Remote Team IT Equipment Setup: How to Send Laptops to Distributed Teams

A smooth laptop setup can make or break remote onboarding. Yet most companies hit the same roadblocks: coordinating procurement across countries, managing logistics for distributed teams, navigating customs and compliance, and avoiding hidden international shipping costs. The result? Only 36% of workers say they have the equipment they need to do their jobs effectively. Traditional approaches—shipping from headquarters, reimbursing local purchases, or allowing BYOD—create bottlenecks that delay onboarding from day one. International shipping means weeks of customs delays, reimbursements sacrifice standardization and security, and BYOD leaves employees on personal devices without proper endpoint protection.

For IT and HR teams managing distributed workforces, the challenge is clear: how do you get standardized devices into employees' hands quickly, cost-effectively, and at scale without turning each hire into a logistics project? This guide walks through why device provisioning gets complicated as you grow, the tradeoffs of common approaches, what an optimized workflow actually looks like, the business risks of outdated processes, and how working with a provider that has local operations in 130+ countries changes the economics and timelines of global IT asset management.

Why equipping remote teams is more complex than it looks

Key challenges in remote laptop provisioning

Setting up remote employees involves more than just hardware. The real challenge isn't defining what employees need—it's delivering standardized, secure devices quickly when your workforce is distributed across multiple countries and time zones.

Regional inventory gaps create sourcing bottlenecks

The MacBook Pro you need is in stock in San Francisco but backordered for three weeks in São Paulo. When your preferred device isn't available locally, you're stuck waiting for restocks or shipping internationally—both push onboarding back by weeks. Your new hire sits idle while you scramble to find alternatives.

International shipping introduces cost and complexity

Shipping from headquarters sounds simple until you hit import duties in Brazil, voltage mismatches in the UK, or keyboard layout issues in Germany. Courier fees, insurance, duties, and taxes stack up fast. One wrong customs code or missing document stalls delivery for weeks—and your new hire is still waiting.

No centralized tracking of assets

The moment a device leaves your warehouse, tracking becomes fragmented. Without centralized asset management, IT teams resort to spreadsheets, email chains, and manual status updates that fall out of sync immediately. You can't answer basic questions: Where is the laptop? Did it arrive? Was it configured correctly? Which employee owns which asset? IT and People teams end up coordinating procurement, shipment tracking, and technical support across multiple time zones with no unified view of what's happening.

Lack of staff to support global hardware requests

Most IT teams weren't built to handle procurement and support across multiple time zones. At 50 employees, you're establishing vendors in unfamiliar markets outside your headquarters. At 200 or 500 employees, the complexity multiplies: managing multiple vendors, coordinating delivery and retrieval across dozens of countries, and preparing devices for redeployment. Each new hire becomes its own logistics project, and every departure leaves a laptop unaccounted for. This is why teams fall back on workarounds—stipends, BYOD, inconsistent vendors—that create security gaps and compliance headaches.

Common device provisioning strategies and their tradeoffs

1. Shipping devices from headquarters

Most companies start here. You maintain control over configuration and security standards, but delivery takes two to four weeks once you factor in customs, international carriers, and local delivery. Cross-border logistics costs often exceed $400 per device when you include freight, duties, and VAT. Customs delays hit harder than most teams expect, with clearance processes remaining a major disruption point for international shipments.

Pros:

• Configuration control: Full control over device configuration and security standards
• Vendor management: Centralized procurement simplifies vendor relationships

Cons:

• Slow delivery: Two-to-four-week timelines delay onboarding
• High costs: International shipping, duties, and VAT often exceed $400 per device
• Customs uncertainty: Delays leave new hires waiting with no clear resolution timeline
• Repair complexity: Damaged devices require restarting the entire international shipping process

2. Employee stipends or reimbursements

Some teams switch to stipends so employees can buy devices locally. This speeds up access, but now you're supporting a mix of personal devices with different specs, inconsistent security setups, and compliance gaps that matter in regulated industries.

