A Step-by-Step Guide for SaaS Offboarding
While companies often focus on crafting positive onboarding experiences, the offboarding process tends to be less emphasized. Behind the vibrant and engaging onboarding scenes, there's a quieter, less visible aspect of offboarding that goes unnoticed. However, this part of the employee lifecycle is critical.
What is Employee Offboarding?
Employee offboarding is the process of managing the separation between an employee and the company, which can occur due to resignation, termination, or other reasons. This process involves several steps, including retrieving company assets, suspending directory accounts, and revoking access rights. A frequently overlooked aspect is SaaS deprovisioning.
The Importance of SaaS Deprovisioning in Offboarding
Properly managing offboarding and deactivating accounts of departing employees is a tedious but crucial IT task. It involves determining which apps the employees used (including shadow IT), revoking access permissions, and ensuring company data within these apps is deleted or secured within the corporate infrastructure. Failing to address these steps can leave security vulnerabilities, result in unnecessary costs for unused licenses, and expose the organization to compliance risks. After all, a clean dashboard and the closure of tasks are satisfying for everyone.
Enter: SaaS Offboarding
New SaaS applications are constantly emerging, offering enhancements in productivity and ease of use. Their easy adoption and quick implementation without the need for IT approval give employees a significant degree of autonomy. However, this autonomy demands meticulous attention during the offboarding process. It's crucial to identify which apps the employee used, revoke their access, and ensure the security of any company data within these apps.
While HR managers typically focus on employee relations and the company's image during departures, IT managers concentrate on the technological and operational aspects. Managing employee access to company assets, both physical and digital, is a key responsibility of IT teams. This aspect of the employee lifecycle involves assessing ownership and access to both physical assets and services, including the adjustment or termination of software access.
Just 21% of companies immediately deactivate employees' accounts, and 2% never do even though this is just one aspect that must be addressed.
In this blog, we delve into the SaaS offboarding process, presenting a comprehensive and ordered approach along with a 10-step checklist to achieve a flawless SaaS offboarding process.
SaaS Offboarding Checklist - A Step-by-Step Guide
1. Revoke System Access From Your IDP and SSO
Begin with your Identity Provider (IdP), your central access point to numerous internal and external systems. However, simply removing the employee from the IDP and SaaS vendor isn't enough. It's also essential to eliminate their SaaS accounts and associated company data. Remember, even inactive accounts can pose security risks if compromised.
2. Review Critical OAuth Permissions
Assess admin-level permissions for third-party apps. Be cautious when revoking access to avoid disrupting team services. OAuth grants make account creation easy, but it's equally important for security teams to promptly revoke these grants for departing employees.
3. Discover the tools that the departing employee has access to
Implement tools to comprehensively monitor and detect all applications employees are logging into. This includes active SaaS tools and those previously used by the employee.
4. View User Critical Resources and Transfer Ownership
Before deprovisioning accounts, transfer ownership of critical files and projects to maintain workflow continuity and data integrity. Utilize tools like Resmo to identify and facilitate the transfer of these vital resources.
5. Review and Clean Up Employee’s SaaS Accounts
After understanding the full scope of the employee's digital footprint and transferral of the critical assets, proceed to delete the departing employee’s accounts. This step is crucial for both security and cost optimization.
6.Generate an Offboarding ReportÂ
Document every step taken during the offboarding process. A comprehensive report can serve as a record for internal review or auditing purposes.
7. Change or Revoke Shared Accounts’ Passwords
A shared account refers to a singular set of login credentials used by multiple individuals within an organization to access specific software or online resources.
Address the security challenges posed by shared accounts. If the departing employee had access, update passwords and revoke any active sessions to maintain security integrity.
8. Recover Company Equipment and Assets
Maintain an updated inventory of company assets and ensure the return of all items, including laptops, phones, and access cards, from the departing employee.
9. Forward Employee Email Address
Redirect the departing employee's emails to a colleague or manager. Setting up an auto-reply message can inform senders about the transition and provide new contact details.
10. Terminate VPN and Review Any Remote Access Methods
Revoke all forms of remote access, including VPN and remote desktop, to ensure no unauthorized entry points remain accessible to the departing employee.
Resmo: Automated IT Offboarding Software
In today's fast-paced professional world, employees frequently change jobs, marking a significant shift from previous generations. For instance, individuals born between 1957 and 1964 averaged 12.4 jobs from ages 18 to 54. Nowadays, job circulation is even more dynamic. In this context, maintaining the security and integrity of SaaS platforms and data during employee transitions becomes crucial.
Takeaway
A well-structured offboarding process is just as important as a welcoming onboarding experience. By formalizing offboarding procedures, organizations can effectively mitigate legal and security risks, and minimize disruptions in their operations. The growing reliance on SaaS tools introduces additional complexity into the offboarding process, necessitating a more detailed and careful approach.
Developing a comprehensive offboarding strategy is key to ensuring operational continuity, maintaining security and compliance, and optimizing SaaS license management. This strategy is crucial in a landscape where seamless transitions are essential for maintaining the integrity and efficiency of business operations.
Given the intricacy of these steps, which require thorough and meticulous action, the best practice is to adopt an automated approach. Utilizing a specialized tool like Resmo can significantly streamline the offboarding process. Resmo facilitates an orderly and flawless execution of offboarding tasks, ensuring that every critical aspect is addressed without any oversight. To have a glimpse of what’s inside and experience the capabilities of Resmo, start your free trial today.Â
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