Helping small businesses thrive
For small businesses, small marketing efforts are no longer an option. In terms of sales and marketing initiatives, even local organizations must meet or exceed their enterprise counterparts or risk irrelevance. This is where Infusionsoft comes in. As a leading provider of automated marketing and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, Infusionsoft and their cloud-based offerings make it easier for small businesses to tailor messages and maintain in-depth knowledge of critical relationships—undoubtedly a reason they’ve seen continued success since their inception in 2001.
Naturally, offering a cloud-based suite of products requires a cloud-first mindset internally. Like many companies, Infusionsoft wished to give its employees convenient access to key cloud-based systems without compromising security. Additionally, they needed to be sure its chosen set of solutions reflected an optimal mix of financial efficiency and office productivity. Spending too much or too little on solutions, based on employee usage patterns and other considerations, could have disastrous effects on Infusionsoft’s ability to serve its customers.
Okta and Zylo: powerful partners in optimization
According to Infusionsoft Systems Engineer Josh McCoy, Okta’s baseline capabilities more than met that first need: Okta Single Sign-On, for instance, makes it easier for employees to work without needing to remember a unique password for every application, while Okta Lifecycle Management automates formerly rote tasks. “From onboarding to job changes to termination, Okta is a great tool that allows us to have a lot of automation,” he says. “Prior to using Okta, it was a lot of manual tasks and things could be missed. Being able to use Okta is a lot more powerful tool for us.”
Okta’s partnership with Zylo, a SaaS management platform, takes this convenience one step further—addressing SaaS usage and spend from one system of record. The data Okta generates by default provides deep insight into user-based usage patterns, that Zylo uses to highlight where to take performance-boosting action. Using both tools in tandem, Infusionsoft is far better prepared to track usage of and spending on SaaS solutions, metrics that can influence license purchasing, policy enforcement, and other important considerations. To put it in McCoy’s words: “The two systems complement each other very well. Being able to have this continuous loop of information feeding from Okta to Zylo becomes really helpful for us as an IT team.”
Combined strengths
The point? While both these systems are powerful on their own, Zylo’s ability to report data generated by Okta creates a synergy that enables Infusionsoft’s cloud-first strategy.
In practice, this results in better productivity and more efficient SaaS usage and spending. This means Infusionsoft and its employees make smarter application purchases, and the company can buy better provisions for its staff. Instead of going through rigorous review processes to determine usage and compliance (a complex task that involved spreadsheet tracking, user interviews, and other time-consuming manual tasks, per McCoy), the two systems give Infusionsoft the at-a-glance view they need to make smart decisions.
Moreover, the products work to streamline processes both in Infusionsoft’s IT department and the larger organization. For IT professionals, Okta’s automated provisioning and deprovisioning speed up tasks such as onboarding and role changes, freeing relevant personnel for more strategic work. By the same token, SSO cuts down on the number of password-change requests IT must process while employees get easier access to the systems they rely on, with password enforcement and other critical security factors built in. As McCoy says: “Infusionsoft has a policy that if any new applications are coming on board, we absolutely want to have an Okta integration. We’re all in on Okta.“
A secure, cloud-first mindset
Indeed, security is another important part of Zylo and Okta’s value proposition. In a recent risk assessment, McCoy said, metrics provided by Zylo (and enhanced by Okta) helped them consider the scope of certain systems that house or transmit confidential information. Zylo’s uniquely powerful outlook further helps the company determine software purchases that evade established processes and thus help Infusionsoft technical staff “stay in front of shadow IT,” according to the systems administrator. The security benefits are so numerous Infusionsoft currently plans to roll out Okta’s Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) in certain business contexts, with potential for more usage in the future.
In total, the combination of Okta and Zylo has helped Infusionsoft allay some the most pressing concerns businesses face these days, including identity access management, efficient software spending, and security. That makes the Okta and Zylo partnership an invaluable presence anywhere businesses serve clients or customers—that is to say, anywhere.
About the customer
Infusionsoft is an Arizona-based company serving small businesses. Their sales and marketing automation tools give these organizations powerful capabilities once reserved for the enterprise. Businesses using their products have seen a 24% increase in customer retention and 29% growth in sales. Frequently awarded for its fast growth and employee-friendly atmosphere, the company most recently expanded to critical markets in Atlanta and San Francisco, adding to its offices in Sydney, Australia, Hertfordshire, UK, and its headquarters in Chandler, Arizona.
The usability-security challenge
By 2013, the News Corp IT environment was patched together with six different single-sign-on solutions and a growing number of pins, passwords, tokens, and access points for users to keep track of.
“Identity was a real impediment to productivity,” says Shine. “Security access to systems was cumbersome. People were unable to work easily when they were not in the office. This was a major issue for a company that needs to be always on 24 x 7.”
Needless to say, when News Corp IT set out to find a new identity partner, the last thing they wanted to do was add another single-sign-on solution. “We wanted something that would replace the other sign-on solutions,” says Beheshti. “We wanted to see a track record of investment in the product, and we wanted a cloud provider.”
User experience was paramount, but the team needed to strengthen security at the same time. Flexibility and choice were high on the list, as well. “The software market is fast-moving. Solutions we take for granted today may be superseded by better solutions in the coming years,” says Shine. “What’s really important is that we have a consistent framework, but we can swap out individual applications or components to make sure we are always giving our business users the best possible solutions.”
