What's Up with Tech?

Turning IT From Cost Center To Growth Engine

• Evan Kirstel

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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 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.



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SPEAKER_01:

Hey everyone. Really fascinating discussion today in the IT space around small teams equipping, delivering, um on onboarding, offwarding devices uh uh in the era of remote work with a real innovator in this space from RADA. Francis, how are you?

SPEAKER_00:

I'm doing well. Thank you so much for having me, Navyn.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, thanks for being here. Really intrigued by the work that you do. How do you describe RADA to someone hearing about it for the first time?

SPEAKER_00:

Um, I will say we basically are an extension of most businesses' IT teams. Um, we realize that IT is that one function that everybody expects to have 100% uptime. Um, is one function nobody really recognizes when things go right, but when things go wrong, everybody's like, why did it go wrong? We come in to ensure that that uptime gets to 100%, um, especially ensuring that employees get their equipment right on time. And when they leave, we handle that in process um seamlessly, essentially.

SPEAKER_01:

Fantastic. You talk about uh device uh lifecycle management. That's been a term that's been around for a long time. What does it mean these days to a small IT team who's trying to do a lot more with less?

SPEAKER_00:

I think what we've seen fundamentally, what that means is I have a new employee joining the business. That's really if you're a remote team or a distributed team, then it is interesting because it means you have someone joining the business, let's say in Florida or in New York, um, where you probably don't have any office and you need to ensure they get the right equipment to them on day one, um, fully configured, fully ready to go to work. Um, now imagine a team that has people living in multiple cities or multiple countries. That problem becomes really, really um uh uh uh uh exhilarated in that in that sense. Um, and then eventually when the employees leave, we also ensure they start thinking about how do we recover those equipment, how do we ensure that there's no loss of data because it's not just about the piece of equipment, it's also the data loss that the business could suffer in those kinds of situations. We provide a platform and a service that makes sure that entire experience is managed end to end. And you as an IT manager can go to bed uh comfortably knowing that that process is handled uh seamlessly, essentially.

SPEAKER_01:

Brilliant. And you said device management is broken for IT teams, especially small IT teams who don't have entire departments to manage this sort of thing. How so? How is it broken?

SPEAKER_00:

I think one of the things you first of all realize is that most companies don't hire IT to they are past the hundred people in workforce. Um, so it means that a lot of the time when an IT manager and IT support is hired, things are really broken within the business, like things have gone wrong. Or it is usually driven by compliance. Uh based on the industry or the sector they work in, they need to comply by regulation. And so that's usually start becoming like the first tilt point where people start thinking about how do we start putting the right structure around our IT infrastructure, IT assets in that sense. And when that usually happens, most companies would attempt to try solving it internally, but realize that that starts taking 40 to 50 percent of their entire work uh work strength. Oh wow. And then it's like this is not the most sustainable use of my time and resource. Um, we've actually had people tell us some uh IT managers or CIOs tell us they almost their IT team almost become like a logistics or procurements department because they're having to deal with that every single day. And that is usually a deeper problem if you are growing really quickly. So think about all of the AI companies that have been growing at an incredible rate. You don't want to be spending your time doing that, you want to be building products and delivering the service that you is your core as a business. Uh so eventually they start thinking about how do we find the right partner to manage this. Um, and like I said, when that even happens, the problem also becomes a lot of the existing players are usually doing from a central hub where they're shipping internationally, that takes way too long. It means the cost becomes way ridiculous. There's ridiculous practices that is happening in the space. And what we've kind of seen is that what people really care about is how do I ensure that experience is consistent. Even if I have employees in 10, 15 countries, I want the same experience because when an employee joins the company, that experience matters so much. Not just to HR or to the onboarding manager, but to the entire organization as a whole. And that's what we kind of try to ensure we get really uh right in that sense.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I've had some hard stories over my 35 years in tech and IT and not getting a laptop for weeks. And you know, I won't even go into that problem. But this is a huge problem. It's a huge industry, uh, device lifecycle management, five billion dollars plus, yet it's kind of under the radar. It's not really recognized, people don't really know it exists outside of you know yourself specialists. So why why why is that? Why is it it's such an under-the-radar topic?

