Balancing SaaS Tools with Security through an Employee Growth Spurt
Problem: Balancing SaaS Tools with Security through an Employee Growth Spurt
Chris Hubbard, IT Manager at a growing financial services firm, faced significant challenges managing a growing number of SaaS applications across the organization. Coming from larger enterprises like Apple and Yahoo, where resources and teams were abundant, Chris was uniquely positioned to see the difficulty of managing a proliferating SaaS landscape as an IT-team-of-one. "One of the big pain points was the number of SaaS applications and subscriptions that the business relied on," Chris explained. "We were at about 40 applications, which all individually needed to be managed. Keeping track of users' permissions, costs, and securing our environments was becoming increasingly difficult."
The company itself was also growing. Ensuring secure and efficient onboarding and offboarding processes became increasingly complex and time-consuming as the company expanded from 25 to over 120 employees. “We needed a solution to manage employee access gracefully – and ideally all in one place,” Chris said. He hacked what insights he could from Google Workspace but, he explained, “there was no holistic or even snapshot view of every user's application access.” Beyond operational inefficiencies, this opened the door to security risks.
Solution: Implementing YeshID for Unified Application Management and Onboarding
Chris scoured the software landscape for solutions and finally arrived at YeshID. "When I first had a look at YeshID it seemed too good to be true. It ticked all the boxes that I had been looking for," Chris remarked. YeshID provided a holistic view of user application access while streamlining onboarding and offboarding processes, which were critical for his company’s growth trajectory. "YeshID has made onboarding and offboarding so much easier,” Chris emphasized.
YeshID's impact extended beyond just IT efficiencies; it transformed the overall experience for Chris and firm employees. "It's been such a breeze to set users up," Chris noted. "Especially when you're told on a Friday at 4:30 that someone's starting on Monday, that helps. It saves my weekends." That’s because YeshID provides the team with an onboarding checklist, handles all Google Workspace provisioning and group assignments, and can even send a scheduled welcome email on the day they start. The platform's self-service capabilities also allowed employees to request access to specific tools directly, reducing administrative overhead. Employees can even make requests using a simple Slack command. "People have made app.yeshid.com their homepage," Chris explained. "If they need access to a tool, they can just request it and within minutes get rolling."
Results: Improved Efficiency, Enhanced Security, and Enhanced Compliance
Implementing YeshID not only streamlined the firm’s IT operations but also strengthened security and compliance measures. The platform's ability to provide a snapshot view of all users and their respective access rights, including shadow IT activities, was pivotal. "YeshID has just eliminated risks by showing us what's outstanding and immediately actioning people," Chris highlighted. The platform's comprehensive reporting capabilities played a crucial role in meeting regulatory requirements, including Australia’s GS007. "We have to provide a security report quarterly to our executive team," Chris said. "In the past it took weeks to build these reports. Now it takes me 15 minutes." That’s because YeshID keeps an audit trail of access requests and usage for current and past employees.
Furthermore, YeshID enabled Chris and his team to focus on strategic initiatives. "This really allows me to focus more on strategic tasks and managing the team," Chris emphasized. "It takes the grunt work out of onboarding." The platform's automation and centralized management significantly reduced the time and effort spent on manual tasks. "It used to take close to a full day to onboard someone," Chris recalled. "Now it takes about two hours, including setting up the laptop and populating information in YeshID."
Moreover, YeshID's intuitive interface made it accessible across the organization. "Even if we didn't have a support team, I'd be confident that people in the business could run YeshID," Chris noted. "It's perfect for smaller, more nimble, cost-focused companies." The platform's ease of use and robust functionality made it an indispensable tool for the firm’s IT and HR teams alike.
Conclusion
YeshID has proven to be a game-changer for Chris’s company, offering a unified solution for managing SaaS applications, enhancing security, and streamlining onboarding and offboarding processes. As the firm continues to grow and evolve, YeshID remains a critical component of their IT infrastructure, providing confidence in managing application access and ensuring compliance with regulatory standards.
