Do you know what happens to every device your organization manages? A recent report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) highlights the challenges organizations can face in maintaining accurate device inventories, with only 7 of 22 federal agencies fully addressing all three networked device inventory requirements assessed by the GAO.

The Importance of Device Visibility

Although the GAO research focuses on U.S. federal agencies and networked devices, it highlights a challenge that applies more broadly to organizations managing large numbers of IT assets. Keeping an accurate overview helps organizations understand which devices they manage and supports better security and accountability throughout the device lifecycle.

Device Visibility Shouldn't Stop When a Device Leaves Active Service

That visibility remains important when devices are decommissioned, returned, reassigned, refurbished, resold, or recycled. Organizations should be able to determine whether a device has been securely erased, what the result was, what condition the device is in, and whether documentation is available to demonstrate what happened.

From Device Inventory to Device Processing

It’s important to keep track of your devices even when they reach the end of their use. With a clear workflow in place, you can securely erase devices before they are reassigned, returned, resold, refurbished, or recycled. This way, you keep all the important information about each device, making sure nothing gets lost along the way.

Even after a device leaves your organization, you still have access to its full processing history. You can easily refer back to erasure results, device details, diagnostics, and reports whenever you need them.

Keeping Device Workflows Visible with Certus

Certus DispositionCenter™ brings all your device information together in one simple platform. When you erase devices or use other Certus tools, all the related information and reports are managed in one place. This gives you a clear overview of every device you’ve processed and the actions taken.

For example, you can securely erase a device before it leaves, run diagnostics to check its condition, and keep all the results safely in your Certus environment. Even after the device is gone, you’ll always have the information you need about how it was processed.

DispositionCenter™ is especially helpful when you’re processing lots of devices. Instead of handling each erasure separately, you can set up a consistent workflow and keep full visibility across all your device processing activities.

Keep Control of Your Device Processing Workflow

As the GAO findings show, maintaining complete and accurate device inventories can be challenging. Extending that visibility into device processing helps you keep track of your IT assets and maintain a clear record of every process performed.