Saving More Than 22,700 Support Hours While Managing 11,700 Workforce Identities
Customer Snapshot
Organisation: Nation-wide NZ-owned retailer
Industry: Retail
Scale: 11,700+ workforce identities
Environment: Microsoft 365, Active Directory, PayGlobal HRIS and Jira Service ManagementJobs to be done: Automate joiner, mover and leaver processes, streamline asset provisioning and reduce the cost and complexity of identity operations
Solution: Activate Identity Operations
The Challenge
Our customer relied on an incumbent ITSM platform for identity lifecycle and asset provisioning. However, attempts to build effective automation within that platform proved difficult and expensive.
Limited lifecycle capabilities led to manual workarounds and fragmented tools. Slow vendor support delayed projects, while unexpected development and maintenance costs made the approach difficult to sustain.
With more than 11,700 workforce identities, these limitations increased operational effort and slowed access delivery. The retailer needed a more reliable and scalable approach to identity automation.
The Jobs the Retailer Needed to Get Done
The goal was to separate identity automation from general IT service management and give each platform a clear role. They needed to:
Provision identities and access for new employees
Update access when people changed roles
Remove access when employees left
Automate asset provisioning
Use HR information to trigger identity changes
Reduce manual work and fragmented tools
Lower development, maintenance and licensing costs
Retain dedicated ITSM capabilities for incidents and changes
Where the Hidden Costs Were Building
Every workaround required maintenance. Every fragmented process created another hand-off. Every limitation in the incumbent platform increased development or vendor support costs.
Joiners, movers and leavers generated changes across HR, Microsoft services, directories, applications and workplace assets. At the retailer’s scale, handling those changes manually consumed significant support capacity.
The solution supported:
Automated joiner, mover and leaver processes
Role-based access provisioning
Identity and asset management workflows
Integration with PayGlobal HRIS
Provisioning across Microsoft 365 and Active Directory
Automated service request fulfilment
Applications, services and assets could be assigned according to each person’s role and position, reducing manual intervention and improving consistency.
“Activate’s tight integration with our systems and its robust automation capabilities have streamlined processes and significantly reduced cost”
The Outcome: Scalable Identity Operations
Activate now processes more than 104,000 automated provisioning requests annually across more than 11,700 workforce identities.
The automation saves an estimated 22,718 support hours each year. Provisioning is faster and more reliable, while better integration between PayGlobal, Activate, Microsoft 365 and Active Directory has reduced operational complexity.
Separating identity automation from incident and change management has also reduced development and licensing costs. The retailer now has a scalable foundation for future security, governance and identity initiatives.
Key Outcomes
More than 104,000 automated provisioning requests processed annually
More than 11,700 workforce identities managed
An estimated 22,718 support hours saved each year
Faster and more reliable workforce provisioning
Reduced licensing, development and maintenance costs
Improved integration across HR, identity and Microsoft systems
Jira Service Management retained for incidents and changes
A scalable foundation for future security and governance
The Bottom Line
The retailer’s identity challenges came from trying to make an ITSM platform perform complex identity lifecycle automation. By using Activate for identity operations and Jira Service Management for incidents and changes, the retailer created a simpler, more scalable model.
The result is more than 104,000 automated requests each year, 22,718 support hours saved and more consistent identity management for over 11,700 people.
How Much Support Time Is Manual Identity Management Consuming?
If joiner, mover and leaver processes still depend on manual workarounds or costly ITSM customisation, Activate can automate the identity work across your existing environment.