New hire laptop isn’t ready day one? (fix endpoint onboarding for good)
TL;DR
- Standardize builds, automate provisioning, and script access. Most pain is manual steps + ad-hoc images + license sprawl.
- Quick wins: MDM autopilot/Zero-Touch, SSO, baseline policies, and golden image for speed + consistency.
Symptoms
- New hires wait hours for updates/apps/permissions
- Inconsistent settings; security tools missing on some devices
- License chaos: “who owns this?”
- Ticket spikes first weeks of every quarter
Root causes
- No standard image (every device is snowflake)
- Manual local admin setup, hand-installing apps
- No SSO/IdP → password sprawl
- No policy/MDM → drift + risk
5-minute triage
- List core apps + versions (make that your baseline)
- Check device join path: Entra/AD? Google? Local?
- Inventory what’s scripted vs manual
Fixes today (no new licenses)
- Create a golden image (or baseline package) with OS, drivers, core apps
- Use SSO (Entra/Google) for one-click access to SaaS
- Push policies: BitLocker/FileVault, firewall, EDR, patch cadence
- Automate user onboarding/offboarding steps with scripts/runbooks
When to upgrade
- Autopilot/ABM/Zero-Touch so devices configure themselves
- MDM (Intune/Jamf) for apps, profiles, updates
- SSO + MFA + conditional access for identity and least privilege
Checklist
- Standard build documented
- SSO wired to core SaaS
- MDM pushes EDR + patch + disk crypto
- On/Offboarding runbooks tested
