User provisioning for SaaS apps and software

Efficient employees' app provisioning to SaaS software used in the company daily has a great influence on data safety and pace of project implementation. Following best practices in the provisioning process helps ensure secure and smooth access for every new hire or new employee. By managing each user account effectively and assigning the right user access to every SaaS application, companies can manage users more efficiently. Automated provisioning further enhances consistency and minimizes errors. Check out how you can increase the efficiency of your organization thanks to seamless software access management.

SaaS application data and user management best practices

The safeness of the data collected by the company is strictly connected to online safety. Online data is exposed to cybersecurity breaches all the time. As Blurred World research made by Samsung stated, only 44% of employees know how to effectively protect information on devices they use in their workplace. Therefore, enterprises must take care of their information security to counteract security breaches.

Due to the General Data Protection Regulation, entrepreneurs are oblique to adapt their companies' policies to the requirements presented in the GDPR. Although it might seem that the new data protection law makes running the company harder, it allows developing solid data and information security standards, which brings long-term benefits for both entrepreneurs and their clients.

However, the introduction of GDPR is not enough to state that the data is safe. To make sure they are, it is necessary to obtain appropriate software which will help keep the information safe. As a GDPR consequence, HR management software had to adapt to secure the data properly, the way described in the data protection regulation. This allows companies to protect their data accordingly by using HR management software like Calamari.

Due to the massive shift to remote work caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the cost of data breaches increased from 3.89 to 4.96 million. According to the 2021 Data Threat Report made by Thales Group, 82% of entrepreneurs are afraid of data security breaches due to remote work. Considering the fact that 58% of European organizations had experienced data safety violations, the matter is severe and should be a priority of responsible companies.

Many organizations take the protection of their information and documents (including employees' personal data) seriously. The table below presents the increase in expenses related to data security protection on various levels between 2020 and 2021 based on the data presented by Gartner in May 2021.

Why is it worth using employee user provisioning software?

Taking care of the security of company documents and information, including the protection of employees' personal data collected on organization accounts, is possible thanks to the app provisioning software that allows managing login data and employees' authorizations. This falls under broader user access management and is a critical part of a solid provisioning strategy. But it's just one of the advantages of using this type of software. It has many more benefits thanks to which it speeds up work in the organization and helps to take care of good organization duties. At the same time, it makes the HR department work easier – primarily in the onboarding and offboarding employees process, aligning with provisioning for new hires and user lifecycle management.

So what are the other benefits of introducing user provisioning solutions and access to the right SaaS in the organization?

Optimizing onboarding with automated user provisioning and access control

After the recruitment process, onboarding is the earliest experience with the organization that a newly hired employee has. That is why a good onboarding experience is crucial for creating a good atmosphere and user satisfaction. Therefore, the process of introducing a new person to the corporate community must be smooth and well-thought-out.

Besides organizing the necessary meetings, it's also crucial to ensure that employees can start working on the entrusted tasks when the introduction process is completed. This means access to software must be set up in advance.

User provisioning is the process that enables early granting of logins and passwords to the company's accounts on SaaS platforms and tools necessary for every new employee to work. By using HR software with automated provisioning features, the employee can check what tools they have access to and log in to them without problems. In the case of access issues, the person responsible for user account provisioning can quickly resolve them based on employee status and user roles and responsibilities.

This kind of improvement ensures efficient user management, helps avoid manual user provisioning, and provisioning reduces the workload for HR and IT teams. It also aligns with best provisioning practices and supports smart provisioning for new hires. Especially in technical roles, provisioning also supports more in-depth understanding of the company's SaaS environments and infrastructure.

Efficient provisioning and user access management for SaaS apps

Collecting information about employee provisioning to tools used in the company allows for quick and secure provisioning and deprovisioning. In the event of resignation or changes in user roles, it’s possible to update access within a few clicks – a massive benefit of having a reliable provisioning system.

This also applies to promotions or job changes. Employees often gain new responsibilities and must access additional apps. Managing user access and user profiles allows granting or revoking permissions quickly. This supports provisioning operations that ensure only the right users can access critical tools and data.

If a person needs temporary access during a project, user provisioning also supports project-based setups. You can create a user account, assign it appropriate user privileges, and deactivate it after the task – making provisioning activities both secure and agile. This also supports managing access across multiple SaaS tools.

Improve work organization with smart user provisioning and SaaS access

HR SaaS management software gives the possibility of employee app provisioning and deprovisioning from the system level by the access administrator. The software also allows tracking user’s interaction with SaaS tools and verifying usage.

It's a great feature for managing SaaS workflows and user groups within projects. Especially when help is needed from someone with access to specific tools. When those employees are unavailable, Microsoft Entra, or similar enterprise SaaS systems (usually someone from the HR management team or IT department), can be used to provision alternate access.