Pros:

• Speed: Employees can purchase locally within days
• No shipping logistics: Eliminates international shipping complexity

Cons:

• No standardization: Inconsistent devices, specs, and configurations across your team
• Lost security control: IT loses visibility and control over security posture
• Compliance risk: Audit vulnerabilities in regulated industries

3. Partnering with a global IT logistics provider

This approach hands off device provisioning to a specialized partner that handles sourcing, configuration, and local delivery. These providers manage everything from procurement to in-country delivery, often with built-in integrations for MDM and zero-touch deployment. It's the most scalable option for distributed teams that want consistency without the operational burden. Compare the leading global IT logistics providers to find the right fit for your team's needs.

Pros:

• Fast, consistent delivery: Employees get standardized devices quickly, sourced locally, while IT maintains control over models, specs, and security standards
• Pre-configured security: Devices arrive enrolled in MDM with apps, policies, and security controls already applied
• IT efficiency: Frees up internal teams to focus on strategy instead of chasing shipments or troubleshooting one-off setups
• Scalability: Infrastructure grows with your team without adding internal headcount or complexity

Cons:

• Upfront planning: Requires defining standard device profiles and setup policies, though once established, everything runs on autopilot
• Commitment requirements: Some providers require minimums, annual contracts, or platform fees—though flexible pay-per-use models are increasingly available
• Less direct control: Reduced day-to-day involvement in logistics, but with the right SLA in place, you gain reliability without micromanagement

The gap between what distributed teams actually need and what most of these approaches deliver is where things get interesting.

What an optimal remote PC setup workflow looks like

Device standardization is the foundation. Pick two or three approved laptop models per role or department. This makes procurement faster, simplifies IT support, and keeps security configurations consistent without boxing employees into underpowered machines. Standardization also enables zero-touch deployment, where devices arrive already configured with your OS, required software, and endpoint protection installed.

Automated onboarding and offboarding workflows connect directly to your HRIS platform. When you add a new hire, the system triggers a device order. When someone leaves, it starts the retrieval process. No manual data entry, no forgotten devices, and asset tracking stays synced with your source of truth. Onboarding timelines compress, IT spends less time on logistics, and new hires get their equipment before day one.

In-country delivery changes the math entirely. When devices are sourced and delivered locally (within the same country where your employee lives), you skip customs delays, cut shipping costs, and hit four-to-seven-day delivery windows—often faster in major markets. This local approach extends to retrieval too. When employees leave or relocate, the same in-country setup handles device pickup, certified data wiping, and either storage for future use or buyback to recover value.

Lifecycle management treats devices as assets moving through predictable stages rather than one-time purchases. After retrieval, devices get certified data wipes that meet compliance standards, then go into storage where they're available for reassignment or held for future hiring. When devices reach end-of-life or you're refreshing hardware, buyback services recover value and handle proper disposal.

Business risks of outdated device management

Onboarding delays hit productivity and employee experience directly. New hires wait weeks for equipment while they're eager to start contributing. First impressions matter, and a slow, disorganized provisioning process signals operational chaos to someone who just accepted your offer—particularly critical since 20% of staff turnover occurs within the first 45 days. You're paying full salary for employees who can't fully do their jobs, and you're creating frustration that affects retention before the first month ends—a costly mistake when formal onboarding programs achieve 50% greater employee retention.

These delays create a ripple effect that extends far beyond onboarding. When official processes are too slow or complicated, shadow IT and BYOD (bring your own device) become the workaround. Employees use personal laptops to get work done, accessing company systems and data from unmanaged devices without endpoint protection, encryption, or centralized monitoring. Data exposure risk goes up—concerning when 2024 breaches exceeded 1 billion stolen records—compliance audits get messy, and enforcing security policies consistently becomes nearly impossible.

The security gaps don't end when employees leave, either. Offboarding without clear processes leaves devices and data floating around. Laptops sit in former employees' homes, still containing company data and sometimes still connected to internal systems. Even when devices come back, inconsistent data wiping creates audit vulnerabilities and increases breach risk. The longer devices stay unaccounted for, the higher your exposure climbs.

