Jumpstart Identity with automation

If you’ve ever found yourself thinking “Why does this process take so long? Don’t we have computers for that?” Well, you’re probably right. The strain you’re feeling might be the absence of automation. When you don’t need two spare human hands for every task, it can boost productivity, reduce error and risk, and allow you to do more with less.  

Automation can also help jumpstart your business by freeing up humans to get back to what matters: innovating on core functionalities. So, let’s quickly break down the benefits of automating Workforce Identity and processes for customers. Plus we’ll cover steps you can take to start automating in your own business. 

Automation benefits 

Even small gains can bring big benefits over time. As a small-or-medium-sized business (SMB), you may not always be working within the ideal scenario. Whether you wish you had more employees, funding, or time, it all comes down to how you use the resources you have. SMBs benefit from automation because it helps reduce hiring needs, frees up time to focus on what matters, and decreases overall human error. 

Workforce 

Accelerating development and optimizing productivity are two of the biggest potential gains from automation. What could your team do with a few extra hours every week? That might not sound like much, but it adds up. Identity and Access Management (IAM) automation simplifies user management, making it easier to add or remove employees' access. This streamlining means less time spent on admin tasks, fewer errors, and more efficient operations overall. 

Imagine your team no longer dealing with password resets or waiting for access approvals. IAM automation and Okta Workflows free up your employees to focus on their core tasks, boosting productivity and job satisfaction.

Customer Identity 

Doing more with less while ensuring security across directories, applications, and platforms can be challenging. But automating customer identity tasks can accelerate development and improve security, while still maintaining lean teams. 

With Actions, you can streamline Identity processes—and save on developer costs—with a library of pre-built partner integrations with a drag-and-drop visual interface. You can achieve better, consistent results in less time.

How automation can help

Remediate suspicious logins

Build custom security flows beyond the login box — without writing a line of code. Threats are becoming more sophisticated, and automated responses to suspicious login attempts can help you stay alert to and respond to threats faster. Your team can receive automated alerts, allowing your teams to not have to rely on stringing together multiple systems, hunt down siloed data, or write scripts to respond to suspicious behavior.

Require stricter authentication

Take action on high-risk customer logins by alerting the security team with a ServiceNow ticket or extending MFA with tougher security factors. You can also set up automated tasks such as password changes that proactively keep employee and customer data safer. 

Capture user consent

With automation you can turn manual provisioning into an immediate auto-capture process. Workflows can automatically deprovision, saving your team from needing to write the code or manually deprovision every individual across accounts. 

Send personalized marketing campaigns  

Upon user registration, Workflows can automatically identify cross- and up-sell opportunities and kick off targeted marketing campaigns to drive conversion. You can help re-engage customers and drive traffic by automatically reaching out to customers who haven’t logged in yet.

Provide access to downstream apps upon registration 

Upon customer or worker registration, automatically trigger a flow that creates a user in all required systems. You can also reduce operational overhead with automatic account linking: Workflows could be used to suggest using an account that already exists, or map both accounts to the same person in other systems like a CRM or Marketo. 

Run automatic tasks on a scheduled basis

Imagine a future in which upon user registration Workflows automatically trigger a flow that can create the user in all the required systems, and even search for inactive users and re-engage them through marketing campaigns.

Refocus on innovation to get to market faster and reduce costs 

With Workflows, you can automate identity-centric processes with if-this-then-that logic by connecting to any API and stringing together actions across multiple APIs. By cutting tedious manual processes, you also cut resource-intensive dev hours and potentially cut manual errors--and give back that time to focus on core business. 

Tips to get the most out of automation

Start with the processes that will yield you most benefits

Look at common identity tasks like user onboarding, offboarding, and one-off audits. Think about what repeats more often.

Identify which templates you want to use, or if you will create a new flow

Once you know what processes you can automate, familiarize yourself with available templates or plan to design your own.

Include an automation review as part of the tool/tech onboarding process

Adding a tool or updating your tech stack? If you’re already planning an overhaul or intend to soon, it’s a great time to get a broad overview of what processes you have and how they can be improved with automation.

Make sure stakeholders agree on the use case

Some automations are simple integrations, but sometimes it can be useful to document your process (see below).

Document your process (and measure your results) 

Writing out all the steps allows you to identify what you can simplify with automation, as well as spots where automation might speed integrations. Take stock of how often you leverage automation and how much time you used to take on the manual equivalent task. Multiply those numbers to find out how much time you saved, and what other opportunities you can take to make you even more productive.

Quarterly (and yearly) automation scale checks 

As your road map evolves, so will your automation opportunities. Work with your various providers to identify spots where you can gain speed with automation. You’ve got a lot to do, but once a year, set aside a couple of hours to identify automation opportunities.

Get started with automation 

We’re all trying to deliver great outcomes for our end users and businesses. There’s constant pressure to innovate and maintain high standards, and automation can have a big impact on efficiency and productivity. 

Now that you’re prepared with a primer, we hope you have a better understanding of how automation can enhance your productivity. If you’re feeling more confident about getting technology to work for you and want to learn more, take an in-depth look at the implementation process with the SMB Automation Guide for even more detail into Workforce and Customer use cases, a quick start guide to automation, plus tips and tricks of what to automate.

Still have questions? Reach out to an Okta expert if you’re curious about the benefits of upgrading your unique business.
 

Resources

SMB Automation Guide
Workflows for Customer Identity Cloud (CIC)
Automating Security Operations with Okta Workflows
How Automating Identity saves hours and boosts efficiency

Okta is the World’s Identity Company. We free everyone to safely use any technology — anywhere, on any device or app. Our Workforce and Customer Identity Clouds enable secure yet flexible access, authentication, and automation that transforms how people move through the digital world and puts Identity at the heart of business security and growth. 

These materials and any recommendations within are not legal, privacy, security, compliance, or business advice. These materials are intended for general informational purposes only and may not reflect the most current security, privacy, and legal developments nor all relevant issues. You are responsible for obtaining legal, security, privacy, compliance, or business advice from your own lawyer or other professional advisor and should not rely on the recommendations herein. Okta is not liable to you for any loss or damages that may result from your implementation of any recommendations in these materials. Okta makes no representations, warranties, or other assurances regarding the content of these materials.  Information regarding Okta's contractual assurances to its customers can be found at okta.com/agreements.