A Complete Guide to Handling the End-User Computing Device Shortage

An essential tool as your organization adapts to a truly hybrid workforce

When demand exceeds supply…

As many organizations have moved towards a hybrid work model or have allowed employees to work from home permanently, demand for end-user computing devices has skyrocketed. And with the global chip shortage affecting manufacturing of everything from electric cars to iPhones – and with many chip manufacturers switching their focus to more lucrative component production for devices like 5G phones – almost no industry has been spared its impact.

So, while many technology vendors are enjoying the financial rewards of selling their entire stocks, they also face ongoing challenges in manufacturing new devices and meeting historically high demand.

…And supply can’t recover.

The warning from both analysts and device manufacturers themselves is stark: the end-user computing device shortage will persist through the end of 2021 and most likely well into 2022. Worse, residual effects of supply chain shortages are expected to continue well into 2023. It’s a bitter pill to have to swallow, especially when analysts predict that up to 30% of the world’s business laptops are due for refresh this year.

But it is not a hopeless situation. With the right end-user computing (EUC) device strategy, your organization can adapt and overcome shortages to ensure your users remain happy and productive.

We’ve brought together experts from across SHI’s Digital Workplace and IT Lifecycle practices to help you with a simple
four-step plan. Read on and find out more.

Read on and find out more >>>

Introducing SHI's Four-Step EUC Device Strategy

Our four-step strategy outlined over the following pages will help you not only keep your users happy and productive; it will be an essential tool as your organization adapts to support a truly hybrid workforce.

We recommend working through this strategy in the order outlined below, but you can jump directly to any of the four steps by clicking the relevant heading below:

1.

Re-evaluating your users' needs

Optimizing your purchasing strategy

3.

Taking advantage of new deployment models

4.
Prolonging the device lifecycle with Modern Desktop Solutions

STEP 1

Re-evaluating users’ needs

How diverse is your EUC device estate? Do you consciously select the right devices based on users’ individual needs, or do you prefer the simplicity of a ‘one manufacturer, one model’ procurement policy?

What are you going to do if your established ‘standard’ device isn’t available, or if it comes with excessive lead times or a significant price hike?

As you prepare to close out 2021, now is a good time to revisit your approach to choosing the right devices for your users. There are more manufacturers offering enterprise-quality devices and more device types that can meet the needs of an increasingly mobile and tech-savvy user base.

SHI’s EUC experts can help you evaluate and adapt your device provisioning strategy based on a range of external and internal factors such as availability and lead times, cost, changing user behaviors, and security requirements.

They can also introduce you to new LTE-enabled devices which can provide better connectivity in a wide range of use cases.

Next: Step 1 Action Plan

STEP 1 ACTION PLAN

1. Review currently provisioned devices
a. Do they meet users’ ongoing needs?
b. Are they due to be refreshed?

2. Understand availability and cost of planned device acquisitions
a. Determine whether preferred devices are currently available.
b. Assess whether or not there’s been a recent significant price hike.
--------------- c. Consider alternative models if necessary.

3. Create user profiles, based on criteria including:
a. Role
b. Location / Connectivity needs
--------------- c. Required access to apps & data
--------------- d. Security Profile

4. Map user profiles to devices
a. Assess use cases within your environment.
b. Identify device types and manufacturers that might fit profile needs.

5. Consider self-service and BYOD/CYOD options
a. Consider security risks associated with each strategy.
b. Determine impact of either approach to enterprise mobility management.

How SHI can help

SHI’s end user computing experts can guide you through the process of reconciling your current and future device needs against the lead times and availability of target devices. Our experts will conduct an in-depth and objective review of your current state, identify gaps within industry best practices, highlight redundancies and inefficiencies, determine potential risks, and make recommendations that align with your desired outcomes.

Talk to us early. Your forecasting, combined with our partner relationships and world-class integration centers, mean that we can store your preconfigured devices until you need them, so you won’t be at the whim of any current crises overtaking your organization.

Further Reading:
Check out this recent blog from our device experts at SHI on how to select the right devices for your users’ needs.

Next: Step 2

STEP 2

Optimize Your Purchasing Strategy

Long gone are the days of organizations buying and storing hundreds or thousands of devices, waiting to provision them centrally to employees. EUC teams have become accustomed to on-demand ordering and seamless provisioning of devices.

In the current environment, that won’t be so easy to achieve, with large and small device manufacturers alike continuing to quote longer lead times than normal. In fact, 48% of those polled, said their greatest fear about EUC devices in 2021 was not getting their hands on the devices they want.

Organizations risk finding themselves in an impossible situation: unable to source devices on short notice; unwilling to pay for or store them ahead of when they might be needed. Thankfully, with SHI there are options which will help you work around supply shortages without creating additional financial stress.

Not only can your account team work with you to forecast device availability and create a hybrid strategy for device selection (see Step 1), but you can also take advantage of SHI’s immense storage capacity through our Integration Centers, advanced provisioning services such as Zero Touch X and flexible financing solutions that mean you can have the devices you want, when you need them, without paying sooner than budgeted. We can even work asset recovery services into your lease or financing package, removing the burden of ensuring equipment is responsibly recycled and that data is securely wiped.

Next: Step 2 Action Plan

STEP 2 ACTION PLAN

1. Contact your SHI account team to explore device consolidation or diversification options (see Step 1 Action Plan). Explore -------- --------- new manufacturers and devices that might ---------------- offer better cost alternatives.

2. Consider pre-ordering devices with longer lead times and using SHI Reserved Inventory to hold this stock for organizations.

3. Talk to SHI about financing options that allow you to stock up on devices but only pay as you provision them to end users.