All of these issues compound as you grow, making scaling the ultimate bottleneck. When each new hire or new market requires custom logistics, manual procurement, and ad-hoc problem-solving, device management limits growth. IT and People teams spend more time on logistics than strategy, and cost per device increases as you spread operations across more geographies without standardized infrastructure.

How quipteams redefines global IT asset management

quipteams handles the full device lifecycle for distributed teams: equipping employees, retrieving devices when they leave, storing equipment until it's needed again, buying back devices you no longer want, and secure data wiping throughout. The platform operates local procurement and logistics in 130+ countries, delivering devices in 4–7 business days.

What makes this possible is local operations. quipteams sources devices from in-country suppliers rather than relying on third-party regional vendors who add coordination overhead and extend lead times. A new hire in India gets their laptop from an Indian supplier, delivered by a local courier who knows the area. A new hire in Brazil gets their equipment from a Brazilian supplier. This eliminates the delays, customs complications, and markup layers that slow down traditional approaches—cutting both delivery times and total costs.

HRIS integrations with BambooHR, Gusto, Deel, and Rippling automate the workflow. When your HR system shows a new hire, quipteams triggers the device order automatically. When someone leaves, retrieval starts without manual coordination. This reduces the time IT and People teams spend managing device logistics, letting them focus on higher-value work.

The pricing model is straightforward—pay only for what you use, when you use it. No platform fees, no subscription tiers, no monthly minimums. You get itemized quotes that break down exactly what you're paying for: the device itself, delivery costs, and any additional services you need. Your costs scale naturally with your hiring activity.

Companies like Mercor, Scale AI, X, Revolut, Ramp, Wise, and Webflow already trust quipteams to solve the challenges of scaling globally. Book a quick call to see how quipteams can streamline your global device management—or read verified reviews on G2 to learn what other distributed teams are saying.

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FAQ

Should I ship laptops from headquarters or buy locally for remote employees?

Shipping from headquarters gives you control but costs $400+ per device in freight, duties, and VAT, with two-to-four-week delays from customs. Buying locally through employee stipends is faster but sacrifices standardization and security control. The middle ground: work with a provider that sources devices in-country, giving you standardized equipment with four-to-seven-day delivery at transparent local pricing—no customs delays, no security gaps.

How do I avoid customs delays when sending laptops internationally?

The only reliable way to avoid customs is to eliminate cross-border shipping entirely. When devices are sourced and delivered within the same country where your employee lives, there's no customs clearance, no import duties, and no weeks-long delays. This is how quipteams delivers in 4–7 days across 130+ countries—local procurement means local delivery.

What's the best way to standardize devices across a remote team?

Pick two or three approved laptop models per role or department, then work with a provider that can source those exact specs consistently across all your markets. Standardization enables zero-touch deployment, simplifies IT support, and keeps security configurations consistent. When every device arrives pre-configured with your MDM, required software, and endpoint protection, onboarding becomes predictable regardless of where employees are located.

How do I handle laptop retrieval when remote employees leave?

In-country retrieval solves this. When an employee departs, schedule pickup directly from their location using local logistics—no international return shipping. After retrieval, devices get certified data wipes that meet compliance standards, then go into storage for reassignment or enter buyback to recover value. This keeps former employees from holding company-owned devices and eliminates the audit vulnerabilities that come from inconsistent offboarding.

Do I need a subscription or minimum order to work with quipteams?

No. quipteams operates on a pay-per-use model with no subscriptions, minimum order quantities, platform fees, or exclusivity requirements. You order devices as needed, pay transparent local pricing, and scale up or down based on your actual headcount and hiring plans.

Can I automate device provisioning when new hires join?

Yes. quipteams integrates with HRIS platforms like BambooHR, Gusto, Deel, and Rippling to automate device workflows. When you add a new hire in your HR system, the platform triggers the device order automatically. When someone leaves, retrieval starts without manual coordination. This keeps asset tracking synced with your source of truth and eliminates the spreadsheets and email chains that fall out of sync immediately.

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