At the stage of planning projects or managing vacations, it's easier to ensure coverage and proper user access. You can also use a SaaS app provisioning checklist to ensure compliance and consistency in handling access rights.

Real-time updates from the provisioning system ensure that changes are instantly reflected across the company, reducing the risk of SaaS chaos and promoting better user coordination.

Reduce costs through effective SaaS provisioning and user lifecycle management

Managing employees' app provisioning to corporate SaaS software allows increasing the efficiency of access control. It also reduces costs associated with paying for unused licenses – a common issue in poorly maintained SaaS stacks. As in the case of Calamari – when the subscription amount depends on the number of active users in the system – every unused account is an additional cost that might be avoided.

Manual provisioning in Excel may work for small companies, but it's inefficient at scale. As companies grow, manual user provisioning becomes prone to errors, increasing risk and cost. Switching to automated provisioning tools helps securely manage user identities and reduces time spent on user creation and tracking user data.

By monitoring login activity and user account management, administrators can identify unused accounts, improve SaaS inventory tracking, and optimize SaaS license usage. This results in fewer unused subscriptions and better alignment with provisioning practices for SaaS apps.

With access managed across multiple SaaS environments from one dashboard, IT teams can revoke or adjust user rights quickly – reducing costs and improving security.

Managing SaaS inventory with user provisioning and access tracking

In addition to benefits that improve the work and offboarding process, the employee app provisioning software allows collecting data about the software used in the organization and a number of active user profiles registered in them.

This information is useful when planning a company's budget. They allow finding those tools that bring high costs and aren't used enough to be worth paying for. This makes it easier to save money without having to give up on useful but expensive solutions that are intensively used.

The inventory feature of the access management module of HR software allows controlling the number of tools used in the organization, which is critical in terms of data security. It reduces the risk of data theft by limiting unnecessary tools and accounts collecting information about the company and its performance.

Secure user accounts and ensure compliance with SaaS provisioning best practices

Using the same login and password by multiple people is the factor that affects the privacy of information collected in SaaS tools the most. It makes it impossible to verify who is responsible for the security breach. In consequence, it's difficult to find and eliminate the source of a problem.

Using the same credentials from various IP addresses (for example during remote or hybrid work) also increases the risk of data theft. In a situation when the company has only one account and one login data, it may completely lose access to the account. It's a critical security breach that has to be detected as quickly as possible. Otherwise, it might bring considerable losses to the organization.

Controlling employees' provisioning and granting personalized login credentials, reduces the risk of data breaches and makes it easier to verify the source of if. Thanks to this, the company can solve the problem faster and minimize possible losses.

Centralize user provisioning and SaaS data in one system

Providing a company with an HR system allowing recording work time, managing leave days, documenting employee equipment and access to user tools is convenient in employee management for HR specialists.

It ensures hassle-free onboarding and offboarding processes and helps in preparing periodic reports. Software such as Calamari stores data in a well-secured cloud, which allows access from any place and any time. This means it's possible to get the necessary information on hand when they're needed.

It helps in planning projects, vacations, and onboarding. It also facilitates the preparation of new workplaces and grants the necessary access to the tools required for work. Automatic data updating makes it possible to always be up-to-date, which minimizes errors and makes the employee management processes more efficient.

Efficient provisioning and deprovisioning for secure offboarding

Offboarding is one of the most important processes when it comes to data security protection connected to employee management. If it's carried out incorrectly or inaccurately, it might result in losses to the organization.

First, when terminating cooperation with an individual, it's necessary to make sure that employees have passed all the company's equipment. Collecting information on this subject in the HR module accelerates the process. It also minimizes the possibility of a data breach due to the electronic equipment such as cellphones, laptops, and others that still have access to the company's data.

Ensuring that the employee accounts of those no longer belonging to the organization are deactivated is highly significant from a security perspective. If the deprovisioning process is incomplete, the employee can access the data and use them against the organization. Even if the former employee remains fair with the company, having a working login and password is a weak spot that reduces the security of the whole organization's documents.

The automatic deprovisioning process provided by HR management software ensures the safety of the data and reduces costs in the company, allowing to quickly identify which software and accounts should be deleted.

Summary

Keeping records about employees' app provisioning to SaaS tools used in the organization is a simple way to accelerate project implementation and ensure the security of corporate data. It ensures an efficient onboarding and offboarding process and reduces the costs of using various SaaS software.

Are you interested in using HR software to store employees' access data and other benefits of this solution? Or maybe you want to share your knowledge and experience on this topic? Don't hesitate and contact us now!

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