Executive Summary: Inc. Magazine’s 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America, memoryBlue, Adopts Windows Autopilot to Facilitate Faster Onboarding Processes with Partner Ciracom Cloud
About MemoryBlue
memoryBlue is an established sales development consulting firm with nearly two decades of expertise and experience, six offices across the United States, and more than 200 clients nationwide. Their aim is to equip clients, particularly in the tech industry, with the right tools and guidance to effectively deploy sales development efforts.
memoryBlue has been hailed as “Inc. Magazine’s 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America” for nine consecutive years since 2013, largely because of how quickly their organization has grown.
Customer Issues
memoryBlue’s rapid growth prompted them to rethink and redesign their onboarding processes, especially with respect to deploying, easy-monitoring, and control of work equipment. From 150-180 employees in 2019, memoryBlue currently has 550 employees in total throughout Texas, Boston, California, Washington, Colorado and D.C. and Ciracom Cloud knew from the get-go that it would be impossible for memoryBlue to keep up with the manual process of setting up work equipment to newly-hired staff members, in this pace.
Prior to deploying Autopilot, memoryBlue would have to buy the computer and set it up manually, which entails pulling up the computer log in with a local account, installing programs and updates, and creating a profile manually. Depending on the user receiving the computer, some would need more applications; some would need less. On average, it would take up to four hours to set one up completely.
“Overall, it’s been the service. We’ve never had a bad experience. Not one. Ciracom Cloud has always been a great partner and that gives me a ton of confidence. They really do sincerely care about our business.” - Nina Smith: Director of Operations
Solutions
As memoryBlue expanded, so did their need to facilitate a quicker and more automated onboarding process. Ciracom Cloud, anticipating their growth rate and with memoryBlue’s other IT needs in mind, devised the following solutions for implementation:
- Set up Windows Autopilot
- Data migration from server to SharePoint
- Installation of Webroot for antivirus, Cisco Umbrella for content filtering, and Kaseya VSA as a remote monitoring and management system
Setting Up Windows Autopilot
Windows Autopilot is a group of different technologies that can be utilized to set up and pre-configure new work equipment, making it ready for productive use for its assigned user. Not only is Autopilot helpful for setting up new devices, but it also includes the ability to simplify resetting and repurposing devices without requiring any manual and physical IT intervention.
To set up Autopilot, memoryBlue required the following subscriptions:
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium
- Microsoft 365 E3
- Enterprise Mobility + Security E3
- Microsoft Intune (included in Microsoft Business Premium plan)
- Azure Active Directory Premium (included in Microsoft Business Premium plan)
With Autopilot in place, work equipment simply needs to be sent directly to the user. Once they receive their computer, they turn it on, and Autopilot will walk them through the basic setup. They’ll then log in with their Microsoft 365 account provided prior to them receiving the laptop. Once logged in, Microsoft office applications will be pushed through Microsoft Intune, installing them in the background while the user is surfing the Internet. Within an hour, the user has a working computer, reducing downtime by 75%.
Data Migration to SharePoint
memoryBlue had previously been using hardware and physical servers to store and share files until Ciracom Cloud facilitated email migration to Microsoft 365 and transitioned them to SharePoint for storing and sharing files, already built in their Microsoft 365 plan.
Additionally, Ciracom Cloud implemented a seven-year retention policy for memoryBlue’s Microsoft 365 as a backup and recovery plan, which provides them the capability to retrieve accidentally deleted emails or files in SharePoint or OneDrive.
Webroot, Cisco Umbrella and Kaseya VSA
Webroot, an antivirus solution, and Cisco Umbrella, a cloud-based platform for content filtering and white-listing, work hand-in-hand to guarantee a safer and protected virtual work environment for memoryBlue. Kaseya VSA, a remote monitoring and management solution, on the other hand, lends Ciracom Cloud the capability to remotely access and troubleshoot issues on users’ work devices.
Outcomes/Impact
memoryBlue’s rapid business expansion created the need to improve and automate not just their onboarding, but their offboarding processes as well. With Autopilot set up, new users can start working more productively as soon as they receive the equipment. Nina Smith, Director of Operations for memoryBlue since July of 2019, shared her experience prior to Ciracom Cloud’s implementation of its recommendations. “When I started working, I had to call about every single computer, and they had to go and do all of this manual set up. That has now been completely taken away, and for the better,” Smith recalled. “It was manageable when we were doing five people a week, but now we were doing 40 people across six locations, and neither Ciracom Cloud nor us can manually log on to every computer. That’s why Autopilot has been really helpful for both parties. It has saved us a lot of time regarding our onboarding and offboarding processes, simply because we can do so more automatically. We can also remotely access computers in other locations where we don’t have the means for people to physically go to and update. We have more control now than we used to, so we’re able to handle things on our own. It has been so nice,” she added.
Transitioning to the cloud also paved the way for better remote-working conditions. memoryBlue’s staff has the flexibility to work wherever they want without being tied to any of the offices or any physical locations. “It’s been helpful because we’ve opened three offices since I’ve been here so we’re collaborating with people from all over the country,” Smith explained. It’s easier to share files and documents without any sort of extraneous physical hardware in our way.” Additionally, the Kaseya VSA in place has the capability to configure or troubleshoot their work equipment remotely.
“Overall, it’s been the service,” Smith said about partnering with Ciracom Cloud. “We’ve never had a bad experience. Not one. Ciracom Cloud has always been a great partner and that gives me a ton of confidence. They really do sincerely care about our business.”
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