Imagine having to grant your employees access to an application, a website, or an activity every minute. Can you imagine how time-consuming requesting and waiting for access to such resources will be for new and existing hires? Manually onboarding your employees or managing other administrative activities can be draining. Also, it slows down your output by hampering your productivity and efficiency. However, the good news is that you can simplify these processes with automated provisioning.
What is provisioning and how do you implement it? Keep reading to find out.
What is Automated Provisioning?
Automated provisioning, also called user provisioning, automatically grants and manages users’ access to the systems, applications, and resources of AN organization. The company can utilize information technology and telecommunication services through pre-defined procedures to achieve automated provisioning.
Traditionally, provisioning is a manual activity requiring many people’s help in various tasks and processes. This means specific operations in the organization could take days or months to be completed. For example, it may take some time for new hires to onboard and longer for existing employees to switch roles because they need manual approval from their superiors.
As a result, organizational output decreases. Employees also experience burnout from delays and rigorous processes. Contrarily, integrating automation into the organizational systems improves the way is done by setting all operations on auto-pilot. Rather than wait for manual approval, workers and users can access and make changes on authorized systems independently.
So, customers and workers can operate automatically without external influences, whether accessing, switching, or deleting accounts and files. Consequently, the company experiences increased productivity and an enhanced customer experience with automated provisioning.
How does Automated Provisioning Work?
As mentioned before, automated provisioning allows employees access to systems, resources, and applications. This way, employees don’t have to request access from several stakeholders before an activity is approved. So, it grants employees access based on their positions and permission levels.
For instance, when new hires come in, an identity management platform assigns their role and gives them access to the applications they need to execute their responsibilities. So, if they switch roles or leave the organization, it changes and deletes their accounts accordingly.
How to Implement Automated Provisioning in your Organization
Integrating automated provisioning can get a bit challenging. You cannot achieve it in a few clicks. Instead, it requires a strategic approach. Thus, here are five critical ways to implement automated provisioning in your organization.
1. Adopt User Provisioning Software and Tools
User provisioning reduces the repetitive tasks of automated provisioning. So, you can automated provisioning software to automate user provisioning. Automated provisioning tools recommend the appropriate applications for new hires. It also gives workers access to the right documents, and files, based on their responsibilities in the organization.
The best-automated provisioning tools provide accurate recommendations for all aspects of provisioning, including the resources, channels, and groups your users need. Furthermore, it opens accounts for new employees, changes accounts when they change departments, and delete their accounts and access when they leave the company. Employees immediately know the next steps to take. Also, it automatically approves their access to applications and materials necessary to get them on board.
So, adopting a functional HR automation tool for employee onboarding is critical to implement automated provisioning efficiently. It automates all activities, reducing the need for manual intervention, and thus fast-tracking the process.
2. Educate Employees on Automated Provisioning
Employers must have an in-depth understanding of automated provisioning and how it works to maximize its features. Therefore, getting every member onboard on the importance of automated provisioning will help you build a culture that values and harnesses automation. Consequently, the organization will be in a better position to drive efficiency and growth.
Moreover, enlightening employees on user provisioning will prevent mistakes that may hurt the company. They will identify the pitfalls to avoid with adequate training when using automated provisioning. In addition, they will also know how to navigate its features to make the most of it.
So, carry employees and users along and keep them updated. Proper education will keep everyone on the same page.
3. Consider Customers’ Needs
Don’t center your automated provisioning plans around your employees alone. Instead, structure it to fit your consumers’ needs too. For example, how will automated provisioning facilitate their activities in your company? Can they perform activities on your platform without your support staff? In addition, will the implementation simplify their processes? In what ways can such simplification occur?
Considering these factors will help you tailor your automated provisioning to improve users’ experiences. You can ensure the implementation allows them to find answers to their inquiries without external help.
67% of consumers prefer self-service to speaking with a representative. So, by structuring the automated provisioning to suit client needs, you can enhance their experiences and boost customer satisfaction.
