Automated provisioning, advanced analytics, and hyper-personalization at a leading tech firm

A major publishing technology business wanted to harness automation to enhance the productivity and security of its administrators and users.

The Challenge

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Administrators needed to manually provision new users when they entered the organization and assign permissions to each application separately, which was a major drain on time.

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Users also needed to be manually deprovisioned when they left the organization, which was not only time-consuming but also left the door open to security risks in cases where the revocation of user permissions was incomplete.

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There was insufficient visibility into employee productivity, making it difficult to identify opportunities to improve operational efficiency.

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Employees had to access multiple applications to access their tasks list, and there was no real-time visibility of their performance.

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The company was also facing bloat in software licenses, with high recurring costs and no visibility into whether these licenses were actually in use or not.

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All of these challenges were compounded by the fact that the company needed to manage nearly 3000 employees across 4 locations.

SOLUTION

Akku’s Solution

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  • Akku’s User Lifecycle Manager solution was deployed with a rules engine that manages departments, roles, and access requirements, to completely automate the process of user provisioning and deprovisioning.
  • A custom analytics module was developed for the company’s administrators to gain visibility into application usage across the user base.
  • A custom reporting module on employee performance metrics was developed to provide insights to reporting managers on their team members performance through estimated and actual completion times for tasks managed in Jira and deviations between them.
Solution Illustration
  • A custom dashboard was created for the company’s users to boost productivity - this included integrating the user’s calendar of events and tickets from Jira directly into the Akku dashboard.
  • Users were also provided with KPI metrics directly on the dashboard with intelligent recommendations for LMS courses based on subjects where the user’s performance required improvement.
  • Since users access their applications through Akku, administrators have been provided with visibility into the usage of applications on their dashboard.

Real-world Outcomes

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The IT admin team saves 95% of the time spent on user provisioning and deprovisioning, with 5 team members now being reassigned to higher-value IT management activities.

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Incidents of excessive permissions being provided to users, and of permissions not being fully revoked for users during deprovisioning have been eliminated completely after the deployment of Akku, contributing to a stronger security posture for the organization.

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The custom employee performance reporting dashboard makes it possible for reporting managers to accurately estimate actual project completion timelines, access employee KPI metrics, and identify underperforming team members who regularly miss time estimates.

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For users, being able to access their calendars and task lists directly on their Akku dashboard saves time and improves the user experience, while LMS course recommendations contribute directly to their effectiveness in their roles.

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Application usage metrics make it possible to identify the number of users actually using their licenses of different applications, and has helped to eliminate excess unused software license costs by as much as 15%.

Through Akku’s off-the-shelf and custom-developed modules, each of our client’s key challenges have been addressed, helping them enhance productivity and security at their organization.