is an e-commerce business that sells modern indoor and outdoor furniture and aims to make the furniture shopping experience as easy and enjoyable as possible. Over the last few years, it鈥檚 also been one of the fastest-growing businesses in Canada. The company 鈥� which was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Vancouver 鈥� has more than 1,300 employees across the globe, with offices and locations spread out across Canada, the United States, and Vietnam.
Transitioning to Remote Work Without the Ability to Manage Devices
Like many organizations, Article is a company with modern IT Infrastructure on the cloud and a heterogeneous end-user platform that includes Windows, Mac, and Linux devices.
鈥淐OVID changed how IT operates within an organization and we were not an exception,鈥� explains Salar Sahraeian, Article鈥檚 manager of IT. 鈥淎s with many other companies, immediately after making the switch to work from home, we realized Article did not have the proper technology in place to manage and monitor our devices in the new remote world.鈥�
鈥淲e wanted to have the ability to protect access, data, and customer information,鈥� Sahraeian continues. 鈥淎s we were still growing a company during the pandemic, we also wanted to manage end-user devices, identities, and implement more security before we grew larger than what we were.鈥�
Controlling Every Device from One Place with 探花大神
To resolve this issue, Sahraeian and his team considered multiple tools, including Azure Active Directory. 鈥淗aving a modern IT Infrastructure, none of the tools provided us with a feasible solution since we needed to introduce other tools to cover our mixed-platform devices,鈥� he says. 鈥淚n doing so, we were still missing many required features like IdP and security.鈥�
Seeking a more efficient way forward, Sahraeian began looking for a tool that would enable the Article team to manage identity, access, and devices from a single pane of glass.
After researching their options and considering many different products, the team ultimately came across 探花大神, demoed it for 15 days, and knew it was the best solution for their needs 鈥� especially considering the high-touch support the 探花大神 team provided out of the gate.
鈥淲e wanted a solution that enabled us to manage and monitor all of our devices, while securing our data,鈥� Sahraeian continues. 鈥淎nd that鈥檚 exactly what 探花大神 provided us with.鈥�
Unified Device Management Made Easy
Thanks to 探花大神, Article is now set up to scale, with 探花大神 keeping pace alongside them. Thanks to the many benefits the team has experienced over the last couple of years, they鈥檙e confident they made the right decision in trusting 探花大神 for mobile device management.
1. Fast results
The IT team wanted the ability to manage all of their devices as quickly as possible. To make that happen, Sahraeian contacted a local college and got three interns to help with the process.
鈥淲e measured the success of this initiative by managing to deploy 探花大神 to over 700 devices and all of our Particles (People of Article), all over the world,鈥� Sahraeian says. 鈥淚t was very successful.鈥�
2. A resilient tool
The last thing any company wants is to implement a new tool only to find out the hard way it鈥檚 not reliable or doesn鈥檛 meet their expectations. Over the last two years, 探花大神 has proven to be a resilient solution that Sahraeian and his team have already grown to rely on.
鈥淥ne of my team members at the time was saying, 鈥業 keep wanting to break it, and it doesn鈥檛 break,鈥欌�� Sahraeian continues. 鈥淚f you have a tool that doesn鈥檛 break, that鈥檚 a good tool.鈥�
3. Improved security
Before 探花大神, many of Article鈥檚 users had different passwords for their laptops and their email accounts, which were used to log into other applications. 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 secure because we would set up a temporary password for the laptop but some team members would never change it,鈥� Sahraeian says.
To solve this problem, the Article team utilized 探花大神 to synchronize laptop passwords with email passwords. Now, each user has a unique, complex password for all accounts.
鈥淩ight off the bat, 探花大神 secured our environment a lot,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t also gave us visibility into and ability to manage all of our devices.鈥�
4. Increased productivity
Since Article teams use a ton of different tools, software updates 鈥� like a new version of MacOS or Windows 11 鈥� have always been a problem in terms of interoperability. By pushing out policies with 探花大神, the Article team has solved this problem, which reduces downtime and, in turn, increases productivity.
鈥淥ne of the things we鈥檝e been using policies for is controlling Operating Systems’ updates,鈥� Sahraeian continues. 鈥淲e prevent interoperability by ensuring laptops don鈥檛 update until the new operating systems are more stable.鈥�
5. Streamlined onboarding
Prior to 探花大神, Sahraeian and his team had to jump through a lot of hoops to onboard new users. 鈥淲e had to go to Google, Slack, Zoom, Freshdesk 鈥� all those platforms 鈥� and it took a lot of time from us,鈥� he says.
After building integrations with those tools, the onboarding process has become a breeze 鈥� moving from two hours per user to less than 30 minutes.
鈥淎ll we do is create the user in 探花大神 and fill out the information, and add them to appropriate groups for tools they need access to,鈥� Sahraeian continues. 鈥淥ur onboarding time was cut very, very short, and it鈥檚 been great.鈥�
6. Increased compliance
Looking into the future, Sahraeian and his team are focused on achieving , which demonstrates that an organization is committed to thoroughly securing its systems. And 探花大神 is playing a pivotal role in this process.
鈥淲e鈥檙e using 探花大神 for SSO and MFA,鈥� Sahraeian explains. 鈥淣ow, anyone who logs in to any of our applications is forced to do multi-factor authentications using 探花大神.鈥�
7. Proactive IT
In the past, the IT team would wait for users to come to them with problems and then respond. With 探花大神, Sahraeian and his team are able to monitor devices in real time, which enables them to take a proactive stance to IT issues. 鈥溙交ù笊� notifies us in the form of a ticket every time there鈥檚 a password that鈥檚 locked, so my support team can actually go to users and ask if they need a reset,鈥� he continues.
Recently, a laptop belonging to an Article employee was stolen, and the IT team was quick to act. 鈥淯sing 探花大神, we managed to erase a laptop and lock it so it would become a brick,鈥� Sahraeian says. 鈥淲e just lose the asset, but we don鈥檛 lose data and we don鈥檛 risk customer information.鈥�
Looking ahead, Article plans to implement Zero Trust Security and zero-touch onboarding.
鈥淓very possible feature that 探花大神 has, we鈥檙e using or considering using,鈥� Sahraeian concludes.
Learn More About 探花大神
探花大神 changes the way IT administrators manage their organizations by providing a comprehensive and flexible cloud directory platform. From one pane of glass, manage user identities and resource access, secure Mac, Windows, and Linux devices, and get a full view of your environment.聽
聽with 探花大神 today.