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Breaking the Bottleneck: Zero-Touch Deployment Detection for Faster ITAD Processing 

Zero-touch deployment is built for speed and simplicity—but at the end of the asset lifecycle, it can become a liability. When paired with unmanaged unified endpoint management (UEM) enrollments, it increases the risk of sanitized assets redownloading data, with as many as one in five ITAD-processed units affected. Learn how your ITAD can overcome these risks and streamline IT asset processing with automation.

Kon Maragelis With over 30 years of experience in senior roles across telecommunications and reverse logistics, Kon Maragelis leads Blancco’s processing product marketing and sales success initiatives, setting the standard for asset processing solutions. Known for leveraging benchmarked reverse logistics solutions and patented process flows, Kon plays a key role in helping ITADs, carriers, retailers, and mobile businesses optimize their processes. A respected voice in the industry, he frequently speaks at global conferences, sharing insights on best practices and innovations in asset processing.

In 2023, the world generated 61.3 million metric tons of e-waste, a number projected to reach 74.7 million metric tons by 2030.

IT asset disposition (ITAD) providers play a critical role in fighting that flood by keeping assets in circulation, preventing unnecessary shredding, stockpiling, and landfill waste. But their ability to support a circular economy depends on efficient, secure processing.

UEM enrollments, which can manage hundreds or even thousands of endpoint assets within an organization, slow this process down when IT leaders send those assets out for dispositioning.

ITADs must manually verify whether units remain linked to a management system, increasing labor costs and delaying resale. This manual approach limits scalability and makes it harder to meet rising demand.

Introducing automation eliminates bottlenecks, enabling faster, more accurate handling while reinforcing sustainability and regulatory compliance.

Why Zero-Touch Deployment Creates ITAD Bottlenecks

With zero-touch deployment, assets are automatically configured and provisioned with company settings, software, and security policies when they’re first connected to the company network, eliminating the need for manual intervention.

Yet while zero-touch deployment speeds up IT operations for enterprises, it creates a major risk for ITADs: sanitized assets redownloading sensitive data.

Once enrolled assets connect to the network, the system can automatically synchronize data between assets and the management server. When that happens, security is compromised, and ITADs could face compliance violations, data exposure risks, and costly remediation efforts.

This UEM challenge is a growing problem. ITADs handle thousands of IT assets every week, and unified endpoint management (UEM) tools like Microsoft’s Windows Autopilot and Intune help IT teams oversee and secure them throughout their lifecycle. Microsoft dominates the PC software market, owning more than 71% of global desktop operating systems, which makes its UEM tools especially prevalent. But they’re not the only ones—solutions like VMware Workspace ONE and IBM MaaS360 are also widely used.

Approximately 20% of the PCs and laptops processed by ITADs remain registered to a UEM. Without a reliable way to identify these enrollments upfront, ITAD providers face unnecessary delays, increased costs, and elevated security risks.

Eliminating Manual UEM Checks to Streamline ITAD Workflows

Before ITADs can process an asset, they must power it on and manually check for enrollment in a Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) system. UEM tools like Microsoft’s Windows Autopilot and Intune help IT managers oversee hardware throughout its lifecycle. These systems can automatically reconfigure or lock assets if they remain enrolled, posing a challenge during the ITAD process. Other UEM solutions, such as VMware Workspace ONE and IBM MaaS360, can have similar effects.

This manual check takes about 10 minutes per asset. In a batch of 100, up to 20 may be Autopilot-enrolled, delaying the erasure of the remaining 80. And with human oversight comes risk—if a technician misses an enrolled device or clears one by mistake, it could reenter the market still linked to its previous organization.

That means big problems for the next user. A device could sync with its former owner’s data, lock the new user out entirely, or trigger compliance concerns. Beyond security risks, these errors can lead to costly returns, customer frustration, and long-term damage to an ITAD’s reputation.

A UEM Solution for Decommissioning

Blancco Autopilot Detection is built to help you tackle zero-touch deployment challenges head-on. It is the first and only enterprise-scale offering that programmatically identifies and flags the presence of UEM enrollments in units during the erasure process.

Blancco Autopilot Detection is the first and only enterprise-scale offering that programmatically identifies and flags the presence of UEM enrollments in units during the erasure process

With this UEM solution, you no longer must manually identify which assets are still registered. Instead, those still enrolled can be automatically flagged for isolation until an administrator removes them from the UEM. Once cleared, you can move forward with data sanitization and prepare them for reuse, donation, or resale.

Using Blancco Autopilot Detection, ITADs can process each asset in just 2.5 minutes—a 75% time reduction compared to manual methods—while ensuring every machine is accurately identified and completed efficiently.

Seamless Integration for Faster ITAD Processing

If you’re already using Blancco, Autopilot Detection fits right into your existing workflow. This exclusive feature within Blancco Drive Eraser, the trusted choice for certified and verified data erasure, helps ITADs worldwide streamline operations.

With Intelligent Business Routing and seamless integration with asset management systems, Autopilot-enrolled assets are automatically flagged and communicated to your asset management system in real time. All of this happens at a single processing point, saving you time and ensuring nothing slips through the cracks.

For ITADs and Their Customers, UEM Redownload Risk is a Challenge No More

Blancco Autopilot Detection streamlines your workflow by automatically identifying zero-touch deployment assets, eliminating the need for manual checks and reducing the risk of human error. By integrating seamlessly into the erasure process, it helps you process IT assets faster, reduce compliance risks, and confidently prepare assets for reuse or resale. ‘

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