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Your IT teams know how many laptops they’ve issued. But can they guarantee that those laptops will show up on time, reach the right country without getting stuck in customs, or make their way back after offboarding?
The “inventory” is visible, but the logistics behind it (procurement, shipping, retrieval, and redeployment) aren’t. That’s the half of asset management that most tools never solve. You cannot expect your equipment inventory software alone to manage all your assets. It cannot account for the entire lifecycle and logistics.
That gap has widened as remote and hybrid work has become permanent. 56% of employees work in a hybrid setup, and seven out of them work permanently from home. So, every one of those laptops, monitors, and peripherals sitting in homes across countries represents real money, compliance exposure, and time that IT can’t afford to waste.
Inventory visibility alone doesn’t solve that. In this guide, we’ll show you the other half of asset management and how platforms like Firstbase solve it across 150+ countries through their warehousing. You’ll also get to compare five other platforms side by side to make an informed decision.
Disclaimer: As the creators of Firstbase, we’re deeply invested in solving global device logistics. That said, this guide aims to provide a fair, research-backed view of leading hardware inventory management software. Our goal is to help you compare options clearly, understand where Firstbase adds the most value, and identify where another tool might suit your setup better.
Teams using Firstbase save over 700 IT hours annually, cut retrieval delays by 30+ days, and recoup an average of 1.5× more devices for reuse. Take a self-guided tour to see how predictable, SLA-backed global logistics can simplify your IT operations.
Inventory dashboards were built for environments where IT could walk to a storage closet, unbox a laptop, and hand it to a new hire. That model collapsed the moment teams transitioned to remote work.
Today’s challenge is delivering and retrieving devices at scale.
Even the best inventory management solutions stop at recording and alerting. They don’t arrange shipping, manage bonded storage, or handle regional VAT differences. Only 51% of IT teams report strong collaboration with Finance, which explains why equipment costs so often overrun budgets.
Hardware-related downtime costs employers about $4,000 per employee each year.
Most of that loss is the hours spent chasing shipments, waiting for replacements, and filling ticket queues. Across hundreds of distributed companies, IT teams spend roughly 500 hours per 100 remote employees on manual logistics, like courier coordination and customs paperwork.
Remote asset management affects retention, compliance, and total cost per seat. It costs 6-9 months of pay to replace a salaried employee, so every poor onboarding experience is a measurable liability. Add unretrieved hardware, and the problem compounds. Many organizations recover only half of the laptops deployed to remote workers.
For a finance lead, that’s depreciation and replacement costs. For IT, it’s wasted hours. For HR, it’s a day-one experience that quietly undermines culture.
Legacy inventory tools weren’t built to connect those dots. They show you where assets are, but not how to keep them moving through the real world.
Beyond visibility, companies today need a logistics layer that works globally, across tax codes, compliance zones, and return windows. Let’s see if the best equipment inventory tools deliver that.
Firstbase was designed for distributed companies worldwide. Instead of acting as another asset tracking dashboard, it connects real-world logistics with IT, HR, and Finance workflows. The platform handles everything from procurement to retrieval.
Its hybrid-work foundation means IT teams no longer need to juggle couriers, customs brokers, or imaging scripts. Devices arrive fully configured, tracked, and insured. Every shipment and return is logged automatically, generating an audit trail for compliance and cost control.
The impact is measurable: customers like Cresta and Earnest Analytics have reported saving over 250 IT hours annually, doubling team coverage, and maintaining retrieval success rates above 97%.
For HR and Finance, this translates into faster onboarding, predictable per-seat spend, and fewer basic tickets.
While Firstbase covers the full logistics chain, users have noted they’d like more granular audit-logging capabilities within the dashboard for deeper compliance tracking. The team continues to expand those controls based on feedback from the enterprise.
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ServiceNow’s Hardware Asset Management (HAM) module extends the Now Platform to automate inventory orchestration, lifecycle tracking, and hardware refresh cycles across distributed locations. It helps large enterprises manage procurement, stock levels, and disposal through a unified, workflow-driven system.
Employees can order assets through a self-service catalog, while IT monitors shipments, stock transfers, and depreciation. The system integrates with ERP and procurement software for financial reconciliation and uses mobile scanning for real-time updates.
However, ServiceNow’s strength lies in data orchestration, not logistics execution. It coordinates who should do what, but doesn’t physically handle how devices get to or from employees, an area where Firstbase bridges the gap.
ServiceNow’s licensing scales with asset count, making it cost-prohibitive for large hardware fleets. Several users report that core versions lack advanced automation available in Pro tiers, and workflows often require customization or experienced admin oversight.
Rippling connects device lifecycle management directly to HR and IT operations. When a new hire is added, the system automatically assigns a pre-configured laptop, ships it, and syncs access controls based on role and location.
When an employee leaves, Rippling ships a return box, tracks the device, wipes it, and stores it securely for reuse. Its global warehouse network helps eliminate the need for local IT closets, while HR integration ensures every action (onboarding, offboarding, reassignment) happens automatically.
Where Firstbase extends this idea is by adding borderless logistics handling customs, bonded storage, and prepaid duties across 150+ countries, which Rippling doesn’t yet offer at scale.
