IT Onboarding Checklist: 10 Steps to Set Up New Hires for Success
Onboarding is too often delivered on an ad hoc basis. Particularly in smaller companies with few HR processes, it can fall on the office manager or team lead to get new employees up and running.
While this might work at first, it leaves too much to chance. New employees need careful, systematic onboarding processes to set them up for success. That can be the difference between new hires getting comfortable in their roles quickly, or feeling disconnected and forgotten about.
This article looks specifically at IT setup during the onboarding process. Following these 10 steps, you’ll ensure that new hires have the equipment they need, with the guidance and security systems in place to succeed.
Why a formal IT onboarding process matters
While just one aspect of onboarding, IT is absolutely critical in the modern workplace. Without the right devices and permission sets, employees can barely function at all.
Focusing specifically on IT and devices, a formal onboarding process:
• Saves time. While you need to invest a small amount of energy and effort to create the process itself, it should then be easy to repeat with each new employee. And you don’t have to think up a whole new process each time around.
•Reduces human error. Particularly if you don’t have dedicated IT teams and on-demand support, it’s easy to overlook things in the setup process. A structured process (and a good checklist) ensures nothing is missed.
• Gets employees up to speed faster. You want new employees working independently and delivering value to the business as soon as possible. A formal process makes this both more likely and more predictable.
• Creates fair, consistent experiences. It’s unfair if new team members have vastly different onboarding experiences. One person who gets VIP treatment has an advantage and will naturally feel more at home. More importantly, others with rushed or improvised onboarding may feel left behind. Consistency is key.
• Helps new employees feel valued. New employees want to know that they’re valued colleagues, and that their new team is excited to have them. Showing that you’ve prepared for their arrival is a simple way to make newcomers feel welcome.
All of the above applies to onboarding overall. But too often, the practical IT aspects of this process are taken for granted or overlooked. To help you construct an effective IT onboarding process, here’s a simple checklist to follow.
10-step IT onboarding checklist
IT onboarding should never be left to chance. To make sure you get it right, here are 10 important steps to follow.
These don’t necessarily all happen one after the other. Some can be done in tandem, and you may choose to put certain steps earlier or later in the process, to suit your own preferences and workflow.
1. Understand the team structure
Before doing anything with hardware or software, you first need to establish who the new employee is and where they’ll fit in the organization. A high-level executive likely needs quite different tools and devices from your frontline support staff, for example.
A few simple things to consider:
• Which team are they in?
• What is their level of experience and seniority?
• What is their start date?
It’s not complicated, but it does require a small amount of reflection. A one-size-fits-all setup won’t work in the majority of situations.
Finally, ensure their manager and HR rep know that hardware is being ordered and delivered.
2. Prepare and set up hardware
Ensure that new hires have the devices they need on day one, ready to use. This is the bare minimum. Asking a newcomer to use their own computer for the first few weeks is almost as bad as them arriving at an empty desk with nothing at all.
Ensure all necessary hardware—including laptops, monitors, peripherals, and phones if necessary—is ready and waiting for them on their first day. If the employee is remote, you’ll need to arrange delivery, too (see below).
Devices should be pre-configured with the required company software, security settings, and user profiles. Ideally they’ll also have the specific tools and software that employee needs in their specific role.
Zero-touch deployment can be a lifesaver in these situations. This pre-configures everything you need onto devices before they’re sent out, so you don’t have to do this additional step yourself.
3. Install necessary software and tools
If you’re not using an efficient zero-touch deployment setup system, you’ll need to install critical software yourself. This likely includes email clients, collaboration tools, and project management apps.
You also need to ensure you have the required licenses for those software. Tools like Office 365, Slack, Zoom, and Salesforce all have packages that include a price per seat, and some software works in groups of licenses (0-10 or 11-50, for example). Don’t leave it until their first day to realize you can’t actually give a new employee the tool they need.
Once again, zero-touch deployment tools help with all of the above. And mobile device management (MDM)—separate but related—can make setting up user profiles as simple as a few clicks.
