An IT onboarding checklist for installing a new office copier

A copier install handed off without a structured IT plan produces a device that works for two weeks and degrades after that. This onboarding checklist sequences the 28 IT tasks across the install week, splits ownership between IT and vendor, and locks in the security baseline before users touch the device.

How the checklist is structured

The checklist organises 28 tasks into four phases. Each phase has a sequencing rationale: tasks late in the week depend on tasks completed earlier in the week, and skipping early tasks creates rework when later ones surface a problem. Ownership is colour coded: IT, vendor, or shared. Vendors usually expect a structured IT counterpart and respond well to a checklist that makes the dependencies visible.

Why phase 2 sits with IT, not the vendor

Vendor engineers know the device. They do not know the network. Tasks 2.4 onwards depend on internal policy decisions, certificate authorities and password vaults that vendors cannot access. Letting the vendor take ownership here usually produces a device that works but does not meet the internal security baseline.

The exception is firmware (task 2.3), which the vendor manages because it depends on manufacturer specific tooling and procedures.

How long the full checklist takes

Where the checklist matters most

The single highest impact section is phase 2 security hardening (tasks 2.4 to 2.7). Devices arrive with default administrator passwords, all protocols enabled, and no hard drive encryption. Skipping these tasks leaves the office open to a class of attacks that target unsecured MFPs as pivot points into the network. Five minutes of work on each task closes the exposure.

Phase 1 reduces install day friction. Half of all install day delays come from missing network or power preparation. Reserving an IP and confirming power and network drop in advance turns a 6 hour install into a 2 hour install.