The team looked at identity solutions from Okta, Microsoft, and Google. “Microsoft was okay if you’re a Microsoft shop, but wasn’t particularly open if you look at the wide range of other solutions that a company like News Corp needs,” says Shine.
By comparison, the News Corp team found Okta to be “the Switzerland of the identity access software world.” Shine says Okta “provided really good access to a very large number of applications and was clearly committed to ensuring that open access as the market developed.”
In August 2015, News Corp rolled Okta out to one business unit for an initial trial. The pace picked up quickly after that. In nine months, the company deployed Okta to all of its businesses, replaced some existing SSO solutions, and connected more than 150 apps to the Okta platform. “That was much further than we anticipated to go in the time frame we’ve had,” says Beheshti.
A unifying force
As employees got used to using Okta as a single point of entry to their apps, it became easier to introduce other tools, releasing them on the Okta platform where people could see them.
“It’s interesting,” says Shine. “Okta now has its own identity within the organization. People relate to new capabilities being added to Okta. It has become a unifying force in allowing people to understand the applications that are available.”
“We have the best of both worlds,” he says: A consistent set of hero applications common to everyone in the company, as well as ways for individual business units to easily deploy applications specific to their context. For IT, Okta offers secure access to News Corp’s cloud infrastructure and storage capabilities, which are primarily on AWS.
“Silver bullet”
With Okta, News Corp doesn’t have to choose between security and the user experience. Because the system works and they have fewer credentials to remember, News Corp employees are much less likely to look for workarounds. The team deployed multi-factor authentication together with SSO, which gives vulnerable users and apps an extra layer of security.
“There are very few times in IT when you come across a silver bullet,” says Beheshti. “Okta is a fan favorite amongst my team and across the business because it solves the two pillars of usability and security.” Employees who were typically skeptical about new IT solutions now stop Beheshti in the corridor to tell him how much Okta has improved their ability to access their apps and get work done.
“Our information security and legal teams are happy because now we have multi-factor authentication. Our business users are happy because they have fewer places to go and fewer passwords to remember,” he says.
Having a reliable, unified SSO solution has changed the landscape for News Corp IT, as well. Password reset requests have been significantly reduced, and at least one full-time staff member, formerly dedicated to managing and administering SSO systems, can now focus on more strategic work.
Productivity is on the rise. News Corp employees used to suffer from up to 10 application access outages every year, lasting 30 minutes each. There are no such outages with Okta. With the time saved by people not being locked out because of password confusion, the benefit is significant.
A whole greater than the sum of its parts
Openness and the ability to connect to existing and future solutions are key for a company looking to expand its business into new markets globally. That’s true whether you’re talking about one business unit adding to its mix of apps, or a parent company acquiring a new business.
Okta has already revolutionized the way News Corp can onboard newly acquired companies, says Shine. “Before we had Okta, when we bought a new company it took a long time to get that organization onto the same approach around identity and security, and to get them using the same tools.” Okta makes that process much faster and more efficient, saving the company over 1,000 hours each year on synchronizing and consolidating domains after M&A activity. Today, the company can share content and products across business lines, and realize the value of an acquisition more quickly.
“Okta plays a key role in this because it is the front door to those applications and those services,” says Shine. “We can make the teams more efficient, and increase the velocity of the transformation we’re driving.”
A roadmap to mobile and beyond
With global SSO and MFA steadfastly underway, the team is adding Universal Directory and Provisioning to its identity portfolio. “For some of our business units, onboarding and provisioning is a very manual process,” says Beheshti. “That causes issues not only for the hiring manager, the person coming on board—but also things like auditing, in terms of who has access to which applications.”
Over time, News Corp IT plans to minimize the need for Microsoft Active Directory. With Universal Directory, the company can automate 70% of provisioning tasks. Already, new News Corp employees are up and running on their apps about two hours sooner than they had been before.
Automated provisioning includes deprovisioning, of course, which adds to the security boost: One update to the master directory, and an administrator can quickly remove access to both on-prem and cloud apps. Provisioning also includes extensive reporting and visibility into News Corp’s entire IT environment.
The company also has Okta Mobility Management in its sights. “News Corp has a very simple view on mobile,” says Shine: “Mobile is the platform as we go forward.. This is also true for the consumers of our products… Working in a mobile context for many people now is the primary way that they work. For any tool that we choose to deploy, it’s important that mobile is core to that product’s architecture - that the product is fundamentally designed to work really well on mobile, as opposed to being an afterthought.”
The team looks forward to gaining greater security over how employees use their mobile devices, guiding them with News Corp policies and procedures without intruding on their privacy. IT estimates a significant bump in productivity as employees gain easier access from anywhere, on whatever device they happen to have at hand.
Beheshti is also looking at introducing Okta integration into News Corp customer products, starting with B2B interactions, such as ad sales. Looking at the News Corp family of companies, you can see how those secure connections could eventually reach consumers and business people at every moment of their day.
About News Corp
News Corp is a global, diversified media and information services company focused on creating and distributing authoritative and engaging content to consumers throughout the world. The company comprises businesses across a range of media, including news and information services, book publishing, digital real estate services, and cable network programming and pay-TV distribution in Australia. Headquartered in New York, News Corp conducts business primarily in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