4. Create and send login credentials
Get each new employee’s access live before they arrive on the first day. That includes generating user accounts for email, VPNs, project management tools, and other key systems.
You should also ensure they have access to Wi-Fi networks, shared drives, and any other protected environments they’ll need to work with.
5. Set up multi-factor authentication (MFA)
The last of our setup steps is to enroll the employee in multi-factor authentication (MFA) for secure access. This is now standard in security-conscious organizations, and you’ll doubtless have a process and provider specific to your business.
They’ll need this up and running on all devices. This can include personal phones if they’re planning to use tools like Slack or email on them.
Bear in mind that organizational MFA can be complicated and confusing for new users. So you may also need to provide guidance on day one, as well as further resources.
6. Arrange device delivery
Depending on your suppliers, you may be able to do all of the above without actually receiving the new employee’s devices. But come the start date, you need the devices in place.
Whatever the employee’s location, ensure hardware is delivered on time to the right place. That’s relatively easy if they’re working from HQ, but potentially more complicated if remote.
7. Conduct IT orientation and walkthrough
IT should have its own moment during every onboarding process. If your employees arrive in waves, this could be an in-person seminar with an IT leader to introduce themselves, make sure everyone’s connected, and to see that devices are performing at a high level.
If remote, this means a short Zoom or Teams call between the IT person and the new employees. Walk through key systems, software tools, and security protocols, plus any key tools they need for daily tasks.
Be sure that all new devices are working well, and that new employees know who to turn to for tech support if they need it. Newcomers are often too shy to ask basic questions and will often suffer through their struggles. This short get to know each other is usually enough to avoid these issues.
8. Provide IT documentation and resources
It also pays to give new employees a welcome package of IT guidelines, quick-start guides, and FAQs. And crucially, to show them how to find answers to simple questions. Include troubleshooting steps for the most common issues and IT support contact info.
This is incredibly important if you work with external IT support. Employees need to know how and when it’s appropriate to contact these service providers directly, versus asking their manager or HR for help.
Creating the documentation obviously involves some effort up front. But done well, it’s a huge timesaver down the road.
9. Provide cybersecurity and compliance training
Cybersecurity is increasingly important for modern organizations. And every new employee comes to you with their own approach and philosophies around safety online.
Enroll new hires in mandatory cybersecurity training to cover data protection, phishing prevention, and safe internet practices. Also share guidelines on compliance, acceptable use, and privacy policies.
This is important for all businesses, but especially those with actual compliance certifications to achieve and maintain.
Finally, share best practices for company tools like Slack and email, which can sometimes be misused. Even where misuse isn’t strictly a security issue, best practices can help keep their use consistent and enjoyable for all.
10. Schedule follow up and ongoing support
Great IT onboarding isn’t just for the first few days. Plan a check-in after one or two weeks to address any technical challenges. And make IT support resources available for continuous guidance and issue resolution.
This not only ensures there aren’t any problems, but also helps to solidify a lasting relationship with the new employee. You want them to know who to come to with any issues, and to be sure that they feel valued in the team.
It shouldn’t take much, just a five minute call or a brief coffee chat a few weeks in, to make sure everything’s running smoothly.
Automate the IT onboarding process
As we’ve just seen, IT setup involves a lot of steps and checks—and it’s just one part of the overall onboarding process. Even with your trusty checklist, there’s real potential to forget steps or miss an important starting date.
And the more people you hire, the harder it gets. Thankfully, there are good systems that can automate most, if not all, of the above. An IT management system like Primo:
• Creates new user profiles directly from your HR system, with the correct setup based on their role
• Lets you order, pre-configure, and deliver devices in a few clicks
• Provides ongoing performance and security monitoring
• Patches software and operating system updates instantly
• Also simplifies offboarding, with the ability to lock or reset devices remotely
You essentially remove all the manual, time-consuming aspects of IT onboarding. So you can focus on the human side: building lasting relationships and making your new teammates feel welcome and valued.
