Five ways to help your IT department become more efficient

Allow them not to have to deal with simple time-consuming tasks
Frequently, much of the IT department’s time is spent on simple tasks that are time consuming, such as password resets. These tasks do not require technical expertise, but often occupy much of an IT employee’s day. Such was the case at South County Hospital. The hospital’s helpdesk was averaging 20 to 25 password resets a month, each requiring about 30 minutes each complete because of the arduous process of receiving the call, placing a work order, resetting the password then contacting the users, most of whom were busy clinicians. By implementing a self-service reset password application for its end users, the hospital drastically reduced time spent on password issues. Users no longer need to spend precious time contacting the helpdesk and waiting for a reply to their password reset request. Employees are now able to answer a series of security questions and quickly reset their own password. Ken Hedglen, information technology manager at South County Hospital said, “The helpdesk can now focus on more important issues rather than simple password resets and are much more productive.”

Reduce manual processes
IT employees often deal with many manual processes that are extremely time consuming. These processes are also prone to errors, which often extend the completion time. One task that is often completed manually is the provisioning of accounts for new employees. This process often takes days to complete so that the new hire can access all systems and applications needed. At Lifestyle Hearing, the IT department experienced just this issue as it needed to add employees to multiple systems, as well as place access controls, which had four- to five-day window. By automating its account management employees are now able to have their accounts created right away and start working the same day they are hired. The IT department also does not have to spend unnecessary time making accounts and correcting errors.

Ensure all systems are synchronized
Many schools and companies need to synchronize multiple systems so that user data is accurate across all systems. Judson School District’s IT department dealt with this issue. The lack of automation in its complex network resulted in user errors and added a substantial amount of man hours for maintenance tasks, such as adding and removing users and creating file shares. By automating its account management, the student information is now automatically synchronized between systems. When a new student account is entered into their SIS system, the automation software detects it and automatically creates an account in the interconnected systems.

Easily keep accounts up to date
Ensuring that all accounts are up to date with the correct information and security permissions is tedious and requires a lot of time. Often, many employees are left with active accounts when they no longer work at the company because they were never disabled. Centre State Hospital often dealt with this issue. By automating its account management process it insured that its systems are always up to date. As employees are hired, their pertinent information is entered into the Lawson HR system. Conversely, as employees resign, a termination date is placed in the HR system. This easily ensures that employees who no longer work at the company do not have access to the company’s systems when they leave.

Securely hand off less technical jobs to other departments
Many of the tasks that the IT department handles are issues that can easily be tackled by other, less technical employees in the company. IT staff are usually highly educated and should focus on much more advanced tasks than account management. This is something that Springs Global’s IT department had trouble with. The company wanted to allow the helpdesk to perform account management tasks rather than IT department, without receiving elevated rights to the network. An automated account management system with web forms was set up to provide the ability for the helpdesk staff to make changes in Active Directory to specific attributes, such as name, location and manager for an employee, without the need of access rights. This is done through several web forms that allow it to easily enter only the required information to reduce error. By automating its account management and allowing a different department to handle account changes, the IT department can focus on other, more advanced tasks.