relieves the burden such that we don't have to purchase devices upfront and worry about selling or disposing of those devices every three years. ThingsAt is delivering a competitively priced innovative solution that ticks all the boxes for what we need."