BornGood

15/09/2026

Every IT manager's nightmare, in one diagram (dark blue).

A worker joins. Order the asset or dig through inventory, set it up, ship it, hope it arrives whole instead of in three deliveries. Somewhere a laptop breaks, gets sent for repair, comes back needing an upgrade nobody logged. Someone leaves, chase the collection box, chase the actual return, hope it doesn't become a lost asset. The spreadsheet falls behind. Security questions start getting asked that nobody can answer with confidence.

If that's uncomfortably close to how your week actually goes, you're not alone. Most IT teams are running this exact chaos and just calling it Tuesday.

The second image is how it should look instead.

One platform. One number to call. Onboarding, offboarding, refreshes, repairs and asset management running as a single managed process instead of eight disconnected fire drills.

That's Always On IT.

What's the one part of this you're still doing manually?

11/09/2026

2 AWARDS IN ONE DAY FOR BORNGOOD!!

The Corporate Social Responsibility Award at Northumbrian Water Group's GEM Awards, recognising suppliers who go beyond the contract to deliver real social value in the communities they serve.

And a Device Donation Award at the Digital Poverty Alliance's Digital Inclusion Awards, alongside easyJet in that category, for turning surplus tech into devices for people who'd otherwise go without.

We didn't set out to just manage IT hardware lifecycles for businesses. Every device that comes through BornGood has a second life ahead of it, and for us that's always meant more than resale value. It means a family gets a laptop for homework. A charity gets kit it could never have afforded new. A community closes a little more of the digital divide. That's the same equipment, the same lifecycle, just aimed at people instead of a balance sheet.

We do this across the North East and beyond, and today two very different organisations told us it matters. None of it happens without the people behind it, the ones making the calls, sourcing the kit and getting it to the right doors. Both of these are for them.

Huge credit to Martin Summerell and Linzi Rutherford for the GEM Award, and Simon Howatson and Simon Burdus for picking up the Digital Inclusion win on the day.

09/09/2026

"So how much does it cost?"

Honestly? Depends on how your team works, not a flat fee that charges everyone the same.

Always On IT handles your device management, builds, swaps, leaver collections, peripherals, repairs, warehousing, and ITAD. You get a monthly allocation built around your team's actual usage, you see exactly what each action costs, and if you need more, scaling up is easy.

To set it properly, we start with a discovery call to understand your process, then build your allocation around real activity. No padding, nothing hidden.

One partner. One clear monthly cost, built around your team, not a one-size-fits-all price.

Want to know the cost and the ROI? Book a call with us.

https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0y87C_0

24/08/2026

If you don't already know, we send out a stock list every week.

Grade A refurbished laptops and desktops, live pricing, and free shipping on every order.

Sign up here: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0xNPfS0

Don't see what you want? Book a slot to talk through a bespoke purchase or quote: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0xNLHK0

Or just email [email protected]

14/08/2026

APPLICATIONS OPEN: CUBIQUITY MENTAL HEALTH FUND

BornGood CIC is delighted to launch the first round of the Cubiquity Mental Health Fund, providing refurbished laptops to voluntary and community organisations supporting people experiencing mental health challenges.

The fund has been created in partnership with Cubiquity Media, an award-winning, technology-driven procurement agency specialising in integrated print, marketing, creative and digital solutions. As part of its wider commitment to social value, Cubiquity is supporting this fund to help organisations tackling one of the most important challenges facing communities today: mental health and wellbeing.

For this first funding round, the laptops have been generously donated by Citizens Advice Gateshead, with Cubiquity’s funding supporting the professional refurbishment and preparation of the devices by BornGood.

Who can apply?

To be eligible for this round, your organisation must:
✅ Be a registered charity, CIC or voluntary/community group
✅ Be based within the NEMSA region
✅ Deliver services or activities that directly address mental health and wellbeing

Successful applicants will receive professionally refurbished laptops, fully tested and data sanitised by BornGood, completely free of charge.

📅 Applications close: 31st August 2026
📧 To request an application form, email [email protected]

Completed applications should also be returned to the same email address.

Please share this opportunity with any local organisation that could benefit.

12/08/2026

100 MORE FREE LAPTOPS FOR SUNDERLAND COMMUNITY ORGANISATIONS! 🎉

Following the success of Round 1, we’re delighted to announce that Round 2 of the BornGood Digital Resilience Fund opens on 12 August!

