IT teams are under increasing pressure as global operations expand and workloads grow. To understand where the biggest bottlenecks are emerging, we ran a series of LinkedIn polls focused on time drains, budget pressures, partner selection, integrations, and regional logistics.
Across responses, clear patterns emerged: offboarding consumes disproportionate time, hardware remains the largest budget driver, hidden fees are a major dealbreaker, and certain regions, especially LATAM, continue to challenge procurement and retrieval workflows.
This piece brings those signals together to highlight the operational themes shaping IT management today and the pain points teams are trying to solve as they scale.
Across the poll series, several consistent patterns appeared, regardless of company size or region. While each question focused on a different aspect of IT operations, the underlying themes pointed to the same operational pressures:
Together, these themes reflect an IT landscape where time, cost control, and global execution define the day-to-day reality for distributed teams.
When we asked IT professionals which tasks consume the most time in their week, offboarding ranked highest, surpassing device setup, asset tracking, and vendor coordination. The signal was clear: end-of-employment workflows continue to require more manual effort than most teams expect.
Offboarding pulls time for several reasons. Coordinating returns across regions adds layers of follow-up, especially when retrieving devices from remote employees. Missing equipment, delayed shipments, and communication gaps all extend the process. And for companies scaling quickly, even a small increase in turnover can multiply these delays.
This aligns with what many IT teams report today: while onboarding has become more streamlined through automation, offboarding still relies on fragmented processes and inconsistent vendor support. As distributed teams grow, the time cost of retrievals becomes harder to ignore.
When respondents ranked the most expensive areas of their IT budget, hardware and devices dominated the results, far ahead of software, staffing, or security tools. Even with SaaS expansion and higher security expectations, devices remain the cost center with the strongest impact on annual planning.
This reflects the reality of global procurement today. Device prices vary widely by region due to taxes, duties, and fluctuating availability, making forecasting difficult for distributed teams. A laptop purchased in one country can cost significantly more or less in another, creating inconsistencies that compound at scale.
As companies continue expanding internationally, the combination of regional price differences and unpredictable lead times reinforces why hardware remains the most tightly scrutinized part of the IT budget.
When we asked IT professionals what would immediately disqualify a potential IT asset management partner, the top response was clear: hidden fees. Unclear pricing ranked far above high upfront costs, unnecessary features, or platform complexity.
This preference reflects a broader shift in how IT teams evaluate partners. With budgets under pressure and global procurement already unpredictable, unexpected add-ons, whether shipping surcharges, retrieval fees, or region-specific markups, erode trust quickly. Teams want to know exactly what they’re paying for and what they can expect every time they deploy or retrieve a device.
As more companies move toward distributed or hybrid models, pricing transparency has become as important as technical capability. Partners that complicate billing or bundle features that teams don’t need are increasingly seen as a liability rather than support.
When respondents were asked what matters most as their companies scale, the strongest signal was the need for speed, specifically, fast onboarding and predictable shipping. These priorities ranked higher than integrations, advanced features, or even broader global coverage.
This focus on speed reflects how hiring velocity and device readiness now go hand in hand. When onboarding stalls, new employees lose productivity on day one, and IT teams are forced into reactive workflows. Predictable shipping is just as critical: delays in one region can derail onboarding timelines across an entire department or product team.
While integrations and global reach remain important, the data shows that companies scaling quickly care first about momentum. They want partners that keep pace with hiring, minimize wait times, and ensure devices arrive on schedule, regardless of where employees are located.
When we asked which part of global IT operations creates the most friction, respondents pointed to regional device availability and shipping reliability as the biggest obstacles. Retrievals and compliance followed closely behind.
The results reflect the broader reality of supporting distributed teams: supply chains aren’t consistent across regions. In some markets, devices are easy to source; in others, shortages, distributor limitations, and long lead times are common. Retrievals introduce even more variability, especially when coordinating return labels, customs documentation, or courier pickups from remote employees.
Compliance adds another layer. Local regulations, from import rules to data protection requirements, can slow down procurement and complicate device movement across borders.