Recommended articles
What Is Remote Device Management? A Guide for SMBs
The shift towards remote and hybrid working models has created new hurdles for IT teams. Employees are younger and more tech-savvy than in previous eras. And devices are more user friendly and easier to learn than in decades past.
But they’re also more portable and more connected to the wider world than they used to be, which creates real security risks. The good news: IT teams spend less time showing staff how to use shared drives and set up “out of office” notifications. But the bad news: corporate devices are traveling all over the world, and it’s harder than ever to keep them safe and secure.
Unless you have good remote device management software. Purpose-built services now do everything from delivering a device to updating security packages, from wherever you are to wherever that device happens to be. They’re a lifesaver for busy SMBs. And arguably a must-have in your tech stack. Let’s start by examining exactly what we’re talking about.
What is remote device management (RDM)?
Remote device management is the practice of monitoring, configuring, and securing devices from a central location. With high-level RDM in place, you can distribute, control, update, and recall employee computers wherever they are, from wherever you are. This includes the ability to lock devices, change passwords, update software, and edit user permissions. This is particularly useful in today’s hybrid working conditions. Many (if not most) companies now have distributed teams, with employees in different cities and countries from the head office.
As employees increasingly work from home several days a week, it’s crucial to be able to provide IT support and troubleshoot issues without physical access to devices.
What does RDM involve?
Remote device management is the broad term for everything you need to manage devices from afar. Tangibly, this includes:
• Create, adjust, and remove user permissions and profiles
• Update software and perform security scans
• Monitor device performance and identify issues slowing systems down
• Gain admin access remotely, to take over and “drive” the device from anywhere
Remote device management is both a practice and a software category. The above capabilities are possible when you choose the right remote management software suite, which we’ll explore further shortly.
RDM vs MDM
While the names are similar and the differences can be confusing, these two terms aren’t synonyms. RDM is the umbrella term for the practice of managing devices remotely, and MDM is the software that makes this possible. Mobile device management (MDM) is a staple tool within your broader remote device management strategy. It’s the technology that lets you manage, secure, and monitor devices from a central platform.
MDM is arguably the most important tool in your remote management suite.
Key IT challenges for remote-friendly companies
Without help, most SMBs struggle to manage their remote devices. Here are the most common issues companies face in these circumstances.
Distributing devices
Before you can even worry about monitoring and managing remote devices, you need to get them into the hands of end users. This is relatively simple if employees will be at headquarters for their first few days of onboarding, but more challenging when they’re in another city or country.
Ideally, you want to deliver pre-configured devices to employees wherever they are. On time, in the right location—their house or a satellite office—with a clear Plan B if there are any issues.
And vitally, you’ll do this without distracting your IT staff or office managers with these logistical tasks.
Tracking their whereabouts
Device management was easier when everyone had their cubicle workstation, all with the same computer, keyboard, and landline. Today, you have distributed teams working from anywhere, often with completely bespoke IT setups.
You need to know who has which devices, where they are, and have a simple (ideally automated) way to update your records when items change hands.
Plus, with more laptops and phones traveling around the world, the risk of loss or theft is also higher. So you also need a way to report stolen items and trace their specific whereabouts.
Updating software and fixing bugs
Another challenge with remote teams is repairing and updating devices when necessary. In an office, team members can bring their slow or damaged devices to the IT desk for quick diagnosis. This clearly doesn’t work the same while remote.
But you can (and should) have remote access tools that let administrators log in and take control from anywhere. These lets you roll out security updates and patches, and see what employees see when they complain about issues.
Retrieving and replacing devices
Just like getting devices to employees can be a challenge, replacing or retrieving them is equally difficult. Whether you’re upgrading a model, delivering a temporary replacement, or offboarding a remote employee, you need to be able to get devices back efficiently from anywhere.
You also need to be able to lock and wipe devices remotely, including all user profiles and passwords. A stolen phone or laptop can give hackers access to the backend of your products, user databases or your own financial data.