Rippling’s automation is powerful, but it tends to focus on HR workflows rather than global logistics. It doesn’t manage bonded storage, customs, or per-seat financial modeling like Firstbase.
Some users note the setup complexity for advanced rules and slower support response times during periods of scaling.
Deel IT combines hardware lifecycle management, device security, and 24/7 global IT support in one system. It automates everything from procurement to disposal: buying, leasing, configuring, tracking, and retrieving laptops with built-in compliance.
Devices can be shipped pre-configured to new hires or retrieved, wiped, and resold when offboarded, all managed through Deel’s centralized dashboard.
The platform excels in breadth, covering procurement, visibility, and security, but operates within Deel’s HR and payroll ecosystem. Compared with Firstbase, Deel IT provides broad coverage and support but less specialization in customs handling, bonded warehousing, or per-seat cost modeling for finance teams.
Some users find Deel’s interface unintuitive and its reporting tools limited in customization or export flexibility. While it manages global scale well, its IT automation is tied to Deel’s HR framework, less modular than Firstbase’s independent, finance- and compliance-driven lifecycle engine.
SolarWinds offers an IT asset and network inventory suite built primarily for infrastructure-heavy environments. Through its Service Desk, Patch Manager, and Network Configuration Manager (NCM), the platform automates discovery, inventory tracking, and configuration monitoring across servers, PCs, and network devices.
IT teams use it to maintain up-to-date records, detect configuration drift, and plan hardware refreshes with data-driven insights.
SolarWinds excels in visibility across networks and on-prem assets, but isn’t optimized for remote or hybrid logistics.
Unlike Firstbase, it doesn’t handle end-user hardware delivery, customs, or retrieval workflows; its strength remains in data and system-level control, rather than physical asset movement.
Users also report limited automation flexibility, dated mobile support, and slow customer response times. It lacks built-in retrieval, shipping, or warehousing capabilities, making it less suited for distributed or remote-first teams, compared with unified lifecycle platforms like Firstbase.
Freshservice is an ITSM-first platform with enterprise IT asset management built in. It discovers hardware, software, SaaS, cloud resources, and non-IT assets, then ties that inventory to incidents, problems, changes, and contracts for a single source of truth.
A modern CMDB with dependency mapping helps teams assess impact and plan changes. Procurement, renewals, and lifecycle actions (from onboarding to retirement) run inside the same workspace, and the Freddy AI layer surfaces related incidents to speed resolution. This is strong for visibility and governance.
Compared with Firstbase, Freshservice does not execute global device logistics (procurement, shipping, retrieval, customs) itself.
Initial setup for advanced workflows can be heavy without a dedicated admin. Some users note gaps in automation flexibility, reporting depth, and mobile capabilities for managers. Support can lag on complex integrations.
Now that we’ve seen how different platforms compare, let’s break down the process step by step, using the Firstbase model: from discovery to delivery, and back again.
Firstbase connects to your HR and identity systems to detect changes like new hires, role moves, or exits. When a hire is added, the platform automatically identifies available devices or flags what needs to be ordered. That means IT doesn’t have to check spreadsheets or update ownership manually; every asset always has a known user and location.
With the Virtual IT Closet, IT sets role-based rules (for example: “Design team, Germany, MacBook Pro 14”). When HR adds a new hire, those rules automatically trigger an order with the right device and accessories. The catalog includes over 1,500 SKUs across countries, showing live prices and warranty options. Finance teams can set spending limits, so no purchase goes beyond policy.
Once ordered, devices are prepared in a nearby Firstbase warehouse. The team images, configures, and kits them with accessories. Because Firstbase operates bonded warehouses, it pre-pays customs duties and VAT, thereby removing import delays. IT teams don’t have to manage local vendors or brokers, and employees get their laptops ready to use within 48 hours in most regions.
As soon as the order ships, both IT and the employee get real-time tracking. Employees can confirm addresses, check delivery updates, or report issues through their dashboard. IT can edit or reroute shipments in one place, with every update logged for audit. This keeps shipments transparent and eliminates back-and-forth tickets.
When someone leaves, Firstbase automatically sends a prepaid return kit with a label and clear instructions. Returned devices go to the nearest Firstbase facility, where they’re tested, wiped to NIST 800-88 standards, and re-added to inventory. Companies recover about 97% of devices this way. This reduces loss, improves reuse, and keeps data secure.
We just saw how inventory alone doesn’t move devices. The real win is a lifecycle loop: Procure, deploy, support, retrieve, and ITAD.
When you evaluate vendors, check for SLA-backed logistics, bonded warehousing and duties/VAT handling, automated retrieval with certified wipes, audit-ready custody logs, finance-friendly pricing, and clean HRIS/MDM integrations. If any link in that chain is manual, day-one readiness suffers, costs drift, and assets go missing.
Firstbase makes sure your team avoids all of that. In fact, customers report having recouped over $ 175,000 from device reuse, with a new-hire experience holding at 98% CSAT.
Book a quick demo, bring your current process, and compare before-and-after in one call.
