As much as the road less traveled often builds character, who would actually prefer the long and winding path over a quick and painless shortcut? Whether you recognize it or not, we have all been given shortcuts to make our daily lives easier:
You can head to the library and embrace Dewey’s Decimal System, or you can search the internet for an answer you need straight away.
If the internet was down and the library was the only option, you could arrive in a few minutes with the marvel that is the automobile.
The reality is that if we aren’t using these accessible shortcuts—and have deadlines to meet, with other peoples’ projects contingent on completion—then we aren’t being our most efficient and productive selves.
If I gave you a complex math problem to solve, you wouldn’t sit there and do it all in your head, would you? Unless you’re a mathematical whiz, I’m going to assume no. Instead, you’d probably rely on your trusty calculator to assist you and help you solve the problem quicker. Now let’s switch to provisioning. Why would you manually create the resources and requests within your organization if there is a tool (a calculator, if you will) that can lighten the load and automate these complex processes for you?
That tool is HelloID’s Service Automation.
Manual Provisioning
In a manual provisioning process (Diagram 1, below), there are bound to be hurdles and uncertainties when it comes to provisioning resources.
Let’s dive into a scenario:
Imagine you are in the IT department for your organization (if you actually are in IT, then this shouldn’t be too difficult). There are hundreds of employees within your organization, the majority of whom you likely have never even seen before.
This morning, you received a request from John Doe asking for access to Adobe Illustrator. He needs to design a document ASAP for a project deadline. You don’t know John or whether or not he should be granted access to this resource, so like any respectable member of IT, you forward the request to John’s Manager. John’s manager, Jane, approves the request. Once you receive confirmation from Jane, you begin to manually provision John’s account so that he receives access to Adobe Illustrator and can meet his deadline.
Diagram 1
In a perfect world, there would be immediate communication between yourself, John, and Jane. John would be granted access to Adobe Illustrator within minutes. However, you have other important tasks on your plate, and weren’t able to get to John’s request until a few hours (sometimes days) after he submitted it. And then there’s the matter of finding John’s manager. You don’t know who that is off the top of your head, so you end up digging around in the company directory for a while. Eventually, you narrow it down to Jane and forward John’s request to confirm its approval. Jane was also very busy and didn’t see the request for approval until a while after you sent it to her.
During this whole process, do you know what John isn’t doing? Designing the important document. His productivity is dampened as he waits for access to be approved—and he’s probably missed that deadline by now.
There are many issues with a manual provisioning process. It’s time consuming, leading to unproductive employees. It’s expensive in both labor and licensing costs. It can lead to bloated privileges, giving employees too much access. Additionally, there is always the risk of human error, which could jeopardize your compliance efforts in accordance to regulations.
Service Automation
Diagram 2
With HelloID’s Service Automation module and the same scenario provided above, the previously tedious and time-consuming process is dramatically simplified. John now requests access to Adobe Illustrator through his HelloID Dashboard and that request is instantly routed to Jane (whom can immediately approve/deny with a single-click). As soon as Jane approves the request, HelloID automatically provisions and grants access accordingly (Diagram 2).
As a result of Service Automation, the IT department is now free to work on more impactful projects for your organization. Your whole team is much more productive as there are minimized wait times and reduced human error. In addition to that, all the processes that were previously discussed, are logged for easy auditing.
If you would like to learn more about HelloID’s Service Automation, contact us!