Turning IT From Cost Center To Growth Engine episode artwork

EPISODE · Jan 29, 2026 · 19 MIN

Turning IT From Cost Center To Growth Engine

from What's Up with Tech? · host Evan Kirstel

Interested in being a guest? Email us at [email protected] next hire shouldn’t spend their first week waiting on a laptop while projects sit in limbo. In this episode, we pull back the curtain on the $5B device lifecycle management market and explore how modern IT teams are shipping fully provisioned devices worldwide, recovering assets cleanly, and protecting data without becoming a global logistics operation.Francis Osifo, third-time founder and CEO of Rayda, breaks down how his team delivers day one ready devices in as little as five business days across 170 countries. By integrating directly with HR systems, standardizing device catalogs, and automating provisioning and returns, Rayda removes the friction that slows global hiring. We dig into the real cost of devices stuck in customs, the offboarding mess created by buying hardware from consumer retailers, and why Apple Business Manager and MDM platforms are the backbone of enterprise control.The conversation gets practical fast. We cover how to close the HR IT gap with automated triggers and clear SLAs, how to maintain real time visibility into assets across borders, and how to avoid the compliance risks of forgotten devices floating in the wild. Francis also shares why IT must evolve from a perceived cost center into a strategic growth enabler and how seamless onboarding directly impacts culture, productivity, and retention.Looking ahead, we explore the rise of agentic AI in IT operations. From handling routine tickets and password resets to orchestrating software access and even device procurement through intelligent automation, this next wave of tooling is set to free small teams to focus on security, architecture, and innovation. For lean IT orgs supporting hundreds of employees per admin, this is how scale actually becomes manageable.If you’re hiring globally, struggling with device sprawl, or looking to show real ROI from IT operations, this conversation is a must listen. Subscribe, share it with a teammate who’s tired of onboarding fire drills, and drop a review with your toughest device challenge so we can tackle it next.Support the showMore at https://linktr.ee/EvanKirstel

Interested in being a guest? Email us at [email protected] Your next hire shouldn’t spend their first week waiting on a laptop while projects sit in limbo. In this episode, we pull back the curtain on the $5B device lifecycle management market and explore how modern IT teams are shipping fully provisioned devices worldwide, recovering assets cleanly, and protecting data without becoming a global logistics operation. Francis Osifo, third-time founder and CEO of Rayda, breaks down how his...

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Turning IT From Cost Center To Growth Engine

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This episode is 19 minutes long.

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This episode was published on January 29, 2026.

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Interested in being a guest? Email us at [email protected] next hire shouldn’t spend their first week waiting on a laptop while projects sit in limbo. In this episode, we pull back the curtain on the $5B device lifecycle management market...

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