Together, these signals highlight the core challenge of global IT operations today: even well-defined workflows can break down when regional logistics fail to align.
When respondents were asked what pushes their organization to seek outside IT support, the leading signal was security needs. This outweighed team growth, turnover, and even operational bottlenecks, such as executives taking on IT tasks themselves.
Security has become the point where internal capacity and expertise often reach their limits. As companies scale, the risks tied to device management, data protection, and access control grow faster than most teams can adapt. When incidents, audits, or compliance requirements intensify, many organizations turn to external partners for stability and oversight.
Secondary triggers still matter. Rapid hiring can overwhelm internal IT teams, and leadership involvement in day-to-day IT work is typically a sign that processes haven’t kept pace. But the poll results underline a consistent pattern: the moment security becomes a concern, companies are far more likely to seek external operational support.
When asked which integrations matter most in their IT workflows, respondents ranked HR and payroll systems as the top priorities. These platforms form the foundation of provisioning: if employee data isn’t accurate or synced, every downstream workflow from ordering devices to managing access slows down.
MDM/UEM tools followed closely, highlighting their role in enforcing security policies, managing configurations, and ensuring devices remain compliant once deployed. ITSM and SSO systems also ranked as important, but the poll suggests they’re often built on top of these core layers rather than driving the workflow themselves.
The responses reinforce a clear hierarchy: IT teams rely first on accurate employee records, then on strong device management, and finally on the broader operational ecosystem. When these systems work together, provisioning and offboarding become far more predictable.
When we asked which region poses the most challenges for IT procurement and retrievals, respondents overwhelmingly pointed to LATAM. This region stood out above North America, EMEA, and APAC, signaling consistent friction in both deploying and recovering hardware.
The reasons are well known to global IT teams: customs rules vary widely across countries, courier reliability is uneven, and device availability can shift quickly. Even standard workflows, like issuing a return label or arranging a pickup, can become unpredictable when dealing with distributed employees across multiple LATAM markets.
While other regions have their own complexities, the poll results highlight LATAM as the area where operational risk and logistical delay converge most often. For teams supporting global headcount, this region frequently requires additional planning, buffer time, and specialized vendor coverage.
Taken together, the poll results point to a clear shift in how IT teams operate. The most pressing challenges aren’t coming from tools or software, they’re emerging from the operational weight of managing distributed teams across multiple regions.
Time, transparency, and logistics are the defining pressure points. Offboarding consumes more hours than expected. Hardware budgets are stretched by regional price swings. Hidden fees from vendors undermine trust. And scaling reliably depends on fast onboarding and predictable shipping above everything else.
For growing companies, these patterns highlight a broader trend: IT success now depends on operational execution as much as technical expertise. Teams need partners who can simplify complexity, support global workflows, and deliver consistent results everywhere employees work.
The themes surfaced across the poll series align with the challenges we solve every day for distributed teams. GroWrk’s global platform is built to eliminate operational friction and provide IT teams with predictable, scalable support across regions.
Here’s how we address the core pain points highlighted in the polls:
Predictable global procurement
Unified pricing and region-specific sourcing reduce volatility and simplify forecasting.
Fast onboarding and instant quoting
Devices ship quickly with automated quoting that keeps pace with hiring needs.
Secure offboarding and reliable retrievals
End-to-end coordination ensures devices are recovered on time, even across complex regions.
Localized coverage in challenging markets
Strong presence in LATAM, APAC, and EMEA smooths customs, duties, and last-mile logistics.
Transparent pricing with no hidden fees
Clear billing prevents the unexpected add-ons that derail budgets and strain partnerships.
AI-assisted support with a dedicated CSM
Blends automation and human oversight to streamline communication and resolve issues quickly.
Full visibility across the asset lifecycle
Centralized tracking helps teams manage hardware from procurement through recovery.
Together, these capabilities give IT leaders the operational consistency they need to support distributed teams at scale. Request a demo today and learn more!