BizAway is a software company that delivers simplified business travel experiences to organizations around the world. Founded in 2015, BizAway has more than 250 employees working out of offices in Italy, Spain, Albania, and Dubai.
Injenia aims to make companies better places to live and work. It develops innovation projects providing high-value solutions of Digital Workplace, ML & Generative AI, Data, Cloud and App Mod.
Searching for a central device and identity management solution
In April 2023, Luca Papinutti joined BizAway as IT specialist. Prior to BizAway he’d been working for a company that used legacy infrastructure and software and was looking to join a new organization that operated in the cloud and used modern tools.
“I knew I had to find a new company and a new way of developing my skills,”Luca explains. “I was looking to go back to a Google company because I found myself better using the Google suite in the past; I also got to transfer an entire company from Microsoft Exchange to Google Workspace in 2015 and the entire experience was more than positive”.
BizAway checked the boxes, and Luca made the career switch.
Though he came from a Windows environment, Luca had no intention of bringing BizAway away from Google.
“I was told the first day that we were a Google company and we don’t plan to move away from Google,” he says. “The founders and almost all of our employees have a personal Gmail account. We didn’t want to have to teach employees how to use a new system, like Microsoft Outlook. Plus, it’s just not possible to move away from Google because everyone loves it because of how well it works. You go to work in the morning in a familiar environment that you use at home and on your mobile phone. You use the same familiar and reassuring environment as your personal Gmail account, albeit adapted to BizAway needs thanks to the multiple configuration possibilities available in Google Workspace.”
As a company that’s growing rapidly, BizAway needed a scalable, centralized solution to streamline the new-user onboarding experience, equip new hires with devices, and control access to applications and company data.
“Since the company is growing so quickly, we needed to find a way to simplify IT management,” Luca continues. “When you have so many tools, and you do not have flexible and powerful controls on your infrastructure, you create a lot of opportunities for attackers to gain access to your network.”
Operating in the business travel space, BizAway routinely stores sensitive customer data on its network. As such, protecting information is the top priority.
“A cyberattack would be really devastating,” Luca says. “We are developing a culture of cybersecurity across the company educating users, protecting our equipment and reducing the attack surface thanks to lean JumpCloud and Google Workspace.”
Speeding up new-user onboarding & securing access with JumpCloud
As Luca began looking for a solution that would enable BizAway to strengthen device and identity management, he came across JumpCloud, which had just announced a partnership with Google. Liking what he saw, Luca set up a trial account and began testing the solution with his colleague, and they set up a few devices and policies.
“I had to meet with the board and convince them that JumpCloud was the right solution,” he explains. “Working with JumpCloud and Ingenia, we were able to build a package that was good for us and included all the features we needed. Thanks to all the help we received and the resources that were provided, it was quite an easy task for me to accomplish.”
Transforming IT operations & setting up to scale
After getting approval from the board, Luca and his team began implementing JumpCloud, “which wasn’t as hard as you’d think because the product takes care of the identity of users and connects them with different applications.”
For the most part, Luca and his team were able to handle everything internally, enlisting the help of JumpCloud Professional Services to navigate a few obstacles they couldn’t figure out on their own.
“Installing all the devices and applications can take quite a long time,” he says. “With JumpCloud, it was an easy and straightforward process. Everyone was really, really helpful.”
Rapid onboarding and improved security
Setting up hundreds of devices can take lots of time without the right tools in place, Luca explains.
“We were able to get more than 250 laptops completely reformatted and reinstalled in short order,” Luca says, adding that he expects the company will have 300 users by the end of the year. “We’re currently in the process of enrolling company-issued smartphones because attackers can get into our network that way, too. I set some policies for personal smartphones that are used for BizAway-related purposes, too.”
Streamlined IT management
As a travel platform catering to business customers all over the world, BizAway prides itself on offering round-the-clock service. Thanks to JumpCloud, IT receives immediate notifications whenever something isn’t working, which enables the team to streamline operations and increase service availability even in the wee hours.
“One of the worst things for me is to come to the office in the morning and see five or six messages saying there’s a problem that’s caused issues for clients,” Luca explains. “We had to find a product that would not let us down at 3 in the morning because no one was there to help. That’s why BizAway decided to invest money, time, and resources in JumpCloud and Google.”
Compliance made easy
In the next few months,BizAway will need to renew ISO 27001 certification. Thanks to joining forces with Injenia and JumpCloud, Luca is confident that the visit will be a breeze.
“We’re looking forward to showing them all the benefits that we’re gaining with JumpCloud,” he explains.
Set up for the future
Though the company has been around for several years, BizAway is still growing like a startup. “You can’t imagine how fast the company is moving,” he says.
As such, ensuring IT has the tools it needs to work productively is mission-critical.
“When you have 300 people, it would be nearly impossible to manage them without cloud infrastructure. Plus, if we had a legacy server, we’d have to spend a lot of time and money upgrading each month. JumpCloud makes it simple for our small team to manage this many users.”
Thanks to JumpCloud, BizAway is well-positioned for the future.
“I want to be able to provide my company with my best performance and not be burnt out,” Luca says. “Having a tool like JumpCloud helps me keep my sanity. If our IT team is the pole that takes the lightning strikes, JumpCloud is the tool that mitigates the effect of the lightning. It’s a wonderful product.”
Learn more about JumpCloud
JumpCloud changes the way IT administrators manage their organizations by providing a comprehensive and flexible cloud directory platform. From one pane of glass, manage user identities and resource access, secure Mac, Windows, and Linux devices, and get a full view of your environment.
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