SPEAKER_00:

I think it's also because it's like a back office function. Um, and like I said again, usually IT is not talked about till when there's already a problem. And then that's when people start hiring for IT. If you think about all of the full-on back office function, I think the the back office role that probably gets the most kind of love is like finance and probably HR. But every other thing else is seen in that back office category as a cost center, not necessarily as a strategic driver for growth for the business. Um, and so the goal is how do you start helping management see IT as a critical driver for growth for the business and not just as a center, as a cost center within the business, where it's like, hey, we have to spend this because we need to operate. But this is part of our strategic pillar for growth as a business, uh, essentially.

SPEAKER_01:

Got it. And tell us about your uh solution and and how it affects things like onboarding, offboarding, shipping. I guess we have tracking, repairs, RMAs, the whole workflow.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, thank you. Um again, maybe a bit of like background. So my name is Francis Osifo. I am a third-time founder. So Radar is my third startup. Um, I've been in tech for the last 50 plus years, and over that time, co-founded a couple of companies. The last before this was a YC company. We raised 45 million dollars for the life of that business. Um, so I went on because I saw this problem doing that business. I remember we had 300 plus people then, and I was hiring, I was co-founder and CTO of that business, and I was hiring an employee um in another country, and I tried shipping a device internationally, and it got stuck in customs, and it took us two months clearing the device. And I was like, Oh my goodness, how do companies that have employees globally deal with this problem? And eventually when I left, some of my early investors were like, Hey, Francis, what do you want to do next? I was like, I had this weird problem that I actually want to go try solve, which again is very different from uh a biotech company where I was co-founder for. And they were like, Okay, yeah, let's see how this goes. And it was so interesting because immediately we started in 2023, a lot of customers were like, Yes, we are facing this problem. I was surprised and literally overwhelmed at the scale and size of companies which we interact with today. Um, most of our customers are like US or European companies that are facing this problem at in 40 countries and 60 countries. And in the last two plus years, now we operate across 170 countries. Um, on an average, we deliver a device within five days, again, ensuring that five business days, irrespective of the country where it is been provisioned for. And the way we've done it is build a platform that kind of tries to automate all of that. So our platform connecting to like your HRS system, and you can define what your standard device you issue to all of your employees across countries. And so maybe a new hire gets triggered from HRO. You don't even have to have multiple conversations. Reader gets that data in real time, we can plug up that request, and a device shows up on the employee's doorstep in a matter of days, ready for them to go to work essentially. And we also kind of try to manage that same process as well when the employees leaving, right? Because you have to plan properly about that collection, um, properly wiping the data, storing it, and then hopefully redistributing to a new employee, or um recycling that device if it's at reach end of life. Um so that's like what we've done over the last two years really, really well. And like I said, now we operate across 170 countries. Um, some customers, some of like the big AI and um fintech companies across the US and Europe, use our studio to manage entire work streams globally. Um so that for us has been a very interesting growth curve seeing that what started as a problem I faced personally, I've seen a much more larger company saying, hey, we are facing the same problem in 40 countries, we are facing this problem in 60 countries. And the most interesting thing is that even though we deal with relatively mean to large-size companies, we see a lot of like small companies come to us and like, look, we're a team of 20, but none of the other providers want to talk to us because they tell us to be too small. And I'm like, I get that, I understand that problem. We don't have a size constraint. For us, it's fundamentally irrespective of your size or your requirements. Our goal is how do we create an experience that makes it easy to acquire, manage, and recycle IT equipment globally. So you can hire and scale globally without being worried about will I find the right infrastructure to power my workforce in the countries I want to hire from.

