OEM Verizon is rolling out a program for businesses to supply their employees with smartphones, to manage those devices during use and to collect and facilitate recycling of the smartphones every two years.
Verizon Business Complete, announced June 20, will handle “shipping, setup, replacement and recycling” of smartphones with a focus on serving midsize and enterprise businesses.
Verizon says it is rolling out the program at a time when many employers are considering moving to a system of dedicated employer-provided devices instead of having employees use their personal devices for work. The company presented research showing businesses are leaning in this direction because they feel it offers better security, easier device management and improved productivity. In that study, 70% of surveyed businesses also expressed a desire to “recoup money from recycling phones that could be reinvested into the business.”
“End-to-end smartphone management also offers businesses the confidence that their smartphones will be properly managed from a sustainability perspective from procurement to disposal,” the company wrote.
After shipping the new devices to employees, facilitating setup, providing business administrators with a device management platform and facilitating repair or replacement of damaged devices, Verizon’s program “handles the retrieval and recycling of outgoing devices,” the company noted. This is scheduled on a 24-month upgrade cycle.
Verizon’s research also highlighted the trade-in opportunity from adopting an end-to-end device management plan.
Retiring smartphones consistently on a two-year scale “can help prevent companies from leaving obvious money on the table when it comes to trade-ins,” Verizon said. “By not trading in phones – as nearly two-thirds of executives admit they don’t when contracts expire – organizations are essentially thumbing their noses at ‘found money’ that could be reinvested into other areas of their businesses.”
