THE THIRD FLOOR Utilizes BetterCloud’s Automation to Overhaul Manual IT Processes

THE THIRD FLOOR is a global visualization studio dedicated to supporting the production of next-generation media content for feature film, television, commercials, video games, virtual reality, and themed attractions. Working hand-in-hand with directors, producers and other key crew members, the company’s artists use specialized skills in storytelling and computer animation to create digital versions of shots and scenes to streamline physical production and post. 

Challenge: 

THE THIRD FLOOR requires tight security measures due to the nature of their business. With artists working on high profile movie content, its IT team needed the ability to monitor potential threats and ensure data was protected. 

With security top of mind, Jeremy Oddo, Director of Technology, was interested in BetterCloud for its ability to prevent sensitive file exposure. Oddo soon realized the functionality of the platform extended beyond data protection. As a result, it didn’t take him long to rule out other solutions because of BetterCloud’s array of capabilities, including the automation of user lifecycle management (ULM). 

In the media and entertainment space, it is common for artists to work on a freelance basis and quickly go from one company to the next and back again. Oddo explains this is a unique challenge for THE THIRD FLOOR. The company often works on various projects that require a number of artists to come onboard and be added to the correct security groups. When a project wraps, many of the artists need to be offboarded—only to be onboarded again to work on new projects as they come in.

When Oddo joined the company seven years ago, THE THIRD FLOOR had roughly 120 artists and now has over 400. Today, his team onboards and offboards upwards of ten artists every week, making it paramount for IT to be able to consistently handle the increased volume as the business scales by automating the process. 

With the ability to both secure confidential data and manage the user lifecycle in one centralized console, BetterCloud was the clear choice. 

Solution:

Oddo began examining not just the IT department, but pain points in other departments as well. As he learned what his colleagues had to do on a weekly basis, he found it required a lot of recurring tasks and manual effort to accomplish routine work. Oddo set out to automate processes and consolidate data to make it more easily accessible to the people that need it. 

“We worked to automate tasks that were stealing a lot of our employees’ day. By automating work, we’re giving them back time so they can make refinements in their department that have a more significant impact on the business as a whole. It allows them to really focus on initiatives that will improve the organization from top to bottom. Automation was something that I had been championing and really had a strong desire to keep improving. BetterCloud ticks a huge box there,” said Oddo.

Zero-touch ULM refocuses the team on high value initiatives

Oddo detailed the company’s previous ULM process, stating that “it was a scattershot approach to onboarding and offboarding” that required a lot of manual work spanning various departments. 

Prior to BetterCloud, there were seven departments dealing with onboarding and offboarding, meaning as many as 12 people handled the process. Oddo reduced the number of departments and people involved and is looking to go even further. “From an IT standpoint, it’s now virtually zero-touch,” explained Oddo.

Onboarding previously required HR to constantly follow up with different teams, file and comment on tickets, and manually check in on the progress. With BetterCloud, they can put all the necessary information into one place. “All that information gets digested and conformed to create the necessary accounts, access, and notifications to other departments. HR really doesn’t have to deal with that part anymore because BetterCloud has taken care of it. They love it,” said Oddo.

Oddo tells us that the consistency and professionalism automation has brought to the business has made a big difference. “So often, when you’re copying information from one place to another, something gets lost in translation or somebody misspells a name. Making sure the information from HR goes down to all the other departments smoothly and consistently really has improved operations,” said Oddo.

In terms of offboarding, THE THIRD FLOOR faced a specific challenge in the Los Angeles office: Timing. 

Previously, the IT team had no way of knowing when artists would end their project. For example, if an artist’s last day was Friday, it was unknown if they would be finished by 5:00 pm or 9:00 pm. In many cases, they would depart after IT had left for the day, meaning accounts would stay open longer than necessary putting data at risk. With BetterCloud, an automated workflow handles the process while IT isn’t in the office.

Additionally, it is critical that files, calendar invites, and more get transferred to someone else in the department when an employee is offboarded. “Knowing that our BetterCloud offboarding process will automatically transfer those critical documents to their coworker is huge. Traditionally IT would offboard somebody and not know who needs the documents. Now, HR can specify the receiver in our offboarding process and BetterCloud will make sure that information gets transferred successfully. It has helped us make sure that important information created by the leavers of the company still stays within our jurisdiction. It allows us to make sure that we don’t have any gaps in our business processes because none of those documents get lost,” said Oddo.

Oddo explained the move to zero-touch IT has been the initiative he is most proud of. “Taking away the need to have multiple departments and numerous people hand copying information and instead having an automated process has been wonderful to see,” he said. 

Simple onboarding experiences in a complex industry

A big point of pride is the experience THE THIRD FLOOR provides to their employees. “Because this industry is fairly small, there are a lot of people that jump from studio to studio. We have had people come in saying the process that we have for onboarding them is really smooth and really well done. And it’s only getting better,” said Oddo.

There’s a lot of complexity in the industry with a lot of security requirements, software requirements, and show requirements. “It can be pretty dizzying for new people coming in. Refining that process, cleaning it up, and presenting them with an easy onboarding experience really does help them start their journey on a proper footing. It makes that part of the journey cleaner and smoother and gets them working a lot quicker,” said Oddo.

Proactive data protection ensures peace of mind

In the past, Oddo says IT spent a lot of time and energy to secure the organization’s most sensitive data. It was critical to track who had access to sensitive information and whether or not it was being improperly shared. Creating reports in BetterCloud eliminated that challenge and made it easy to audit on a regular basis.

“Knowing that people are only going to be given access to the things they need to get access to and knowing that employee’s accounts would be closed down consistently at a given time and knowing that none of those accounts are staying open was a massive peace of mind to us. It meant that we didn’t need to have people working on Saturday to execute onboarding and offboarding. It meant that we didn’t have to have multiple people keeping eyes on things. It just happens with BetterCloud. It was a big win as far as time saved, and a great relief from the security side,” said Oddo.

Results:

• Reduced resources needed for ULM from 12 people to four by automating processes
• Saved time by eliminating manual tasks, allowing employees to focus on high value initiatives
• Created consistency through automation, elevating the professionalism of the organization
• Enhanced the employee experience and sped time to productivity
• Centralized data and secured sensitive files