It’s a serious risk to send devices out into the world without knowing that you can first wipe, and then retrieve them, no matter where they are.
Giving employees flexibility
Most employees—but particularly younger generations—have their preferred device models and operating systems. Modern companies should be able to offer employees their choice, within reason.
But this adds to your logistical challenges. You may need different suppliers for Apple and Android devices, for example. And if the user needs operating systems installed, that’s more work for the IT team to prepare.
Even simple things like giving an English-native user a QWERTY keyboard versus an AZERTY for a French writer is easily overlooked.
Managing remote IT efficiently
Done manually, all of the above takes time and energy from your IT or office managers. They absolutely should not have to know the ins and outs of local deliveries in other countries, and they shouldn’t have to manage tech supply chains.
The ideal outcome is to automate most—if not all—of the work required. You shouldn’t have to manually update spreadsheets to track items, or install software on laptops one by one.
And this is where some remote device management providers fall short. If they’re focused purely on access, you’re only solving a portion of your challenges.
How to set up remote device management
The RDM process requires a suite of good software to operate effectively. So as you shop around potential providers, here are some of the keys to look for. Let’s start with tangible software or tools:
• MDM or unified endpoint management (UEM) software. Key functions include the ability to enforce security policies, manage apps, configure devices, update software, and track any device’s status. You should also be able to lock and/or wipe a device when items get lost or stolen, or for fast offboarding.
• Remote access tools. These let you view and control a device as a user from anywhere. They’re crucial for troubleshooting and support for remote devices.
• Endpoint security. You should be able to automatically deploy antivirus and malware updates for all devices.
• Device monitoring. You also need to be able to check device (and network) performance from anywhere, to see why devices might be running slowly.
On top of these core tools, any modern remote device management provider will also be able to offer the following specifics:
• Remote locking and factory reset.
• User and permission management. Add new device users, remove leaving staff, and change levels of access to certain tools. Again, all of this remotely.
• Find my device. Expect a handful of devices falling out of pockets or being left on public transport, as well as actual theft. So you need to be able to track the location of devices through services like Apple’s Find My, or through your remote management system.
Of course, you want to do this in a non-invasive, non-creepy way, and only when really necessary. You will doubtless have other key considerations to negotiate with prospective providers. And crucially, there’s more to managing remote IT than gaining access to and controlling devices.
How to upgrade the typical remote device management system
RDM gives you full access and control over remote devices. But you should really think of the entire system of providing and maintaining staff devices:
• Purchasing, leasing, or sourcing a device for a team member
• Creating accounts, downloading tools, and preparing the device for use
• Distributing devices to team members wherever they are
• Monitoring performance and troubleshooting issues
• Maintaining security standards and being able to lock down accounts in seconds (if necessary)
• Retrieving devices when employees leave or have otherwise finished with them
All of these points make up the holistic device management process for remote teams. It’s essentially RDM 2.0—a full IT system for busy remote teams. On top of the key access features that good RDM tools provide (above), make sure your provider can also offer the following:
• Pre-configured software setup. The best services will send devices out to employees with the software already set up. This means your IT desk doesn’t need to manually do the work, which adds time and can create delays in getting devices out to new staff.
• International support. Probably obvious, but make sure your RDM provider is available and experienced in each of the countries you need to manage. They should be able to handle distribution and collection locally, and provide technical assistance to remote teams if required.
• Scalability. Efficiency becomes increasingly important as your company grows and adds more remote staff. Whether you have 50 employees or 300, your remote management system should be just as easy to work with. Add or remove employees with a click, track all devices in one place, and avoid any manual effort that would quickly become unscalable.
• Customizable equipment. This is one of the factors that differentiates dedicated device management from a simple leasing service. You shouldn’t be limited to a specific package for each employee, with the same narrow range of devices. If employee freedom is important to you, they should get the exact equipment they need to perform at their best.
On top of giving you more security and keeping your records up to date, you want to remove manual admin work and get new team members onboarded quickly. This exact model is saving real time and money for growing companies today.
