Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Speaker A: So welcome to Apkudo's new podcast, a series about trends in the connected device industry, where we will be talking to players up and down the supply chain. We'll feature topics ranging from testing automation, reverse logistics, and circularity, basically everything that happens during the lifecycle of a connected device. My name is Allison Mitchell and I'm the VP of Sustainability at Appcodo and the proud host of this new live podcast program covering industry trends, customer journeys, circularity topics and more. I want to make a quick note before we get started. If you have topics of interest or guests you would like to hear from, please shoot me an email at allison dot mitchellapcoodo.com. our guest today is Tim Esteb, who is part of the Appcodo team here. Tim is going to talk through the process of employee purchase programs. So Tim, thanks for being here.
[00:01:03] Speaker B: Thank you, Allison. Happy to be here and excited for the conversation today.
[00:01:07] Speaker A: Well, operating a successful device recovery program can be an extremely challenging undertaking. Recovery programs require significant support and uplift because large companies tend to have hundreds or maybe even thousands of devices that need to be recovered from out in the world from their end users, and they can literally be spread all over the world. The options for asset recovery have expanded and evolved in recent years. And Tim, you are uniquely positioned to explain all of those options to our audience and to share how enterprise customers can maximize their benefits at the same time as minimizing their headaches. And I'm excited for you, Tim, to talk about how employee purchase programs have become more mainstream, what the benefits of employee purchase programs are, considerations that folks need to know when setting up employee purchase programs, how to get a program started, and so much more. So let's go ahead and get into this conversation. Employee purchase is exactly what it sounds like, and there's a lot of benefits for both employers and employees, but surprisingly, it's kind of a new thing. So, Tim, can you explain to us when did employee purchase programs become a thing?
[00:02:19] Speaker B: Mobile resale first rolled out employee purchase as an option to enterprise in 2017, and as you can imagine, since that time, we've taken some bumps and bruises. We've learned a lot of lessons and we believe that what we've got to offer today is an excellent product, an excellent return method for customers. You can imagine that through Covid. One of the things that was impacted was the workforce. People were pushed out of offices and into their homes all over the world, which caused a scenario that we've not seen before in enterprise devices, where now you've got people all over the place in remote locations, and now we've got devices that we need to get back and that the company is responsible and liable for.
[00:03:04] Speaker A: That brings up the question about what are the benefits to employee purchase programs? And I can anticipate that there might be benefits on both sides. But can you tell us why employee purchase programs are good for the employees?
[00:03:18] Speaker B: As an employee, this is a employee purchase is a creative perk. It's something that you can be offered from the company. Our team would help the company decide, you know, this is a fair price, this is a fair market price for the given device, and this is what you should offer to your employee base. Examples of why employees would want to buy these devices we've seen, you know, my oldest kid is going off to college this year, and they need a tablet. We've also seen my new teenager needs a mobile phone, and we don't want to buy teenagers the latest and greatest phones. So many of our customers are two or three devices behind that lifecycle, which is perfect for a new cell phone user or a teenager. It is also, as an employee, a time saver, where I don't have to go back into the office to return my device, or I don't have to schedule a time with the it guy and make sure that we're both in the office at the same time. I can take care of this transaction on the web and be done with it.
[00:04:17] Speaker A: That's great. It sounds like it obviously has benefits to the employee, particularly. Yeah, for family members, that's a great thought. Sort of the hand me down approach. How is this an employee purchase program? Good for the businesses, the employers?
[00:04:31] Speaker B: We see for businesses that when employees know that they can potentially purchase their devices, that the incidents of breakage go down significantly. So what that means is less service tickets, less cost to repair, and less time dealing with warranties, if you've got those in place. So we work with a large pharmaceutical company. We're doing a second large refresh for that company. Now, they have told us that they saw their incidence of device breakage go down from 18% to only 1% because their employees knew that in two or three years, this device will be mine. So I'm going to take care of it. It also eliminates the need, the time, and the wait to reconcile devices. Should the company take that upon themselves to try and enable one of these processes? So huge workload off of the company and off of the IT team. We also see, because this is rolled out and it's an option, a higher rate of return where this is much easier than finding a box or requesting a label through an email, or chasing emails with end users if they can purchase the device upfront. And it's all a web based transaction, all in one place, all at one time. It's simple and you meet the users where they are. So a higher rate of return there.
