Ask HN: How do you manage hardware in a remote company?
I can only think of two options -
send it directly to the new employee from apple or amazon. or send it to a central location like the main IT employee who then loads some stuff on it and then re-ships it. are there any third party services that handle all this? any other options im missing? and lastly whats the best option in your opinion?
1 comments
Depends on how big the company is. There are service providers like CDW that do this service, and can even imagine a machine for you and ship it directly to a new hire. But I generally handle it on a case by case basis with each employee when small and then start building processes as you grow. I've used a service provider and also built internal processes. The choice is also partially decided by what type of company you are, how fast you are scaling, how many people you expect to bring on at once etc.
My basic advice is, don't over complicate it by having a vendor in the middle of it until it is worth managing the vendor. If you are dealing with adding 3-4 employees every few months it isn't a big deal, even a couple a month isn't a big deal. If you are doing 7-10+ a month then it is worth paying someone to manage this. Other factors that can affect the decision, if you have no physical office to store equipment, you may need a service provider to handle return of equipment when an employee leaves etc.
My basic advice is, don't over complicate it by having a vendor in the middle of it until it is worth managing the vendor. If you are dealing with adding 3-4 employees every few months it isn't a big deal, even a couple a month isn't a big deal. If you are doing 7-10+ a month then it is worth paying someone to manage this. Other factors that can affect the decision, if you have no physical office to store equipment, you may need a service provider to handle return of equipment when an employee leaves etc.