Infusionsoft goes cloud-first—with Okta and Zylo heading the charge.

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.