[00:05:47] Speaker A: Wow, that's awesome. It sounds like it makes it easier on everyone involved. And another thing I'm hearing you say there is, especially from an 18% down to 1% of incidents of damage, that is just going to improve the longevity of the device and keep those devices in use, which is a huge win for sustainability. You know, the longer we keep materials and products in use, the better for the circular economy. So that's a pretty dramatic improvement in that. I mean, I get that if they know that, they might get to give it to a family member when the company is done with its life cycle, that will tend to take better care of it. So that, that makes a lot of sense. You mentioned that, you know, maybe employees are trying to take this on themselves and run an employee purchase program internally. That sounds like a difficult thing to manage internally. How is that going? Are they, are they successfully managing those internally? Or what do you see across the board for the success of those programs when they're done internally?
[00:06:48] Speaker B: Yeah, Allison, we've, we've really got some, some horror stories on that front. You can imagine where you try to manage an employee purchase transaction as a business, that you get involved in payroll deductions or, you know, tracking that. Who haven't we deducted from? Who have we deducted from? Much of this is managed in spreadsheets. Everyone knows spreadsheet management is a nightmare. We take care of that. We handle all transactions within the recovery platform with a secure credit card transaction. Or we can also enable Apple pay for the specific employee purchase program. We also find that companies have a hard time because of that spreadsheet management and lack of updates or lack of automation within a spreadsheet, that there is a hard time following up with users who are not taking the actions that they require, whether that's getting a label or purchasing the device, whatever that may be, whatever that method is. Compliance becomes a huge challenge. Who follows up with those users? How do they follow up with those users? Our platform allows us to automate those notifications and those reminders and also gives the administrator of the program visibility into who has not taken action and who has, what is the status of their overall program. Some things that I just mentioned and that are a part of a successful or an ideal employee purchase program automation. Whenever we can remove the human element or, you know, a calendar reminder or a task on our calendar that says go update XYZ spreadsheet anytime we can remove that from the process, the success rate goes up. We can also enable UAM notifications, endpoint management notifications, whether that's VMware JaMF intune. We can send notifications through email. We can reach out to the users and again meet them where they are, which is very important in this reverse logistics, this device recovery scenario. We can also get that very early communication out to the users. We know as we're setting up these programs that your users need to be notified that this is the way that we are moving forward. We will help the company, the enterprise, tailor that communication specific to their needs. We can help you come up with one cheaters. We can help you come up with PDF documentation that can be shared. Whatever your change process is, as an organization, we can help you with that. We can also help set expectations for your end users where if you ship your device back or if you do the employee purchase method, your device will be wiped within three days. We set those expectations for your users. So it's clear in the beginning, this is how the process works and this is what you can expect, which drastically reduces the questions on the backside.
[00:09:33] Speaker A: Yeah, that's fantastic. It sounds like a little bit of thoughtfulness at the beginning of the process goes a long way. And having someone like yourself who has been through many of these cycles with lots of different types of companies is the ability to anticipate all of the potential problems that could crop up. And so that thoughtfulness really does go a long way for diminishing those risks going through the process. So, speaking of thoughtfulness in the beginning, what are some other things that customers should consider when they're going to set up an employee purchase program?
[00:10:09] Speaker B: A question that we get right at the top of the employee purchase conversation is, how do I price these devices? I have these models in my environment. How do I price these? What is a fair price for my employees? Our team of experts, you can imagine with what we do that we've got a great data set. Our team of expert will examine the current market conditions, taking into account product releases. How close are we to product releases, new product rollouts, all of those different conditions out in the market today, and we will deliver to you. This is what we think is a fair price as an enterprise. This is what you should charge your employees. We'll also be able to ensure that data security on these devices is in place. So big risk, millions of dollars at play where a company has a data breach. We've all seen the horror stories on LinkedIn or various other publications. Data security is huge. That's something to consider. So what is the unlock process?
What is the MDM at play? What unified endpoint management is at play? What systems do you have? Who is our contact for unlocking all things to be considered?
[00:11:18] Speaker A: So the option for doing that remote wipe, I can understand that. That just means that we aren't shipping a device to a location and then shipping it back. That's another benefit of an employee purchase program. We're eliminating packaging and we're eliminating shipping. And as the VP of sustainability, I can't not get excited about that because we're reducing scope three emissions as we're doing that as well. So we've got good news, not only from a cost savings standpoint, but from a carbon reduction. So there's broader kind of support and appeal for things like that within the company. Are there other ways that you can think about where circularity comes further into play besides this kind of efficiency less.