How SHI can help: Device as a Service

With IT tasked with funding and supporting innovation on tight budgets and limited resources, customers are turning to Device as a Service to reduce the costs and complexities associated with device management.

SHI’s Device as a Service solution is customized to your needs and includes the device cost and support in one monthly payment, with options for tailored support, maintenance and extended warranty coverage available to prolong the useful life of your devices.

For those interested in exploring the benefits of Device a Service, SHI offers a one-day workshop structured around your individual needs. During this informational workshop, SHI’s experts evaluate all available options to help you reduce total cost of ownership, achieve minimal operational downtime, and relieve IT staff of day-to-day device management and support responsibilities.

Find out how a large state health department saved $6 million and improved efficiency during the pandemic by leveraging SHI’s Device as a Service solution.

Read the case study >>>

SHI Mobile

If Wi-Fi availability is unreliable or scarce, we can help implement SHI Mobile, utilizing existing devices in your inventory or LTE-powered devices where stock is more common — to ensure users can connect to your network from any device, anywhere. Ultimately, SHI will help you look closely at the individual roles in your workforce, understand their exact needs, and create a device portfolio that is perfectly matched and cost effective, not to mention available in your desired timeframe.

Further reading:
For more information, read “3 ways to overcome end-user device challenges” and “4 steps to delivering a modern end-user experience”.

Next: Step 3

STEP 3

Taking Advantage of New Device Deployment Models

Moving to a workforce model that is hybrid by design rather than remote by necessity brings new challenges associated with provisioning IT equipment. With some staff rarely or never in the same place as the end user computing IT team, getting the right devices in the right hands at the right time requires a new approach.

If your organization is still distributing end user devices centrally, it’s time to consider approaches like SHI’s Zero Touch X, where devices can be shipped and configured with no need to have them processed by your organization’s IT team.

Combined with SHI’s Reserved Inventory capabilities (see Step 2), Zero Touch X is the ideal way to fast-track the provisioning of ready-to-go devices direct to end users’ homes or remote branch offices.

A key consideration with Zero Touch is device and platform cross-compatibility. While many manufacturers now support their own take on Zero Touch, SHI gives you the ultimate flexibility in a single solution with support for all major device types and platforms, including Windows 10, Mac OS, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, and Oculus.

Next: Step 3 Action Plan

STEP 3 ACTION PLAN

1.Understand your organization’s plans for hybrid working and how that affects user location.

2.Consider your planned refresh plans and new-joiner provisioning needs in 2022.

3.Learn how the reserved inventory capabilities at SHI's Integration Centers and Zero Touch X combine to provide low-cost, low-friction deployment.

How SHI can help

When it comes to selecting the right operating system for your organizational needs, there isn’t a one size fits all approach. For over 10-years, SHI’s Zero Touch X solution has provided organizations the ability to utilize Zero Touch for wide scale deployments through all major platforms. Our end-user computing experts know legacy PC management tools, corporate VPNs, and single-standardized operating systems aren’t enough to scale with the exponential growth in hybrid work we foresee.

Further Reading:
Learn how SHI's Zero Touch X deployment services reduced the provisioning time for 720 new laptops from months to weeks.

Next: Step 4

STEP 4

Prolonging the Device Lifecycle with Modern Desktop Solutions

If buying new devices is not an option, whether due to lead time, availability or cost, you should consider your options for using modern desktop solutions such as VDI, hosted desktops or
Desktop as a Service (DaaS).

Delivering the desktop and apps remotely can put less demand on the device itself, making it a viable option for some older devices that might struggle to run the latest operating systems and applications locally. This can allow you to extend the useful life of devices already in use or reduce the scope of your refresh program by having older devices returned and reissued to less power hungry users.

These solutions can also help when diversifying the device types used across the organization, as they can help provide a consistent user experience on a range of platforms.

Next: Step 4 Action Plan

STEP 4 ACTION PLAN

1. Determine where the modern desktop solution will reside within your infrastructure. Understand the risks and responsibilities intertwined with an on-premises versus a cloud-based solution.

2. Consider cloud-based solutions/platforms — freeing your organization from the responsibilities of consistently updating hardware required to host virtual desktops.

3. If you’re a larger organization, evaluate unmanaged modern desktop solutions — larger IT departments are more suited to manage and have full control over a complex VDI environment.

4. For smaller organizations where IT teams are understaffed and/or overworked — examine Desktop-as-a-Service. This puts the managing responsibilities in the hands of a third-party DaaS provider where they ------------------- can monitor and manage your virtual desktop estate.

How SHI can help

SHI understands that evaluating different Desktop as a Service (DaaS) solutions and individual technologies on your own can be challenging. For instance, with its recent announcement of Windows 365, Microsoft created a whole new personal computing category called “Cloud PC”. Many customers are left wondering how Windows 365 differs from Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) and which one is a better fit for their organization.

Whether you’re already on Azure Virtual Desktop or exploring other desktop modernization solutions, our engineers and licensing professionals can help you determine which solutions are right for your organization and guide you through the licensing requirements.

What can you expect from SHI?

We’ll work with your organization and decision makers in creating a further four-step plan where we’ll: strategize, assess, deploy, and help manage your chosen solution. Specifically, we’ll take you through industry best practices such as:

Defining your business goals
Identifying key stakeholders and use cases
Breaking down the cost versus benefits with on-premises and cloud-based solutions
Crafting a time-to-deployment model
Measuring the long-term outcomes before hitting the “go” button

Further Reading:
Learn how adopting a modern desktop can extend hardware life while still providing a modern device experience. Our experts also dive into the technical and licensing differences between Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop in our blog: Window 365 vs. AVD: What’s best for your business?

Next: Why you need to ACT NOW!