Matrix Communications AppID Details
THE BASICS
Too Many Cloud Apps?
Any individual web app delivers tremendous benefits in terms of cost of ownership, user productivity, and IT agility. That’s why businesses have embraced the cloud so rapidly—56% of organizations use 6 or more SaaS applications1—and why the number of very small companies using paid cloud apps is expected to triple in the next three years.2
But the increasing number of cloud apps quickly overwhelms IT’s ability to ensure security, manage costs and maintain control. This creates multiple problems, including:
Insecure User Password Practices
It’s impossible for the average user to remember dozens of strong passwords. They end up taking shortcuts: reusing passwords, creating weak passwords, storing passwords in email, and even pasting them to their monitors. 76% of network intrusions exploit weak or stolen passwords3.
As businesses provision more cloud services, user password behavior generally gets less secure. That’s because the average user cannot remember strong passwords for the 14+ cloud services they typically access today.
Inability to Manage or Revoke Access
In many companies, IT has to scramble to revoke a departing employee’s access to web apps—and, sometimes, apps can slip through the cracks. What’s more, users often provision web apps on their own, and IT has no idea that company data is now being housed in yet another data center.
Lack of Visibility into License Costs
When IT does not have the ability to closely monitor usage or license status, companies end up overpaying for their cloud apps. 81% of employees use at least one SaaS app without IT approval4.
Inefficient Employees and Lost Productivity
Cloud-based apps offer dramatic benefits to IT and employees alike. But the proliferation of these apps has reduced employee productivity by forcing them to constantly hunt for login URLs, usernames and passwords.
Inability to Create Cross-Service IT Efficiencies
With multiple cloud services to manage for every user, IT has to manage multiple vendors with multiple control panels, multiple passwords and multiple sources of support—as well as the mobility, integration and security complexities introduced by each one.
1 Cloud Computing Demands Enterprise-class Password Management and Security, Enterprise Strategy Group, April 2013
2 Microsoft SMB Business in the Cloud Report, 2012
3 2013 Data Breach Investigation Report, Verizon 2013
4 Six things you need to know about Shadow IT to Minimize Risks to your Company, Frost & Sullivan Report, Oct 2013
SSO’s Deployment Challenges
Most SSO services are designed for giant businesses or for consumers. Neither of these solutions are suitable for small and medium-sized businesses.
Big business SSO tools fall short:
→ Most SMBs lack the requisite infrastructure.
→ Deployment is extremely complex.
→ End users don’t like the portal interface.
Free solutions, designed primarily for personal use, have their own set of problems:
→ Security is not built to the standards of business.
→ Admins don’t have granular control over provisioning, de-provisioning and reporting.
→ These tools don’t fully integrate with Active Directory or Exchange.
→ Support for these tools isn’t as responsive or comprehensive as a business needs.
BENEFITS
Control SaaS License Costs
AppID helps reduce the two main causes of wasted money across your cloud footprint: license waste and support calls.
Reduce Support Calls
With AppID, it’s simple for users to add web apps to their portal. Every app that they add is one less password they have to remember. By reducing the number of passwords in circulation, you’ll find a significant decrease in the number of password-related calls to your support team.
Reduce License Waste
AppID gives you a much clearer picture of which users are actually using which web apps. It provides a top-down view of app usage across your organization. This lets you spot overlapping functionality to consolidate services (you don’t need to pay for Box, DropBox AND ShareSync, for example). It also lets you ensure that all the licenses you’re paying for are actually being used.
Manage Access to Your Cloud Footprint from a Single Point
Matrix Communications AppID centralizes access to your business web apps into a single one-click portal—whether they’re developed internally, hosted by Matrix Communications or provided by other companies. You can manage access details for individual users, specific apps under management, and much more.
We provide more than 1,500 pre-configured web apps that are ready to go, saving you time during setup. But since Matrix Communications AppID can support virtually any web app, we also make it easy to add new apps for your users.
Leverage Your Existing Directory Tools to Avoid Duplicating Effort
Most web apps have their own user identity stores. This is why users have to remember unique logins for each of the apps that they access. Matrix Communications AppID eliminates this headache by integrating with your on-premises Active Directory.
Not only does this let you leverage your existing identity and access management investments, but you can extend them to any internal or external web application.
Increase Employee Productivity
In the days of desktop-based applications, it was easy for employees to find and launch the tools they needed to use.
Today, while cloud-based apps offer dramatic benefits to IT and employees alike, the proliferation of these apps can reduce employee productivity by forcing them to constantly hunt for login URLs and remember multiple usernames and passwords.
Matrix Communications AppID lets IT extend a single point of access to an employee’s cloud footprint—with just one password to remember.
This makes it easier for employees to find and access web apps—which helps them to remain focused on doing their jobs.
AppID Makes Mobile Access Easy
AppID offers an app for iOS and a Firefox browser extension for Android. For both these mobile platforms, employees get one-touch access to their web-based services.
→ Simple to provision. The iOS app is available in Apple’s App Store, and Android users can download the mobile browser plugin by logging into AppID using Firefox and clicking the link.
→ No more typing long URLs. AppID eliminates the frustration of mobile logins and passwords. It gives employees one-touch access to their business tools from their mobile device.