Introducing BetterCloud Workflows: Putting IT in Control of the Modern Workplace

A year and a half ago, we started working on an idea. From the beginning, we knew we were onto something big. Something special. It was an idea worth pursuing relentlessly. What started as jotted notes on a whiteboard quickly transformed into a vision for a new core automation technology.

Last October, we showed off this vision for the first time to customers who attended our Cloud IT Summit. The positive response was overwhelming. And now, after thousands of more discussions with IT professionals, seemingly endless scrums and sprints, late nights, and early mornings, I’m immensely excited (and proud) to announce that we have taken an enormous step in bringing our vision into focus.

Today, we are introducing our newest core technology: Workflows. (Think IFTTT for IT.) Workflows enables IT and security teams to orchestrate critical, complex processes to ensure accuracy, precision, and compliance across SaaS applications.

A huge piece is time savings, but another huge benefit [of Workflows] is consistency in the way things are executed. It is a great thing that you have implemented and something that will really change things for the better.”

– Tyler Granlund, Manager, IT Systems, School of Rock

Here’s how you can learn more about Workflows and get started today:

• Workflows is available today for Enterprise and Enterprise Trial editions only.
• If you are new to BetterCloud, simply start a free Enterprise Trial today to try Workflows.
• BetterCloud Enterprise and Pro customers can register here for a free training session with the BetterCloud success team. These sessions are first-come, first-serve and will fill up fast!
• Basic customers can set up a demo to discuss how they can access Workflows.
• To learn more about the benefits of Workflows, register for the BetterCloud session at Cloud IT Live.

A Worthwhile Investment

Workflows isn’t just another BetterCloud feature–categorizing it as such would be an understatement.

Our engineering team has constructed Workflows on top of an all-new microservices infrastructure, enabling us to work faster and more efficiently than ever before. This new infrastructure will serve as the foundation for new technology yet to come.

Workflows also features a brand-new design and incredibly intuitive user interface. Today, IT is full of convoluted products and confusing UIs. Our team has done a remarkable job keeping Workflows simple.

An Automation Engine Purpose-Built for IT

When we put Workflows into the hands of our customers, it was fascinating to see how they chose to use it. We saw many beta customers immediately building onboarding and offboarding workflows. If you’ve worked in IT for even a few months, I don’t need to tell you how painstaking user onboarding and offboarding processes can be–you already know.

Workflows help us tame rampant inconsistency for user group membership (and thus, the securing of file, mail, print, and other assets) due to a lack of structured H.R. workflows. This will give us an opportunity to establish role definitions that can be enforced by such automation in BetterCloud. Our main benefit will be for our constant flux of ‘reprovisioning’ as our people migrate between schools and roles within those schools.”

– Scott Marquardt, IT Manager, Menta Group

In my conversations with IT professionals, I’ve heard of 90-step offboarding processes that consume entire workdays. I’ve seen organizations with such a massive backlog of suspended users that manually deprovisioning them all has become literally impossible. I’ve even heard of firings over careless deprovisioning mistakes that have cost companies unquantifiable amounts of money through lost data and unfortunate IT professionals their jobs.

With Workflows, our customers are eliminating those concerns and challenges entirely.

In a matter of seconds, you can perform complex, multi-step processes like:

Offboarding

Onboarding

It’s not just onboarding and offboarding either; we’re seeing customers build user lifecycle management workflows as well, to handle situations ranging from relocation and departmental changes to scheduled password resets for all employees.

In recent years, critical yet repetitive user lifecycle management tasks have only grown more complex with the rise of SaaS applications and heterogeneous IT environments. Workflows simplifies user lifecycle management, and today, that’s how our customers are using the engine most effectively.

But our vision for Workflows isn’t relegated to user lifecycle management–it’s much bigger.

This is truly just the beginning.

– David Politis, Founder and CEO, BetterCloud

Want to Learn More About Workflows?

There are tons of upcoming opportunities to get an in-depth look at Workflows. BetterCloud Enterprise and Pro customers can register here for a free training session with the BetterCloud success team (Note: These sessions are first-come, first-serve). Basic customers can set up a demo to discuss how they can access Workflows.

If you’re new to BetterCloud, you can start a free Enterprise Trial today to get started with Workflows.

You can also join Nathaniel Collum, sr. automation product manager, at Cloud IT Live for a special in-depth review of Workflows (and the chance to win a 27” iMac or HP Chromebook 13).

To learn about how Workflows can change the way your IT organization operates, read the Georgetown Day School case study.