Empowering a remote workforce with Jamf

Recently, remote work has gone from an interesting topic for discussion to the way of life for millions of people around the world. Though IT teams are used to constantly adapting to change, this year has been a masterclass in expecting the unexpected. We wanted to sit down with Senior IT Manager at Evernote, Shams Mansoor, to discuss how the new, remote normal has affected their work and what can be done to rise to the challenges of remote work as an IT professional.

When planning for this year in projects for the IT department at Evernote, Shams never imagined what was to come for 2020. Though they had plans in place to streamline their work in general, he had no idea there would be so many policy changes, workflow changes and general life changes to be made on the fly. These projects had to quickly pivot to embrace a remote workforce and Jamf has been at his side to support through this new transition.

Previously the onboarding experience at Evernote was almost entirely in person, including an hour-long hardware orientation and set up process with IT to discuss the hardware and to get things set up. With the remote switch, everything needed to transition to successfully occur virtually (and quickly), which is where Zero-Touch Deployment and Self Service have proven to be integral to the new onboarding experience.

Now Mansoor and his teams are able to get devices to new employees with all the necessary programs and apps in a snap, without the need for physical touch. New hires are also able to access Self Service if they need additional resources or have a question they need answered. This helps new employees start their new job on an exciting, celebratory note instead of feeling bogged down by questions and requests for the IT department.

When asked to provide a few 'pro tips' about how to best manage an entirely remote workforce, Mansoor was all about minimizing repetition:

• Make use of not only Zero-Touch Deployment, but the automation for the entire set up process. You’ll breathe easier with less manual work taking up precious time.
• Automate user account creation and user access with Bettercloud or similar solution.
• Create and maintain channels for users to easily get in touch with IT (chat, IT service management tools, IT wiki for onboarding, etc.) to cut down on unnecessary tickets.

Not only is device setup and onboarding made easier, but Mansoor also discussed how Jamf has able to support in creating a successful remote working environment. They’ve been able to remotely secure devices in a streamlined fashion and have been making use of the abililty to lock and wipe devices remotely for security purposes as well as employee offboarding.

For Evernote, Jamf Connect has been the cherry on top of their remote onboarding set up since it provides an access management solution to not only apps, but hardware too. Mansoor hit the nail on the head when he said, “Having all of these aspects automated has made a huge difference in productivity. Plus, fewer IT tickets surrounding login credentials can make it feel like Christmas for both IT and end user.”

It’s encouraging to hear from IT experts who have been able to pivot to accommodate entirely new working environments with the help of Jamf and we want to thank Shams Mansoor for taking time to chat about his experiences at JNUC 2020.

Missed the live session? A recording of this session will be available soon. Don’t miss out: you can still register for JNUC 2020!