---
title: "Device Lifecycle Management"
canonical: https://harmony.io/platform/asset-management/device-lifecycle-management
---

# Device Lifecycle Management

Every device from purchase to retirement, with lifecycle states, end-of-life policies per model, warranty data and alerts before a device ages out.

## Device lifecycle management from purchase to retirement

Track every laptop, phone and monitor through stock, assignment, repair, end of life and retirement, with dates set by policy instead of memory.

## What is device lifecycle management?

Device lifecycle management, also called hardware asset management, is tracking each device from the day it is bought to the day it is retired: who has it, what state it is in, when its warranty ends and when it is due for replacement. The dates matter most, and they are the first thing a spreadsheet gets wrong.

In Harmony every asset moves through In stock, Reserved, Active, In repair, EOL planned, EOL grace period, EOL reached and Retired. End-of-life policies are set per asset type and vendor: a lifespan in months, how early to warn, and a grace period. Notifications go to Slack, Microsoft Teams or email as a device reaches each stage.

Purchase details travel with the device: order number, price, supplier, warranty type and warranty end date, with [Apple Business Manager](https://harmony.io/integrations/apple) supplying purchase and warranty data for Apple devices. A retired device keeps its reason, whether it was disposed of, sold, given away, broken or stolen.

## Every device, every stage, on schedule

- **Lifecycle states:** In stock, Reserved, Active, In repair, EOL planned, EOL grace period, EOL reached and Retired, filterable across the whole fleet.
- **End-of-life policies:** A lifespan of 1 to 120 months per asset type and vendor, a warning threshold and a grace period of up to 12 months.
- **Lifecycle alerts:** EOL planned, EOL reached and grace period expired events sent to Slack, Microsoft Teams or email.
- **Purchase and warranty:** Order number, price, supplier, warranty type and warranty end date, filled from Apple Business Manager where it applies.
- **Stock levels:** Low-stock alerts at a threshold you set, by vendor and warehouse.
- **Employee buyouts:** Purchase policies with straight-line depreciation, tiered or percentage pricing, and a minimum device age and employee tenure.
- **Asset tags:** A QR code for every asset that opens its record, ready to print and attach.
- **Retirement reasons:** Disposed, sold, given away, broken, stolen or other, kept on the record after a device leaves the fleet.

## How device lifecycle management works

**Trigger:** A device is bought, assigned, breaks, ages out or comes back from a departing employee.

1. **Sync the fleet** - Devices arrive from Jamf, Microsoft Intune, Kandji, JumpCloud, NinjaOne or Addigy, with purchase and warranty data from Apple Business Manager.

2. **Set the policy** - An end-of-life policy per asset type and vendor sets each device's planned end-of-life date and grace period.

3. **Get warned early** - Notifications fire when a device is EOL planned, when it reaches end of life and when its grace period runs out.

4. **Reassign, refresh or retire** - Agents confirm ownership, handle employee purchase requests and find unassigned devices, and a retired record keeps its reason.

**Outcome:** Refresh cycles planned from data, and no laptop forgotten in a drawer.

## Mammoth Brands checks upgrade eligibility in one step

When someone at Mammoth Brands says their laptop is three years old, Harmony checks the refresh policy and the purchase date, confirms eligibility and opens a scheduling ticket. That used to mean looking up a purchase date in one system and a start date in another. The same context gives the team the assets approaching end of life, over a hundred of them in one pass.

> We tried other AI products and the thing that we found is that we had to kind of go in and build, whereas with Harmony, a lot of it came out of the box. So our time to deploy was a lot faster.
>
> - Marce Ayala, Senior Manager, IT Infrastructure, Mammoth Brands

## Agents for every stage of the lifecycle

- [Asset Ownership Confirmation](https://harmony.io/agents/asset-ownership-confirmation)

- [Asset Purchase Agent](https://harmony.io/agents/employee-asset-purchase)

- [Unassigned Assets](https://harmony.io/agents/unassigned-assets)

- [Employees with No Assigned Assets](https://harmony.io/agents/employees-with-no-assigned-assets)

- [Device Recovery](https://harmony.io/agents/device-recovery)

- [Asset Activity Detection](https://harmony.io/agents/asset-activity-detection)

## Lifecycle data from MDM, Apple and your suppliers

- **MDM: **[Jamf Pro](https://harmony.io/integrations/jamf-pro), [Microsoft Intune](https://harmony.io/integrations/microsoft-intune), [Kandji](https://harmony.io/integrations/iru-kandji), [JumpCloud](https://harmony.io/integrations/jumpcloud), [NinjaOne](https://harmony.io/integrations/ninjaone), [Addigy](https://harmony.io/integrations/addigy)
- **Purchase and warranty: **[Apple Business Manager](https://harmony.io/integrations/apple)
- **Procurement and logistics: **[Firstbase](https://harmony.io/integrations/firstbase), [Workwize](https://harmony.io/integrations/workwize)

## FAQ

### What is device lifecycle management?

Tracking each device from purchase to retirement: who holds it, what state it is in, when its warranty ends and when it is due for replacement. It is also called hardware asset lifecycle management.

### Which lifecycle states does Harmony track?

In stock, Reserved, Active, In repair, EOL planned, EOL grace period, EOL reached and Retired. A retired device also records why: disposed, sold, given away, broken, stolen or other.

### How are end-of-life dates set?

By policy, per asset type and vendor. Each policy sets a lifespan of 1 to 120 months, how many months before end of life to warn, and a grace period of up to 12 months. Harmony sends notifications to Slack, Microsoft Teams or email at each stage.

### Where does warranty and purchase data come from?

Apple Business Manager supplies purchase and warranty data for Apple devices. For everything else, the order number, price, supplier, warranty type and warranty end date sit on the asset record.

### Can employees buy their old laptop?

Yes. Purchase policies price a device by straight-line depreciation, tiers or a percentage, with a minimum device age and employee tenure, and the Asset Purchase agent handles the request.

### What happens to devices when someone leaves?

Offboarding opens a Return Company Assets task alongside account termination, so the device comes back and its record moves on. See [recovering laptops from departing employees](https://harmony.io/insights/recover-laptops-from-departing-employees).