How to Leverage IT Automation to Support an Evolving Workplace Landscape

Over the last 18 months, the phrase “uncertain times” has become fodder for a variety of Internet memes. But as organizations around the world determine whether or not it’s safe to return to physical offices, it’s impossible to describe this period of time as anything but uncertain for IT.

This uncertainty poses some critical questions for IT. How do you get the right hardware allocations to ensure that employees can use conference rooms and printers? What can IT do to ensure that a remote workforce also has the tools it needs to do their jobs, while also staying connected with their in-office colleagues. How can you secure your organization’s data when employees can (or need) to access it from a home internet connection?

As the debate between a permanently remote and an in-office work environment rages on, let’s explore some of the top challenges that IT will face throughout the rest of this year. Additionally, we’ll show you a few ways that BetterCloud can help with a potential transition back to the office. 

Ensuring an equitable experience for all employees, regardless of location

Earlier this year, CNBC reported that 31% of young adults relocated permanently or for an extended period of time during the pandemic. This migration has had a lasting effect on most, if not all, companies around the world. But as a growing number of organizations embrace either a fully remote or hybrid work environment, IT has suddenly been tasked with creating a world-class experience for every employee regardless of their location. 

Here are a few ways that IT can tackle this challenge:

• Automate onboarding and offboarding. BetterCloud Workflows make it easy to automate the most critical steps of your onboarding and offboarding process. Employees get access to the tools, apps, and data they need to be productive without having to submit a ticket to IT on their first day. 
• Streamline mid-lifecycle management. BetterCloud enables IT to handle a variety of mid-lifecycle updates, including promotions and lateral department changes. Users will be automatically assigned to the right groups, calendars, and data permissions with much less friction.
• Proactively enhance the user experience. BetterCloud smooths the user experience through onboarding and beyond. Send automatic survey reminders from HR to new employees after 30 days, and set up sync meetings after 60 days.

Minimize risk of shadow IT in hybrid work 

A recent report by Gartner, the worldwide public cloud end-user spending to grow 23% in 2021. As SaaS adoption has accelerated, so too does the risk of an unsuspecting user introducing new security risks to your organization. This is especially the case in a remote-first or hybrid work environment.

As the number of remote workers continues to rise exponentially, IT can leverage a SaaS management platform like BetterCloud to increase visibility into your SaaS stack. This enables you to be more proactive when you identify an unsanctioned third-party application that a user has introduced to your SaaS environment.

Define the right balance between collaboration and file security

Computerworld reports that the average organization shares documents with 826 external domains. And as remote work becomes a more prevalent way of doing business, this number will likely increase—and IT will be tasked with walking the slippery slope of giving employees the right tools for collaboration without increasing the likelihood of a data breach disaster. 

With BetterCloud, IT can configure file-scanning options to intelligently locate sensitive individual data, including credit card numbers, social security numbers, and patient information. Additionally, you can leverage BetterCloud to enforce policies that protect against unwanted exposure and easily audit inactive employee accounts to ensure that those users no longer have access to sensitive company data.

Before we go, a quick sidenote: As remote work becomes part of the “new normal,” home internet connections and personal devices have become a new(ish) vector for data breaches. For an additional layer of protection in a remote-first world, IT should consider implementing a mobile device management (MDM) solution. Last year, BetterCloud partnered with Jamf and OneLogin to give IT the right platforms to increase visibility across devices, deliver a seamless onboarding experience through Zero Touch Deployment, and leverage workflows to protect against insider threats. 

Automation is the key that empowers you to stay flexible and be prepared for an unpredictable future, whether that’s a return to a physical office, remote-first, or a hybrid work environment. By automating daily (and repetitive) tasks, IT can dramatically improve the employee experience while also strategically prioritizing its tasks—which ultimately makes the team a business partner to the entire organization.

To learn more about how BetterCloud can support a variety of work environments through automation, click here to schedule a demo.