SPEAKER_01:

Interesting. And I imagine security and compliance and data protection are really top priorities for your clients. How do you think about that in relation to you know the device management side?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, we we so what you usually find is most companies that come to us are already have some security measures in place. So whether they already have like an MDM or security process or procedure, they want us to kind of adopt, we've done a lot of the integrations into those systems as well. Um we even have strategic partnerships with MDM as well to enable that for smaller businesses where they don't already have an existing MDM, we can kind of advise and become like that strategic partner, like I mentioned, that is advising and guiding on hey, here's what you should be thinking about as you're growing and evolving the business and putting the right security process as well. Um, again, even things like Apple Business Manager is free, but not every business, not everybody knows what Apple Business Manager is, you know.

SPEAKER_02:

Never heard of it, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And I've heard a lot of companies like, oh, we're just buying our MacBooks off Amazon. I'm like, yes, okay, but the challenge is when that employee leaves, you don't actually have control over that device because it's enrolled, the device is associated to the employee, not to the organization. And they're like, oh, yeah. I'm like, yes, that's the some of the tools that you need to think about uh strategically as you evolve the business in that regard.

SPEAKER_01:

Amazing. So you must see a lot of uh challenges out there when it comes to remote work and hybrid work, which everyone's doing now. Um what are the sort of gaps that you see in their uh processes that around devices? Uh you might you must see a lot of issues again and again and again.

SPEAKER_00:

I think one of the biggest things we've seen, which is usually very interesting, is the the divide between HR and IT. Um again, usually HR would have hired someone and they're telling IT like, hey, they're resuming in three days. And IT is like, what do you expect me to do? Like again, even though they and that's I think it's also part of the reality of a growing business or of business in general, right? So um there's this playbook of policy written that hey, IT needs two weeks' notice to actually be able to onboard and provision a new hire. But HR is like, look, we are ramping really quickly, we need these new hires to start in in five days' time or in three days' time. And now there's all of that pressure that is unintended and it's suddenly being placed on IT to deliver magic. Like I said, IT is that one function where everybody at least expects the team to always deliver magic. Um, and I think also because historically they've done that a lot of the time, it's always expected that it will keep happening. So it's always like that weird thing where the IT becomes overwhelmed. Um, most IT teams are understaffed, and that's the reality. The ratios are alarming. I think today the average ratio is one employee to over one IT employee to over a hundred plus staff. So the number of people they are having to support in the organization is ridiculous at that pace. Uh, and so it becomes such a huge burden of activity that they're having to deal with within the organization. And so adding devices to that entire journey just becomes a breaking point. And it's usually at that point, a lot of those organizations come to organizations like us and say, hey, we've tried doing this internally. It is just taking so much of our energy and time, it's not allowing us to do a lot of strategic work and grow at the pace and deliver that same consistent experience across countries. Um, we want to then kind of switch to a provider like Radar because it makes it easy. And we know that we don't have to bother about all of this anymore. Both from the device part of it to the compliance and the visibility. Because again, if you have employees in 40 countries, you also need to figure out where do what devices do I have, where do I have them? Who is it with? Is it in a warehouse? Is it with an employee? I've had cases where employees left the company, and for a over a year, the company didn't remember to actually get back, recover back the equipment from their because everybody was busy, nobody was thinking about. And so if the employee was a bad actor, that is a potential place for a compliance or a security issue, you know. So it's those kind of interesting problems. Like I said, a lot of the time is when those issues have happened that companies then sit up and say, What do we do about this? So, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, interesting stuff. Um, uh on a side note, everyone's talking about AI. You mentioned automation, but do you think AI being able to actually help in your space um with some practical uh capabilities?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, yes, yes, yes. Again, I think it would be almost relatively foolish in today's world not to be thinking intentionally about AI and how you leverage it a lot more. I think even for especially like the IT role uh as a whole, because again, if if you think about the work that the IT function is doing, there's compliance, there's all of that onboarding, offbudding, and there's a lot of the support work that IT is usually doing. In fact, close to another like 50% of the work stream in IT is usually around support. And the most interesting thing is that most of those support are recurring, redundant set of things being asked over and over and over again. Um, and so that is where we are getting in terms of like where we think AI will have the most impact in that space, um, is how do you use AI to um because you can build a lot of like agentique systems that can build uh workflows behind the scene and automate a lot of those recurring tasks. So we are seeing a lot of solutions exploring um, oh, I want to reset my password. That shouldn't require an active human being in that entire loop, right? You could do a lot of like tool calling and automate that entire journey from start to finish, right? And so is how do you start thinking about even like the provisioning process? Can I speak to an agent, tell it what I need? The agent can look through our entire system, pick the right device, put that and then place that out without me having to click 10-15 uh steps to actually get that process completed. So I we actually also making intentional efforts to roll out some um interesting AI products. We did demo one at uh TechCross disrupts. We're one of the companies that got selected for Bantu Phase uh 200 in um in in SF in um in October last year. And so for us, we're already making some intentional investment and rolling out some new product offering to show how AI can be very strategic for IT as a function.

