Active Directory Group Management solutions can make all the difference in the day-to-day life of an IT Manager and everyone else in the company.
As we all know, there are two ways to manage any department. The first management style is “Putting out Fires” the second is “Proactively Managing” by anticipating problems based on past performance, establishing policy, researching best practices and solutions to address problems before they arise.
Let’s take look at a day in the life of two IT Managers at the opposite ends of the two extremes.
It’s Monday morning and Joe gets to work at 7:30 a.m.; He’s had a rough weekend because the Help Desk was closed and he’s had to take a lot of calls for different reasons: Users who can’t remember their passwords, group managers whose new employees can’t access files they need for projects, and the CEO who was making an emergency presentation to the Board was blocked when he tried to use SharePoint.
Things used to be easier for Joe when the company was smaller, he used to setup new users and grant permission for security groups and distribution lists without any problems. As the company grew, Joe hired Help Desk people to keep up with the workload. But now, it seems like everyone is changing projects or being promoted, there are new hires every week, and there are too many groups and lists to keep up with, even with 2 help desk people.
Let’s contrast Joe’s management style of “putting out fires” with Mel’s style of buying tools to automate a lot of work to “proactively manage” his network.
Mel comes in from the weekend refreshed because he wasn’t paged once over the weekend. He enjoyed his Son’s birthday party Saturday barbequeing with friends, watched a movie with his wife after the kids went to bed, and went to church on Sunday. He finished up his weekend playing basketball and board games with the family.
When there are new hires at Mel’s company or someone leaves, Directory Synchronization software from Imanami automatically synchs with PeopleSoft in HR and automatically adds and/or deletes users from Security Groups and Distribution Lists.
Mel plans to spend his Monday morning on a webinar looking at High-Speed Analytical Databases to query all the data he’s been storing via hadoop, then go to lunch with his good-buddy the CEO to discuss the IT budget for upcoming projects he has in mind. Mel has more money left over in the budget this year for projects because Active Directory Group Management tools from Imanami have saved tens of thousands of dollars in Help Desk costs.
Mel and the CEO have had a long relationship based on mutual respect because they are both good at their jobs and things tend to go smoothly with no emergencies that raise the blood preassure for either of them. Resources are available to the CEO when he needs them, he can change his password when he needs to, and when he’s making a SharePoint presentation, he isn’t blocked.
Imanami provides a number of Active Directory Management Solutions that make Mel’s life easier and he and his organization use them all:
Group Management
Increase the accuracy of Distribution List and Security Group membership. Eliminate group glut with group lifecycle management.
Web-Based Directory Management
Delegate Active Directory management to end users with controls in place from IT. Save your Help Desk!
Account Provisioning
Provision users in Active Directory and Exchange. Get users productive immediately.
Directory Synchronization
Clean up Active Directory and synchronize it with multiple directories and databases. Ensure all your users identity information is up to date.
Managing SharePoint access with AD Security Groups
Use AD security groups to manage SharePoint access. Best practices for automating and delegating.
Active Directory Auditing for the Business
An auditor needs to know what happened to Active Directory once a year. Your users need to know as it happens.
Do you have the right tools? Are you managing your network like Joe or Mel? Want to see how Imanami Active Directory Management Solutions can make your life easier and save you money? Want to spend the money you save on other tools to make your job even easier and more secure?
Imanami is the Leader in Active Directory Group Management Software focusing on Security Groups and Distribution List Management Automation.
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Jonathan Blackwell
View ProfileSince 2012, Jonathan Blackwell, an engineer and innovator, has provided engineering leadership that has put GroupID at the forefront of group and user management for Active Directory and Azure AD environments. His experience in development, marketing, and sales allows Jonathan to fully understand the Identity market and how buyers think.