[00:12:04] Speaker B: Logistics strain on your team? You're not relying on a warehouse team to receive an inventory and catalog your devices through whatever your existing return process is. Obviously, the materials consumed, the plastic, the bubble wrap, the cardboard packaging, huge. The fuel that's burned. As you know, we're shipping devices back and forth. That's where that remote wipe really comes into play, and it's just as secure as any other method.
[00:12:32] Speaker A: Yeah, that's great. I mean, it's time, it's materials, it's money. That sounds just like a win across the board there. It didn't take much to convince me because, you know, you got that emissions reduction. So how, if I want to get started, if I'm, if I am an employer managing, or I'm in, I'm managing it, mobile devices. For my team at an enterprise company, what would I need to do to get started on rolling out an employee purchase program?
[00:12:59] Speaker B: The most important thing in rolling out an employee purchase program is what is your source of data? So we can work with your human resources systems, we can work with your MMS provider, your Tim provider. If you've got those in play, we can work with your UEM or if you've got a large refresh coming up, those. We see great success in employee purchase programs because we can get into the Ford side of that project where new devices are being shipped out and we can provide a QR code to your employee to scan straight out of the box, which allows them to purchase their old device. So that data source will be huge. What can we pull into the platform that allows us to target your employee group device? Serial numbers. If you can provide serial numbers, we can actually create a gateway through employee purchase that allows your employee to come in and validate by email and serial number. I am this employee. I am returning this serial number, which allows them access to the purchase platform. So an additional layer of security there should the enterprise need it. Another question that we often get asked is, how do I get paid out so that we can be very flexible in those payment methods. We can hold your money for a given amount of time if you need to direct it to a certain project or cost center. If you've got a large device purchase coming up, we can hold those funds on your behalf and pay it out to your value added reseller wherever you're buying your devices. We've also paid out to carrier bills to Verizon or at and t. We've directed funds that way. Or we can make an ACH or a wire transfer payment directly to the company if you wanted to go back into that larger pool.
[00:14:43] Speaker A: That sounds like a lot of flexibility in there. I wonder if this has ever been done before, whether for an employee purchase program or otherwise. Again, I'm wearing my sustainability hat here, thinking about ways that these funds can be directed. What about, let's say, the company as a whole has, has chosen a particular cause that they're focused on or passionate about, that the employees are rallied behind? Has that ever happened? Or is there an opportunity for that to happen where those funds are directed to a particular nonprofit organization or cause?
[00:15:21] Speaker B: I love the idea, Allison, and we have not seen that to date. So everyone listening, take note. That's a great idea. We can be, again, infinitely flexible in those payment options. With the right approvals and with the right sign off, we can direct funds anywhere as long as we've got that payment information, those payment details.
[00:15:40] Speaker A: Yeah, that just sounds like another opportunity for employee engagement, perhaps. You know, especially, I don't know if your employee purchase program or the redeployment of new devices happens around a particular event or birthday, for example. Not that I would tell a company to put their muns in environmental causes, of course. I am.
That sounds great, though, that there's, there's multiple options for sort of where to direct those funds, and, and that the purchase process itself feels very familiar to the individual employee. You know, if it's the feeling of a card swipe, essentially, or online retail transactions. Okay, so Tim, is there anything we didn't cover? Is there any advice that you want to give to companies that are looking to potentially offer employee purchase programs for their employees?
[00:16:30] Speaker B: I would just mention again that we can be infinitely flexible and creative in how we solve for your particular enterprise, your particular groups situation. We can always have a discussion. Employee purchase is one of the options that we've got at play. We've got several others that Alice and I expect you and I will delve into in the future. We've got customers who have said our guys in the field, they're not very tech savvy. We can go low tech. If that's the case, we can go high tech for users that are, are a little bit more savvy. We can send notifications through several different channels. We can also work with whatever your source of truth is, UAM, your MMS provider, your Tim provider, your carrier data, if it comes down to it, we can look at your carrier data and see, you know, what devices were disconnected recently that we need to target. Who is the user assigned to those. So happy to entertain any of those questions and put on my solutions hat.
[00:17:27] Speaker A: What? You're known within the company as being the guy who can solve customer problems. So I can vouch for you on that reputation. I got a couple of questions here that I want to ask you. One is, can I allow employees to purchase more than one device?
