HIGHMARK HEALTH is a national Fortune 1,000 company headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA.

Highmark and its subsidiaries provide Healthcare services from eastern Ohio to Central Pennsylvania and all of West Virginia.

In 2023, Highmark was recognized by Forbes on their list of America’s Best Employers.

 

Highmark Mac Lifecycle priorities presented to Digital Fix:

• Create a 4-year lifecycle for all company Mac assets, including an EOL process for removing termed Macs from the fleet and replacing them with newer assets.

• Create a process to identify, collect, secure erase, and dispose of Mac assets.

• Have the ability to track, lock, or erase lost or stolen assets.

• Repair or recycle any damaged Macs.

Highmark business priorities presented to Digital Fix:

• Be expedient: do not let aged Mac assets languish in the fleet.

• Perform EOL asset replacements with as little disturbance to end-users as possible.

• Determine if any resell value can be obtained for EOL Macs and accessories.

• Minimize space required to store or dispose of EOL Macs.

How Digital Fix Consulting Responded:

• Sought out any and all Mac assets, including those at satellite campuses, and enrolled all assets into Jamf (if able to, pending hardware and OS).

• Built a master spreadsheet of all Macs, listing type, Highmark asset number, serial number, AppleCare status, and end user

• Collaborated with Highmark procurement in purchase records to identify all Macs at 4 years or older

• Presented Highmark with the quantity of required EOL replacements (this included damanged machines outside of AppleCare or coming up on 4-years of ownership).

• As part of our EOL process, determined that Highmark end users who had an EOL asset would recieve a brand new Mac instead of replacing with a less-aged model than they currently had — creating a good customer experience.

• Once new Macs arrived, created a plan of attack to replace 3-4 assets at a time, contacting end users and scheduling a time to meet in person to help assist with data transfers and setup; remote users would be shipped the new Mac and required to ship back the EOL asset.

• All EOL Macs were then secure erased using Department of Defense standard 5220.22-M. Highmark procurement was notified of each asset and listing it as secure erased.

• The list of Highmark EOL assets was then presented to Digital Fix’s procurement team to shop our list of vendors to find the best price for EOL Macs on the secondary market. The EOL Macs were packaged in pallets and shipped off once sold. Digital Fix maintains an escrow account with Highmark’s EOL proceeds for future Apple product purchases.

• By removing aged devices and updating non-EOL Macs, the entire Highmark fleet is now Jamf-enrolled for management (including tracking and locking per Highmark’s requirement). Jamf will also simplify future identification of Macs at the end of the Highmar 4-year lifespan.

• Damaged Macs not yet EOL termed were mailed off to AppleCare for repair using DFC’s Enterprise AppleCare Support.

On-going Digital Fix Consulting Initiatives:

• Work with Apple to become a Limited Authorized Service Provider. This will allow faster turnaround in repair time for active damaged Mac assets.

• Utilize Jamf to ensure non-EOL Macs are still up-to-date on patch management, security, and macOS updates.

• Assit with Highmark legal and HR departments to identify and secure Mac assets deemed “HR Holds.” These devices are kept in last-use state and locked away securely until Highmark releases them for erasure and return to stock.

• Maintain all Mac inventory, including accessories, for Highmark new hires and temporary needs. DFC handles all asset-issuing, deployment, and on/off boarding of Highmark employees.