Tracking & Recovering Missing Devices After the Holidays

January 07, 2020

If you’re an IT professional in education, you know that missing and stolen devices are an unfortunate reality of the holidays. Students, faculty and staff become more pre-occupied with merrymaking than keeping devices safe. Not only is the holiday season prime time for thieves to stock up on valuable electronics left in airports, vehicles and cafes, but it’s also common for students and staff to misplace school-owned devices at home or while traveling. With mid-year inventories coming up, it’s inevitable that there will be plenty of missing and stolen devices.

Greater Visibility and Control

In December, Absolute introduced a new Missing Devices feature whereby Absolute customers can now track, locate, and recover missing devices. Customers now have the capability to easily understand where their devices are, who’s using them, and how to locate them -- information previously only available to law enforcement. Customers can now flag devices as missing, track them within a single report, and receive an automatic alert the next time they connect to the internet. This empowers users to either self-locate a missing device and contact the student or faculty member directly, or verify that the device has been stolen so that they can file a Theft Report, provided that they are willing to prosecute and have reported the incident to law enforcement.

Absolute’s team of reliable Investigators, with a total of 115 years of combined law enforcement experience, will then immediately begin an investigation, assist the police, and facilitate the safe return of the stolen device. Absolute Resilience for Education customers may also be eligible for a Service Guarantee; a warranty to back our proven ability to recover stolen devices, provided that the police report is uploaded within 30 days of the customer submitting the theft report and other conditions are met.

This feature represents a new degree of visibility and control for our customers. At a time where technology investment safeguards have never been more critical, Absolute is leading the way in supporting educators demonstrate ROI.

To learn more about how to track and recover missing devices with Absolute, watch this webinar.

Matt Meanchoff

Senior Vice President of Customer Experience

As Absolute’s Senior Vice President of Customer Experience, Matt Meanchoff is responsible for leading Absolute’s customer delivery and service functions – including Customer Success, Professional Services, Investigations, Education, and Technical Support. Matt is responsible for the Absolute customer journey and Voice of the Customer, and for building a robust subscription base of engaged, loyal, and growing customers. Matt joined Absolute in 2009 and brings more than 20 years of technology leadership experience.  Prior to joining Absolute, Matt held several leadership roles in global and start-up technology organizations where he successfully led teams in Product Management, Services, Support, and Operations.

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