SPEAKER_01:

Fantastic. And um you obviously work with lots of large brands, but for small IT teams listening, um, I assume you can work with them as well from a few people to a few tens of people. What's the first thing they should fix in device management besides signing up with you? What should they be thinking about?

SPEAKER_00:

I think a lot of people, first of all, the first thing is obviously a lot of people try to push that bucket downstream that, hey, you know what? I think that if you make, if you think about IT not as a cost center but as a strategic pillar for growth, then already putting the systems early on makes it easy. With Radar, it makes it really easy. So if you already use Radar, because Radar is not just only about buying new or managing assets you for employees, our platform allows you to manage your existing fleets. So you can bring all of your existing fleets into the system. And what a lot of companies find are really valuable because it gives them that visibility. So irrespective of whether you have one, 10, 50 employees, you can already have visibility around where all of the equipment I own, where which vendor do we buy them from, who which employees it with, when are the warranties expiring, where of the documentation, the receipts, all of those good stuff is sitting in the platform that when you are as you keep expanding and growing to the point where you would actually require an IT officer, it makes that entire growth curve a lot more easier, a lot more streamlined. And so don't think about it that oh, we are too small for IT to start thinking about putting the right structure in IT. IT can be simple, it can be streamlined, and Radar makes that possible today.

SPEAKER_01:

Fantastic. So, you know, just starting off here, the new year, um happy new year. Not sure if it's too late to say that. Happy New Year.

SPEAKER_00:

What are you excited about over the next few weeks, months, uh as we head into the I think I'm really, really excited about some of the amazing stuff we are we we've been working on that we are going to be rolling out in the next couple of weeks and months. We have some major product announcements we will be rolling out at the end of Q1. Um, I'm really excited about that because I think that it will be a significant way to how and change the way people perceive IT as a function, especially for small businesses, but also help streamline a lot of the work and help show management within those companies the strategic value IT provides. Hopefully, the goal is to start helping ship that perception of IT as a strategic value driver, a growth driver rather than as a cost center. That is something that I from a business standpoint I'm generally excited about. But I'm also generally excited about uh how AI keeps evolving and changing, right? We saw so much interesting innovation come out from uh a lot of the mobile providers uh in the last couple of years. And I think that's something we are all like watching to see how that evolution keeps happening and how businesses that are building on top of that can keep evolving with each new wave of innovation in that space.

SPEAKER_01:

Brilliant. Well, congratulations on all the success, a much needed service in this space of uh doing more with less. So always uh a great pitch and uh onwards and upwards, Francis. Thank you so much, man. I appreciate it. And thanks to you, and thank everyone for listening, watching this episode. Also check out our companion TV show on Bloomberg TV and Fox Business at techimpact.tv. Thanks, everyone. Thanks, Francis. Bye.