Manage all company hardware and software from anywhere
Hybrid work and remote staff are reshaping company IT. Device management is now both crucial and more complex, even if the devices themselves are more commonplace.
Remote, flexible work is critical to find the best talent and let employees do their best work. But as you welcome remote employees—sometimes internationally—you encounter new logistical challenges. Plus the added security and financial concerns.
Your best option for peace of mind and operational efficiency is a remote device management system that handles the entire process: from onboarding to offboarding, with everything in between.
A service like Primo is:
• Cheaper than leasing;
• Faster and easier to manage than outsourced IT; and
• Better suited to your needs than a generic managed service provider.
Primo includes the core MDM software you need to manage remote devices, alongside an Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) that you can automatically deploy and monitor to go a step further in security. We also make buying and delivering (and returning) devices simple, manage user permissions and settings easily, and essentially automate all of your core IT processes.
To see how comprehensive but simple remote device management can make your life easier, get started today.
The benefits of automation are well known to modern businesses. For decades, companies have found ways to turn slow, repetitive processes into efficient, self-executing systems. Which lets teams focus on impact, rather than repeating the same low-value tasks.
Onboarding and offboarding are both high-value processes made up of low-impact touchpoints. Getting team members up to speed quickly really matters. How you create their email account or reset security permissions doesn’t.
Which is why automating these manual steps makes such a big difference. Automated onboarding and offboarding takes low-value work off your plate, and lets you focus on what is important. It also makes both processes faster, easier, and eliminates basic errors.
In this article, we look at how automation can improve your onboarding and offboarding processes—particularly for IT operations. Then we meet two companies who successfully automated their own IT onboarding, and saw tangible benefits.
What are employee onboarding and offboarding processes?
Onboarding and offboarding are the practical, functional, and cultural processes associated with welcoming and farewelling company employees. Onboarding typically includes teaching new hires about the company culture, training in your specific ways of working, and giving them the hardware and software tools they need to execute.
Offboarding is the change process at the end of an employee’s time with your company. This can include exit interviews, farewell celebrations, and regaining possession of company property like computers, phones, and access cards.
Key steps in IT onboarding
The IT onboarding process is often slower than you’d like. It involves numerous distinct steps, which can really add up if handled individually and manually. These include:
- Setting up user profiles and permissions
- Ordering new devices
- Configuring applications, software, and security updates on these devices
- Delivering devices to new employees
- Training employees on compliance, cybersecurity, and optimal use
- Monitoring device performance and troubleshooting issues
IT is just one aspect of an employee’s onboarding, and can be taken for granted by hiring managers. Your goal is to make all of the above happen smoothly, quickly, and with no extra work for yourself or the new hire.
For help, see our short checklist for efficient IT onboarding.
What IT offboarding involves
While the IT onboarding process may be neglected, offboarding is often overlooked altogether. Retrieving devices from departing employees is essential both for asset management and security.
Key steps include:
• Locking devices the moment employees no longer need them
• Wiping personal data or returning devices to factory settings
• Returning physical devices to the office or supplier
• Checking a device’s state for reuse
• Preparing devices to be redeployed
All of this adds up, and is always more complicated with remote or distributed teams. In a traditional office setting, it’s pretty simple to have an employee hand in their devices on their last day. It’s more challenging if that employee is in another city, state, or country.
Why automate employee onboarding and offboarding?
In general, the best processes to automate involve a number of manual steps and little added value from having people handle each one.
Key benefits of automating your IT onboarding and offboarding include:
• Time saved for IT teams and hiring managers, who no longer need to manually work through each of those steps we saw above.
• Faster onboarding for new employees, who don’t need to wait for people to set up their profiles or order devices.
• Near-instant offboarding, because devices can be locked or wiped immediately with a simple click.
• Fewer errors, including skipped or forgotten steps, faulty devices, or losing track of devices when an employee leaves.
• More consistent experiences, as every employee follows the same automated process at the beginning and end of employment.
