SMBs at Work 2024: Where SMBs are leading the way in automation

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) lead the way in embracing new technologies, giving us valuable insight into innovative practices. Larger companies can be relatively set in their ways, but SMBs must quickly find the best solutions to survive and thrive. Where SMBs choose to invest can provide valuable insight into market trends and innovative practices.

To dig into SMB behavior and how that information can help you, we’ve created the SMBs at Work 2024 report. In a series of blog posts, we have also examined SMB security innovations and specific app trends.

For our final post in the series, we wanted to look at automation.

Why should SMBs invest in automation?

When it comes to software efficiency, automation is a game changer. In SMBs, developers, IT, and security professionals wear multiple hats. Automation plays a critical role in letting them move as fast — or faster — than larger orgs. SMBs can accelerate core services in part by leveraging automation, which lets lean operations improve productivity without increasing headcount.

Don’t get us wrong: Automation offers enormous benefits for larger organizations. But for SMBs, it’s table stakes. Because SMBs have smaller headcounts, employees must execute multiple functions. Automation becomes the most important component of running repetitive business tasks, freeing employees to focus on critical initiatives.

Where and how organizations automate can change exactly what “improving productivity” looks like.  For example, they can automate operational and admin tasks like identifying inactive users, creating IT and security reports, and sending communication alerts.

Security automation is another key area where we see growth. Automating security functions can help protect against cyberattacks by automating defined responses to potential threats as they arise.

Automation can also make a big difference in lifecycle and account management. Here, automation can create, update, and revoke accounts as users join, move, and leave your company. Okta provides over 600 native integrations for tracking changes — i.e. from your HR system — and automating account provisioning to your apps. It also includes the automation of manual tasks around users, like shipping a laptop when someone joins the company or adding a user to specific Slack channels.

No-code automation meets SMBs

For many SMBs seeking to automate the workplace, no-code automation has been the solution. We've seen quick growth in Workflows (our no-code solution for customizing Identity processes), with connectors growing quickly in popularity as businesses leverage these pre-built templates to automate workflows across apps and help their businesses run more smoothly.

This year, we discovered rapid growth in connectors that automate repetitive processes between apps. Data shows a focus on collaboration apps in particular, though lifecycle support and security automation have also steadily grown. They all help businesses run more smoothly and efficiently. This is of particular interest tor SMBs, who often must leverage smaller cross-functional teams — while relentlessly outpacing competitors.
 

SMBs and Identity automation 

As work grows in complexity, companies of all sizes want new ways to make their workforces more efficient and effective.

Workflows has been the answer for many SMBs. Manual admin tasks, like sending emails and creating a ticket, hurt SMBs more than companies with high employee headcounts in a couple of ways. In companies without dedicated roles for admin tasks, the impact of time wasted on mental bandwidth and execution of these tasks steals directly from critical thinking and core business activities.

SMB processes, more often than not, aren’t strictly standardized and documented (since teams are busy on many activities, rather than one or two). Without automation, it can be hard to keep track of manual tasks, especially ones that happen asynchronously or that require many subtasks. Things like onboarding or offboarding employees can become especially time- and resource-intensive, particularly when one or more human beings are needed at every step.

The most popular automation use cases and apps probably won’t surprise you 

And that’s the point. Think about the big apps you use on a daily, even hourly, basis. The ones that feel like they work best when you hardly think about them at all. 

Google, Microsoft, Slack, and Salesforce dominate the top 10 apps. Google alone makes up three of the year's top four most popular connectors thanks to year-over-year (YoY) growth between Gmail, Google Workspace, and Google Sheets.

As we said, it’s not surprising. But it makes sense. You’re going to save the most time when you automate processes and connect apps the most people use the most often. 

Automation-wise, where do we think SMBs will invest next?

By looking at trends from businesses agile enough to take advantage of changing markets and technologies, we can gain potential insights into innovative practices that could become tomorrow’s standard. Here's where we think SMBs could be headed next based on automation choices from the past year.

• Continue investing in HR-driven integrations — like BambooHR — to completely automate employee account management and reduce licensing costs as employees join, move, and leave their roles.
• Use automation to proof security and compliance to frameworks like ISO27k, SOC2, and NIS2.
• Expand workflows to offload even more manual tasks handled with checklists.

Further reading 

Any size business faces constant pressure to innovate. Automation can be an important tool for organizations seeking to improve efficiency and productivity. We encourage you to take a look at the SMBs at Work 2024 report for insight into how SMBs have chosen to innovate and build. For further related reading, readr our post on automation for benefits, tips, and how to start automating your workplace.

Learn more about

Small Businesses (SMBs) at Work 2024 

Jumpstart Identity with automation

Okta for SMBs

Workflows

Lifecycle management and app provisioning