We have another 100 refurbished laptops to give away to voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations working across Sunderland. 🙌

In Round 1, we supported 23 fantastic local organisations, with laptops now being used for everything from supporting unpaid carers and veterans to mental health services, community learning, youth work, environmental projects and much more.

Now we want to help even more Sunderland organisations strengthen their digital capacity.

If your charity, CIC or voluntary/community group could make good use of laptops for staff, volunteers, service users, training, community activities or service delivery, we want to hear from you.

📅 Applications open: 12th August 2026
⏰Applications close: 4th September 2026
💻100 laptops available

Applications will once again be managed by Sunderland Voluntary Sector Alliance (SVSA).

📩 📩 Request for the application form here
https://lnkd.in/ewaRNp6p

📨 Completed application forms must be returned to:
[email protected]

The laptops have been generously provided by Gentoo Group, refurbished by BornGood, with the programme funded by The National Lottery Community Fund.

Please share this post with any Sunderland organisation that could benefit. Let’s get another 100 laptops back into the community and doing some good!

07/08/2026

Refurbished smartphones, laptops and tablets, plus a Vodafone SIM with free data, are now going straight to patients across Sunderland and South Tyneside who need them most, at zero cost to them, fully funded. Every device is decommissioned tech given a second life instead of ending up in landfill.

350 devices and SIM cards, over £50,000 worth of equipment, funded across 2 boroughs. Together, that's an estimated 17,500kg of CO2 saved and 4.2 million litres of water preserved.

It's part of our Device Repurposing Programme, and none of it happens without the partners who've backed it from day one.

Donate your organisation's redundant IT into the scheme, co-create a programme with us, or sponsor connectivity and skills for the people who need it most.

Any NHS staff member in Sunderland or South Tyneside can refer a patient today.

31/07/2026

We're live: Northumbrian Water's 3,000+ colleagues never lose a day to a broken laptop.

Through Always On IT, we manage their entire device lifecycle end to end. New starter kit delivered next day, faulty laptops swapped at the door before 10:30, self-service smart lockers at key sites, and secure, certified retirement for every device at end of life.

They also procure Grade A refurbished hardware through Always On IT+, supporting their own sustainability targets while cutting costs against buying new.

The numbers behind it are hard to ignore. A 98% asset recovery rate. Every refurbished laptop saves an estimated 316kg of CO2 compared to new. And each one saves roughly 190,000 litres of water that would otherwise go into manufacturing a single new device.

What's actually slowing your team down when it comes to managing devices?

30/07/2026

Lost or unreturned hardware is a silent cost most IT teams absorb without ever putting a number on it. Beyond the replacement cost, every unreturned device is a live data security risk sitting outside your control.

Chasing it down manually, spreadsheets, email chains, asset tags nobody's updated since onboarding, eats hours from a team that should be doing higher-value work.

We built a platform that tracks it all instead. Every device, its status and its history, live and in one place, not reconstructed once a year before an audit forces the question.

We also run a 98% device recovery rate, because we over-communicate every step of getting kit back, clear reminders, a simple return process, no chasing. Better for the leaver's last impression of your business, better for your reputation, and better for the devices actually coming home.

What does device visibility actually look like in your team right now?

23/07/2026

Most UK businesses have already moved off Windows 10. But roughly one in six devices is still on it, and that remaining group isn't dragging its feet.

For most of them, the hardware physically can't take Windows 11. Windows 11 needs TPM 2.0, an 8th-gen Intel or Ryzen 2000 chip or newer, and Secure Boot. Roughly anything bought before 2018 fails the check. No software fix changes that.

If that's some of your estate, you've got two options, and one gets more expensive every year. Paid Extended Security Updates run about £60 per device in year one. Then £120. Then £240. Skip a year and you pay for it retroactively anyway. Three years in, that's around £400 per machine that still isn't supported at the end of it.

For a lot of SMBs, replacing the hardware now costs less than paying to stand still, especially with Grade A refurbished at roughly half the price of new.

We broke down the full cost, the hardware trap, and the cyber insurance angle most people miss:

https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0x3Cmb0

Still weighing it up? How many devices in your estate are on the wrong side of that 2018 line?

Windows 10 ESU cost for business in 2026: £60, £120, then £240 per device over three years. See why your PC can't upgrade to Windows 11, and cheaper fixes.