Overall, automation creates more streamlined and efficient internal processes. And for something as common and recurring as onboarding and offboarding, efficiency gains can really add up.
How modern SMBs automate onboarding and offboarding — and why it works
To illustrate with tangible examples, let’s take a look at two companies that prioritize automation in the onboarding and offboarding process.
Like many growing companies, both faced real challenges in scaling IT operations. Even as modern tech companies, they had few resources specifically for IT operations. They needed to create efficient, easily-replicable processes to get new employees up and running, and to smoothly offboard team members at the end of their work.
Best modern SMBs have understood that a great onboarding experience comes from the collaboration between HR and IT teams — and these two companies made that alignment a core part of their approach. As we’ll see, the secret to success lay in choosing the right tools and partners to take the weight off their very busy leaders.
Faume: Near-instant IT operations for a distributed workforce
Founded in 2020, Faume is a technical logistics solution that lets brands create resale services for their products. Faume works with world-famous logos like Hugo Boss, The Kooples, Aigle, and Bash to bring second lives to items and make consumer commerce more sustainable.
Faume’s 30-person team includes remote staff across France. CTO and Co-founder Jocelyn Kerbouc’h needed a simple way to deploy and manage devices for this distributed workforce ahead of scaling post-Series A.
Before: False starts with IT providers
Faume initially leased computers in the hopes of getting additional support and a streamlined service. But this was far more expensive than the cost of buying—they were asked to pay up to €2,500 for a €1,200 computer. And worse, they still regularly encountered malfunctioning devices and frustrating errors.
They pivoted to buying from Apple directly, tracking devices manually in a Notion doc. This was certainly more cost effective, but added more administrative effort to the onboarding process.
As a co-founder wearing multiple hats, Jocelyn couldn’t afford this extra admin. Faume needed a more robust IT operations solution that could deliver devices at the right price, while also tracking their use and ensuring security.
Today: Centralized IT onboarding & offboarding
The big switch was finding an IT operations provider that lets Jocelyn order, configure, and deliver employee devices in a few clicks. Using Primo, Jocelyn sets password rules and updates, and pre-configures applications so that computers arrive ready to use.
“Thanks to Primo, onboarding new employees now takes us half the time it used to,” says Jocelyn.
Faume has essentially automated the onboarding process, and offboarding is just as simple. When an employee leaves, Jocelyn can lock and wipe their computer remotely. Departing employees receive a shipping box and can easily return computers from anywhere.
The result is a more efficient, secure IT environment for Faume. And Jocelyn can put all his energy into building and leading his business.
Read the full Faume story here.
Dalma: Efficient operations with no IT team
Dalma is France’s fastest-growing pet health insurance company. Its tech-enabled platform already insures more than 40,000 European cats and dogs, with no signs of slowing down.
Founded in 2021, the 70-strong team has grown quickly to deliver this popular and worthwhile service. While that’s good for business (and for our pets), it put pressure on former Head of People Claire Maarek.
With IT onboarding just a small portion of her role, Claire didn’t have the time or technical expertise to build a comprehensive program from scratch.
Before: Poor leasing experience
Like Faume, Dalma also tried leasing as a (theoretically) efficient way to manage IT operations. But Claire explains that the downsides were obvious right away. “Our leasing experience was disappointing, offering minimal service and reliability with poor customer support.”
It was a maddening mix of high prices and low-quality service. For an HR leader like Claire—not an IT pro by trade—this wasn’t a tenable situation.
Today: IT onboarding in seconds
Since switching to Primo, the results are night and day. IT onboarding takes mere seconds, and Dalma can secure hardware at competitive prices, configured and delivered for when the person arrives. All of this with no deep IT procurement knowledge or dedicated technical experts.
Most importantly for HR professionals, Primo integrates with Payfit (alongside other HR platforms). Dalma adds a new employee in Payfit, and most of the process is automated from there. Devices arrive on time, whether new hires are in France or Germany.
