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The Right to Repair movement just got a big win. Microsoft will become the first US manufacturer “to increase consumers’ options to repair their devices by the end of 2022,” As You Sow, an environmental and social corporate responsibility nonprofit, reported in a press release.

It’s no secret that manufacturers can make repairing devices difficult. The Right to Repair movement hopes to change that by advocating for equipment owners’ right to hire repair technicians or make their own repairs without having to jump through the manufacturer’s hoops to do so.

Equipment maintenance and repair is not just an issue for consumers; businesses are also responsible for producing procedures and guidelines regarding hardware disposals and repairs. The following resources from TechRepublic Premium can help your company facilitate this.

Change Control Policy

Monitoring and tracking changes to equipment, software and procedures within an organization can pose quite a challenge. A policy documenting how to track changes to processes, equipment and applications—and the process/personnel needed to make such changes—will simplify this challenge for organizations and will also ensure company resources remain productive and secure.

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Computer Equipment Disposal policy

Businesses regularly replace and decommission computers, laptops, servers and other IT equipment. To keep such processes efficient, companies need guidelines. The Computer Equipment Disposal policy from TechRepublic Premium provides a template with procedures for properly disposing, discarding and decommissioning computer and IT equipment.

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MSP best practices: Server maintenance checklist

Keeping servers running properly can be quite a feat. However, it’s much easier to spot issues and prevent problems when methodical maintenance practices are employed. Even easier is using a checklist like the server maintenance checklist from TechRepublic Premium. A checklist systematically walks technicians through the steps needed to keep servers functioning and problems from resulting in unplanned downtime, or worse, lost data.

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Hardware inventory policy

IT hardware is not only a significant capital investment, but a holding place for sensitive company and employee data. In order to protect and secure such data and equipment, organizations need to create a way to track each component from purchase and deployment to decommissioning and disposal. This policy, from TechRepublic Premium, helps organizations develop protocols for maintaining equipment, as well as steps for reassigning, decommissioning and disposing of hardware.

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