The modern unified communication tech stack is a complex environment.
Multiple vendors; multiple integrations; multiple inter-dependencies: all needing to work in harmony in order to deliver that desired seamless user experience.
It’s a super-smart ecosystem that fuses internal and external communications tools (voice, messaging/chat, and videoconferencing) with wider business productivity tools such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms, IT service management systems, human resource management portals, and, ultimately, hundreds or sometimes thousands of disparately-located devices or other types of endpoints.
Deploying a third-party platform that centralizes provisioning and automates routine administrative tasks has a positive impact on efficiency and security; enabling IT experts to focus on more strategic, high-value tasks while maintaining order and cost efficiency of the extensive investment in these mission critical tools
However, complexity can come with increased vulnerability. So, for enterprises (and their IT service providers), picking a technology vendor obsessed with security is paramount.
“Whether it’s protecting intellectual property or customer data, enterprises must place more and more importance on security. With the ever-increasing number of digital assets and the rigorous expectations of global standards to which they must adhere, it’s right that they do so,” says Micah Singer, CEO at leading global communications management software provider Kurmi, whose suite of solutions come with security measures and protections baked-in.
“Our primary business is UC provisioning automation, but the truth is that we and every organisation must be in the security business. The threats are real and very present, both in frequency and sophistication, and that means security must be inherent in the management of every workflow, every process, and every digital tool.”
Of course, most business management tools, individually, comprise some kind of built-in, specific security smarts. However, Kurmi’s management software – a system that manages data and processes from many underlying vendors – must be up to the challenge of maintaining control and governance across multiple resources from behemoth vendors like Cisco, Microsoft, Zoom, Avaya, and a raft of key communications technologies.
“Large enterprises rely on a lot of different and often very large vendors which in aggregate must adhere to corporate, industry or national standards,” says Singer.
“However, depending on how data is moving through the organization and its diverse technology investments, safety is only as strong as the weakest link.
“We are ISO 27001 certified to ensure that our team and our infrastructure use best practices in the way we handle our customers’ information. We have painstakingly built an internal culture that puts security at the heart of everything we do. Almost every new opportunity we get has a security questionnaire component we must pass, and we perform software penetration tests to guarantee compliance. As a result, we provide comfort and added value to many of our customers that are in are in heavily-regulated industries, like finance, insurance, healthcare, and government.”
By deploying Kurmi’s management platform, UC teams are able to create workflow templates that allow complex multi-step provisioning and de-provisioning to occur without exposing unnecessary access. IT Administrators can manage passwords and password policies, perform audits to identify users that are configured outside of those standards, and log all activity for 360-degree accountability.
The platform allows auto-deactivation when a user leaves a company and can even be automated by instructions from other commonly-used IT systems like WorkDay, ServiceNow and directories like EntraID, to assure an immediate locked-down UC infrastructure.
One of the most popular features to enforce corporate data policies is a highly configurable and granular, role-based access control that allows a business to specify who can see and update different types of user information and service details.
Finally, and still key in many of the highest security environments, the Kurmi platform can also be deployed on-premises – without connection to the public Internet.
“We work with many heavily-regulated institutions in very protective territories that have their own closed network for very specific and valid reasons,” says Singer.
“Providing that on-prem option is key for compliance in these cases.”
What’s for sure, securely and efficiently managing complex digital communication ecosystems is a challenging business, and one which requires expertise and experience.
“Our understanding of the security issues in play has been hard won over the last decade as we have worked with over 100 companies in the Global 2000,” says Singer. “In an increasingly insecure world, those organizations rely on us to do our part to manage their technology in a secure and effective way.”
To learn more about how Kurmi can help your and your customers’ businesses securely manage complex digital communication and collaboration ecosystems, visit the website.