When an employee leaves, Primo makes it easy to retrieve or reassign devices elsewhere, or simply resell them. Which makes both onboarding and offboarding as easy as can be.
Read the full Dalma story here.
Make IT onboarding and offboarding a breeze
Both IT onboarding and offboarding are relatively simple processes, made difficult by manual steps and a need for technical expertise. Particularly for growing companies without IT teams or paid external consultants, key steps can fall through the cracks.
That’s how you end up with security risks, sluggish processes, and frustrated team members — right when first impressions matter most.
The best way to streamline IT onboarding and offboarding is with one central solution. And as both Faume and Dalma showed, it’s even better when that solution integrates with your HR systems and company tools. This lets HR leaders and hiring managers—often “accidental IT managers”—keep control and ensure each step is completed efficiently.
Primo provides exactly that: an all-in-one IT management system for faster onboarding and offboarding. You can easily automate virtually all of your IT operations, without paying huge fees to managed providers.
Primo now has an MCP server.
A device gets flagged. You need to know who it's assigned to, when it was last active, whether there's an open ticket on it, and what access that employee currently has.
You open Primo. You look up the device. You check the employee profile. You cross-reference the ticket queue. You piece it together.
That's four steps for a question that should take one.
Here's the same thing with Primo's MCP server connected to your AI assistant: you type "what's going on with this device?" and get back the device details, the assigned employee, their onboarding status, and any related tickets. One prompt. Full context. No tab-switching.
That's what we shipped.
MCP: Model Context Protocol
MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard that lets AI assistants like Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor connect directly to external tools. Instead of answering from training data, your AI queries your actual systems in real time.
With Primo's MCP server, that means your AI assistant can talk directly to your IT fleet. Devices, employees, accessories, tickets: all accessible from the AI tools you already have open.
Why it hits differently with Primo
Most IT tools that support MCP give you access to records. Primo gives you access to a connected data model.
Because Primo ties devices, employee lifecycle, SaaS access, and ticketing into one operational system, a single prompt can cross all of those layers at once. When you ask about a device, it comes back linked to an identity. When you ask about an employee, you get their full IT footprint: what they have, what they can access, what's pending.
That's the difference between querying isolated records and querying a unified IT operations platform.
It also means you can get a compliance-ready view of your entire fleet in one prompt. Preparing for an ISO 27001 audit and need to know which devices aren't enrolled or which employees still have active access after offboarding? That's a question your AI can now answer across your whole fleet, not just device by device.
A few things you can do from a single prompt today:
• Pull a device's full IT history (enrollment date, successive assignments) alongside the employee it's assigned to ;
• List all open tickets filtered by status, priority, or assignee ;
• Check which employees joined this month and whether their devices are provisioned ;
• Spot accessories that are unassigned or overdue for return ;
• Search across your entire fleet without opening a single filter.
And when you're ready to move beyond read-only, write access lets you create tickets, add comments, update status and assignee, and perform device actions like locking or wiping directly from your AI client.
What your AI can do in Primo
One note on device actions: locking and wiping are irreversible. Write mode is there for teams who want speed, but it's worth confirming before you act.
Getting connected
Authentication runs through OAuth. No API key to generate or manage, you sign in with your existing Primo account and you're done.
The server URL is https://api.getprimo.com/mcp. By default it runs in read-only mode. To enable write access, use https://api.getprimo.com/mcp?readOnly=false.
Setup is the same across clients: go to the MCP Servers section in your settings, add the URL, and complete the OAuth flow. Full instructions for Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor are in the Primo help center.
A good place to start
Read-only prompts are the fastest way to build trust in the workflow before moving into writes. Try these:
"Show me all devices that haven't been active in the last 30 days."
"What open tickets are currently unassigned?"
"List employees who joined this month and check whether their devices have been provisioned."
Once that feels natural, write access opens up the rest.
The MCP server is live now. Get started at https://api.getprimo.com/mcp, or head to the help center if you want step-by-step setup instructions for your AI client.