In the digital age, identification has become a
complicated thing. Lengthy passwords, fingerprint readers and retina scanners
are just a few of the high-tech methods businesses try to authenticate identity
and protect property. But something as simple as “putting your name on it” —
tried and tested in kindergarten classrooms and office refrigerators everywhere
— can be just as valuable.
That’s the basic idea behind engraving, a laser-guided
method of imprinting identifiable information on hardware or mobile devices. In
the event that this property is lost or stolen, and found by an honest party,
it can be returned to its owners.
While relatively easy to implement, the benefits of
laser engraving are numerous in organizations with mobile employees juggling
multiple devices.
Permanent
Protection
Instead of receiving a thick binder of documents
before board meetings, directors of Happy State Bank in
Amarillo, Texas, now get the information they need downloaded to gold-finished
Apple iPad devices laser-engraved with the bank’s logo and individual
identifiers for the hardware. In addition to being more convenient for the
directors, the new system is more efficient and secure for the bank, says Mark
Murray, the bank’s assistant vice president for IT.
“We
used to send someone to deliver the board books to each director,” he says.
“It was time-consuming and a security risk as well
as being much more costly. Now, if one of the devices goes missing, we can
disable it, and the engraving
makes it easier to trace and identify.”
The
addition of the permanent ID number for each tablet will also save the bank’s
IT staff considerable time and aggravation when they are troubleshooting a
problem or performing regular maintenance on the tablets, says Murray.
“With
the old iPads, we had to dive into the machines and go through some settings
and menu items to discover which device we were working on, and then connect it
with the person using it,” he says.
In the hands of the directors, the logo on the
sleek tablet also gives Happy State Bank increased presence in the community,
Murray says. “Our logo is very
important to us. It’s our brand, and we like to show it anywhere we can.
Our directors are highly visible in the community, and when they carry the
iPads around, it’s good for the bank.”
Theft
Repellent
While
the prominent logo attracts attention to the bank, it can also act as a
deterrent to potential thieves, says Christopher Brooks, the CDW systems
administrator who manages the company’s custom engraving service. Most of CDW’s
laser-engraving customers take the step for the sake of theft prevention as
well as brand visibility, he says.
“We see a rising trend among companies and,
especially, academic institutions to put their logo or brand on their hardware
— the custom engraving looks good and is on for good,” says Brooks. “Thieves
are a lot less likely to grab something that’s been permanently marked with a
name or logo, since they’re
usually hoping to sell what they steal.”
Better
Device Management
Even
if a thief does get away with the hardware, the etched logo and ID number can
be invaluable to police when the stolen item is recovered and they want to
return it to its owner, says Cpl. Jerry Neufeld of the Amarillo Police
Department Crime Prevention Unit.
“Anything that can make an item identifiable to law
enforcement is a good thing, and the more permanent the marking is, the
better,” he says. “Also, the more specific the information on the marking is, the more likely the owner is to get it back.”
The
new tablets for Happy State Bank directors are replacements for the
hard-to-come-by first-generation iPad devices for which bank staff scoured
stores in two states several years ago. This time, the bank went to CDW for the
20 iPads they needed for directors and for help with issues in managing the
first-generation devices, says Bryan Barcroft, application support specialist
at the bank. In the course of discussing the purchase, the bank’s IT team
learned about the custom-engraving option, one of the offerings provided by
CDW’s configuration services.
“We needed an update for the iPad, and we were
looking for ways to manage the devices more efficiently,” says Barcroft. “When
the engraving service came up, it seemed like the right idea. This is our board
of directors, so we want the package to look as professional as possible —we’re not going to slap a sticky label on the
back of the iPad we give them.”
Inexpensive
Insurance
Happy
State Bank is also considering putting a laser-engraved logo and identifier on
notebooks and other mobile devices used by bank staff, as well as equipment in
some of its branches, says Barcroft.
“The cost
of the engraving is negligible in relation to a $1,000 notebook and
is certainly worth it for the security and visibility benefits,” he says.
“We’re thinking about it for anything mobile.”
HAN'S LASER CORP.
2220 O'Toole Ave,San Jose, CA 95131
Phone: (+1) 408-774-9428
Fax: (+1) 669-900-4570
Email: laser@hanslaser.com
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