[00:17:44] Speaker B: We can do that. You can allow your employees to purchase more than one device. And they actually, our system allows a reservation of sorts on a device on a particular serial number. We can enable that, and that's completely up to the company to decide. You know, end users can have one device or five devices. What we want to avoid in that scenario is where you are giving your employees a great price. We want to avoid your employees setting up a shop in their garage and moving your devices as their own product. So being mindful of that, that will be part of the conversation. And onboarding an employee purchase program.
[00:18:23] Speaker A: I have a question that just came up that I came up with, and I've got one more from the audience as well. But I'm curious, overall, when we're working with enterprise customers, typically, do they launch right in at the very outset with an employee purchase program? Is it kind of a situation where they kind of have to get their arms around, you know, just doing a really much improved, you know, recovery program and then they transition into employee? Is it, what's the comfort level generally? What, how, what's the feedback you get from customers when they're first getting started.
[00:18:57] Speaker B: We've seen some variants in industry where some industries are more security focused, and they say we absolutely have to have a physical data wipe. We absolutely have to receive this device back, plug it into a machine, and remove all of our data. And our employees cannot hang on to those devices. And in other cases, it's very open. A remote wipe works for employee purchase. And, you know, again, just kind of varies by company to company.
[00:19:26] Speaker A: Yeah, I can, I can see that. Well, we have another question here from Julie. She says we don't have an MDM for our devices, but we know every employee has a smartphone in the field. Can you use our active directory to source your data?
[00:19:43] Speaker B: Absolutely. The, the caveat to that would be if you know every user and your ad has a device, what we would not be able to provide is the device serial reconciliation upfront. So when we create the requests, we wouldn't be able to tie a serial number to that request on the front side, but through our platform and through our reconciliation process on the back side, we would be able to say, this request returned this serial number. We can absolutely work with your active directory.
[00:20:15] Speaker A: Yeah, you are entirely flexible, which is really helpful, I'm sure, for folks just getting started in a mobile device recovery program. So that sounds very promising for folks who might feel unsure about starting the process. This was great talking with you today, Tim, and you're a wealth of information. You have seen so many situations and you've problem solved so many situations, but you've got so much expertise, and it's really been great to see that. I've got one more question that actually just popped up. This question is from Travis. He says we have a corporate goal of net zero emissions by 2040. That's pretty common. It's good to hear this, too. Each department has to provide data or reports to show how they're helping to achieve net zero emissions. Can you help with that?
[00:21:04] Speaker B: Yes, Allison? Well, I think we can take this one in tandem. I can speak to the platform. The platform does show data per program for devices recovered and using the EPA calculations for several different data sets there. So it's emissions, it's Tesla. Batteries charge. We've got some creative ways to show that metric for a company. And then, Allison, I know that you are working on several initiatives around the world as we expand and as we grow our partnerships, showing that data based upon various standards across the world. So I'll let you pick that one up there.
[00:21:40] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. As Tim mentioned, currently the calculations that we provide to the users in the platform are based on EPA calculations, but those are obviously, that's a US EPA. So we're trying to align with more internationally recognized standards and report those things out in ways, as you mentioned, Tesla batteries charged. Report them out in ways that are consistent with ways. Your company already talks about emissions reductions. And we're exploring the idea of making that data more user friendly and communicating broader beyond just with our customers, but the entire supply chain. So we're trying to really capture the bigger picture of those reduced emissions, as we talked about with that packaging, for example, and the reduced emissions from doing an employee purchase program, capturing information like that as well. So maximum data and good data, but then using the right standards and calculations. So we're trying to improve upon all of those things and then display them in a way that makes the most sense to the particular customer as well. So it's very exciting. There's a lot of progress that's taken place in this space, particularly in Europe. So we want to kind of follow the leaders on some of those things, but also be the leaders when it comes to providing that data in real time to our customers so that they can have, you know, maximize their impact and use that information to make decisions about how they want to do their, their program refreshes and things like that. So great question. I really, I appreciate that question in particular. Well, this has been fantastic, Tim. I really appreciate you spending the time to share this expertise with us and sort of think through what's the process and the benefits and things like that. I think there's probably an opportunity for us to have you come on future sessions and, and take a deeper dive into some of these as well, perhaps even come alongside with a customer to talk about it, sort of their success in a particular way. So I appreciate everybody for joining us today on the podcast. Always open to questions and feedback on this topics, ideas or guests that you have. Again, you can email me at allison Mitchell kudo.com. have a great rest of your day, and we'll see you the next time.
