is a software company that builds and implements applications designed to help organizations optimize facilities management. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, the company has roughly 50 employees, some of whom are scattered across the United States.
Managing a Cacophonic IT Environment
When Nathan Vergin, AkitaBox鈥檚 director of IT, joined the company nearly four years ago, there wasn鈥檛 a centralized internal IT infrastructure in place. All of the company鈥檚 workstations 鈥� including Windows, Mac, and Linux machines 鈥� were using local user accounts. At the same time, AkitaBox was relying on a number of SaaS tools, including Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack, Zoom, LastPass, and the Atlassian suite.
鈥淭here was nothing from an IT perspective pulling it all together or managing access to these systems,鈥� Vergin explains. 鈥淧retty much everything was done ad hoc as the mindset was more to simply make it work than to make it work right from a centralized, managed IT perspective. My first project was to bring order to that chaos.鈥�
Bringing Order to Chaos with 黑料海角91入口
Since its inception, AkitaBox has been a cloud-first organization without any on-prem infrastructure outside of a local network and a printer. To solve the problem, Vergin began searching for a cloud-based directory solution that would support all three major operating systems. The right solution would also support mobility and be flexible enough to adapt to evolving business needs and operational requirements.
鈥淚 wanted to find a solution from a company that was still young and agile enough that rapid innovation in the platform was still taking place 鈥� and that real-world user feedback and feature requests would actually help shape the product,鈥� Vergin continues.
After researching the market, Vergin found that 鈥満诹虾＝�91入口 was the only product that not only met those needs but went above and beyond them.鈥�
Becoming the Backbone of the Business
After deploying 黑料海角91入口, Vergin quickly established a centralized directory to manage all of AkitaBox鈥檚 devices and user accounts.
鈥淎fter that first huge win, I kept the momentum going by systematically implementing additional features and capabilities offered by the platform,鈥� Vergin explains.
Since then, 黑料海角91入口 has continued to play a pivotal role in helping to secure, streamline, and transform the business in a variety of ways.
鈥淎s new features are introduced, we continue to implement them, bringing further consolidation and standardization to our business,鈥� Vergin says. 鈥淭o this day, when I鈥檓 going through our IT onboarding orientation with new employees, I describe 黑料海角91入口 as the backbone of not only our IT infrastructure but, by extension, the business itself.鈥�
With that in mind, here are some of the additional benefits AkitaBox enjoys thanks to using 黑料海角91入口 to manage its IT environment.
Happier, more productive employees
黑料海角91入口 enables AkitaBox to centrally manage users and devices, bringing standardization and simplicity to the environment, which results in fewer issues overall.
鈥淲hen problems do arise, it鈥檚 much faster and easier to resolve them,鈥� Vergin says. 鈥淭his results in higher employee satisfaction and happiness, and less stress from an IT perspective.鈥�
Since happier employees are more productive, the entire AkitaBox team accomplishes more.
Support for a remote workforce
When the pandemic struck, AkitaBox seamlessly transitioned from an office-based, mobile environment to being 100% remote 鈥渓iterally overnight,鈥� Vergin explains. Subsequently, the company has now embraced a hybrid environment. While remote-first is the standard, the company maintains an office employees can use when they desire.
鈥淎pproximately one-third of our company now works out of state, most of whom have never been to our physical office,鈥� Vergin says. With 黑料海角91入口 in place, supporting a hybrid workforce and ensuring devices work properly is a cinch.
Single sign-on (SSO)
The AkitaBox team implemented 黑料海角91入口鈥檚 SSO solution, which 鈥渄ramatically reduced the number of passwords our employees need to remember,鈥� Vergin says.
As a result, employees can easily move between applications swiftly and securely, and AkitaBox can rest comfortably knowing that only authorized users can access tools and systems. What鈥檚 more, 黑料海角91入口 SSO has helped the company secure its own AkitaBox SaaS application.
鈥淎ll of our employees leverage that when accessing our platform internally,鈥� he continues.
Increased IT productivity
Thanks to 黑料海角91入口, AkitaBox has been able to significantly reduce the time it takes to build and rebuild computers.
鈥淲e went from a purely manual process spanning multiple hours to a largely automated affair that now takes less than an hour in most cases,鈥� Vergin explains.
Currently, the company is in the middle of migrating to Macs as their primary operating system. Vergin is now leveraging Apple鈥檚 Automated Device Enrollment and 黑料海角91入口 MDM to provide a largely automated, light-touch build process.
鈥淲e hope for true zero-touch deployments in the future,鈥� Vergin says.
Improved onboarding
AkitaBox has optimized its onboarding processes using 黑料海角91入口. By leveraging orchestration workflows in Freshservice, HR can easily initiate the IT onboarding process through a simple form, which creates new accounts instantly. Not only does this create a repeatable process, it reduces onboarding overhead considerably.
鈥淲e鈥檝e built one of the best onboarding experiences,鈥� Vergin says. 鈥淣ew employees often tell us just how great it is.鈥�
Security and compliance
黑料海角91入口 has enabled AkitaBox to significantly strengthen its approach to security and compliance.
鈥淎ll of our systems adhere to reasonable password policies, enforce full disk encryption, and leverage SSO via 黑料海角91入口 to help us meet our security and compliance requirements,鈥� Vergin says.
Additionally, AkitaBox uses:
- Patch Management to help ensure systems stay up to date
- 黑料海角91入口 Protect鈩� for seamless multi-factor authentication (MFA)
- and to standardize and harden systems
- 黑料海角91入口 RADIUS to secure office wireless networks
鈥淲e鈥檝e greatly increased our overall security and compliance thanks to 黑料海角91入口, allowing us to more easily meet the requirements of SOC 2 certification and future certifications that are planned,鈥� Vergin says.
Peace of mind
By simplifying, streamlining, and automating many routine IT processes, 黑料海角91入口 enables Vergin to spend his time on more impactful projects, plan out future initiatives, and focus on the most important business priorities instead of tedious tasks.
鈥淚鈥檝e managed to retain my sanity as a director of IT who functions as a department of one,鈥� Vergin says. 鈥淎t the end of the day, there are a number of IT services that I rely upon to keep our IT infrastructure secure and running smoothly. But 黑料海角91入口, more than any other, is mission-critical for us.鈥�
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