Canopy says hardware losses cost Australia AUD $430 million

Canopy has released research estimating annual hardware asset losses in Australia at AUD $430 million. The findings focus on enterprise IT departments and managed service providers in Australia and New Zealand.

The report argues that standard corporate refresh cycles of 36 to 48 months leave laptops, smartphones and tablets idle after decommissioning. That reduces resale or recovery value and raises data-handling concerns. It also says internal IT teams and service providers absorb labour costs that organisations often do not account for when budgeting for device rollouts.

Canopy, previously known as PhoneCycle, says procurement teams often focus on the upfront purchase price of hardware while overlooking the time required to prepare and retire devices. Its field data suggests that manually setting up, asset-tagging, enrolling in mobile device management platforms, packaging and shipping a single corporate laptop or mobile device takes 30 to 45 minutes of labour.

For a mid-market business replacing 5,000 endpoints, that amounts to more than 2,500 to 3,500 hours of engineering time. The report describes that as a drain on IT teams that could otherwise focus on higher-priority projects.

"When you strip back a 1,000- or 5,000-device rollout, a lot of focus goes into negotiating the best price for the hardware, but that's only part of the cost," said Owen Jones, Managing Director, Canopy.

"What gets missed is the time skilled IT engineers spend physically handling those devices - finding them, wiping them, unboxing new devices, applying asset tags, configuring profiles, packing and shipping. It's an unbudgeted operational drag that takes the focus away from high-priority projects and reduces margins."

Hidden costs

The findings add to a broader discussion in corporate IT about the full cost of device ownership. While purchases of notebooks, phones and tablets are usually visible in capital budgets, the practical work of deployment and retrieval often sits within operational teams and can be harder to measure.

Managed service providers face a similar issue, particularly when they rely on multiple distributors and must coordinate accessories, delivery and device returns across different suppliers. The report says this can create delays, missing components and extra handling that weakens margins in a market where providers are already under pressure to contain costs.

Beyond labour and asset value, Canopy points to risks tied to device handover at the end of working life. A device can still contain accessible data even after a remote wipe or factory reset, making verification an important part of sanitisation, according to the report.

Australian Signals Directorate guidance requires suitable handling, sanitisation and disposal processes for IT equipment and the data it contains. The report also notes that organisations regulated by APRA must maintain controls to protect information assets, including when third parties are involved.

"The problem is that a remote MDM wipe or factory reset does not provide evidence that the device has been successfully sanitised. In our own experience, devices returned as wiped can still arrive with data or accounts accessible, highlighting the importance of verifying the outcome rather than simply assuming the wipe has worked," Jones said.

He drew a distinction between issuing a wipe command and proving that a device is safe to reuse, resell or dispose of.

"A remote wipe or factory reset is only part of the process. The important thing for a business is being able to verify that the data is actually gone," Jones said.

"For corporate devices, that means using recognised sanitisation processes such as NIST SP 800-88 Rev. 2, backed by verification and a device-level record showing what happened to every asset. There aren't a lot of organisations in Australia doing that, and it poses a major security risk."

Asset recovery

The report frames retired hardware as a financial asset rather than waste, arguing that organisations lose value when decommissioned devices remain unused for extended periods. According to the findings, dormant equipment can lose up to 80% of its recovery value after refresh, turning a potential resale or reuse opportunity into a write-down.

This matters for finance teams as well as IT departments because the treatment of retired hardware affects balance-sheet value and replacement budgets. If devices are collected, secured and remarketed earlier, some of that value can be returned to the business and used for future technology spending.

Canopy says it has expanded beyond hardware buyback into a broader device lifecycle management model that includes staging, distribution, sanitisation and asset recovery. The company is pitching that approach to enterprise IT teams, managed service providers and system integrators seeking tighter control over deployment and decommissioning.

"By recovering devices earlier, securing them and handing value back, businesses can maximise their return and put that value straight back into their technology budget. Thinking about the device in its full lifecycle is the key to security and financial reward," Jones said.