4. Optimize Workflows and Build a Test Environment
Design and optimize workflows. Then, automate them through automated provisioning. Afterward, build an excellent testing environment and put your automated provisioning to work. Here, you can track how smooth the workflow is. You will also know if you should make any additions or alterations.
Primarily, testing your automated provisioning process will help you identify the following:
- Failed activities
- Functions you forgot to add
- How intuitive and fast and the functions are
Optimized workflows will help you set automated provisioning in motion. In addition, testing the automated provisioning will help you identify and fix shortcomings to create the best outcome for your employees and customers.
Benefits of Automated Provisioning
Automated provisioning offers outstanding benefits for organizations. Here are five critical reasons to implement automated provisioning into your strategy today:
1. It Enables Easy Onboarding
Onboarding is often among the most challenging activities for the human resources team. It requires sharing and approving several files. So, it is rigorous and time-consuming if you do it manually.
However, integrating automated provisioning automates these monotonous tasks so the staff can focus on other activities. The user provisioning system delegates their roles and gives them access to the appropriate files, accounts, and systems. This way, they won’t wait for approval from their supervisors before accessing critical documents and accounts.
Consequently, the onboarding process becomes easy for new hires. It also gets faster, allowing them to have a good head start in the organization. Therefore, to simplify employees’ onboarding process and reduce the burden on your human resources team, integrate automated provisioning to fast-track their activities.
2. It Reduces Errors
Accuracy is a prominent advantage of automated provisioning. It reduces errors by eliminating human intervention. In addition, it suggests the right access, resources, and accounts for new and existing employees.
Furthermore, it reduces the possibility of missing files and accounts. Automated provisioning also organizes the resources and applications users use after they leave the organization. Afterward, it passes to the next employee that occupies the position.
The smooth transfer of files reduces the chances of errors or lost files. Finally, accurate application and resource suggestions ensure employees take on the right tasks and responsibilities.
3. It Boosts Efficiency and Productivity
Automated provisioning helps you get more work done as an organization. It automates all repetitive activities, including onboarding, access grants, resource allocation, payroll processes, etc. As a result, the workforce executes operations efficiently.
Automated provisioning thus increases your capacity to grow. Expanding and taking on more projects is easier when most of your activities are automated, enabling scalability. So, implement automated provisioning if you want to increase your output and generate more revenue for your company.
4. It Saves Operating Cost
Automated provisioning increases your company’s cost-savings capacity. First, it reduces the need for staffing, allowing you to cut hiring costs. Second, automated provisioning is accurate and ensures you don’t make mistakes that require extra expenses.
Therefore, organizations adopting automated provisioning save big on operational costs. They prevent additional costs associated with fixing mistakes, save expenses, and allow them to invest in other aspects of their business.
5. It Helps you Comply with Data Privacy Regulations
Automated provisioning enhances data privacy and protection, allowing you to maintain compliance with data privacy regulations. It gives users access to the right documents and applications. As a result, users won’t have access to unauthorized documents, preventing data privacy breaches.
Automated provisioning transfers files safely from one user to the other. It also deletes users’ access to resources and applications when they leave a company, improving data security.
By guaranteeing data security and privacy, you will avoid sanctions and fines from data regulatory bodies. Additionally, you will maintain a positive reputation that keeps your customers’ trust.
Streamline your workflow with automated provisioning
Running a business manually is time-consuming. It requires a lot of work, from managing the staff to communicating with clients and controlling operations. So, automating your operations through automated provisioning is the best way to reduce the workload and achieve operational efficiency. It simplifies your activities by allowing your employees and customers to work efficiently.
To implement user positioning, adopt an automated provisioning tool, and enlighten the staff about its uses and perks. Additionally, keep your end-users in mind. Then, optimize and test the process. If you follow these steps, you can implement automated provisioning effectively and grow your business!
