STADA takes control of lifecycle management with Syskit Point and Microsoft 365

STADA Arzneimittel is a global pharmaceutical company with a mission to improve patient access to essential treatments. The company operates through three core segments: generics, consumer healthcare, and specialty pharmaceuticals. It offers a wide range of products, from over-the-counter medicines to complex treatments for serious conditions.

STADA uses several Microsoft products, including Microsoft 365 and SharePoint, and had the challenging task of providing users with the benefits of the Microsoft ecosystem while ensuring appropriate usage and alignment with security requirements. IT teams were faced with maintaining visibility across multiple workspaces spread throughout numerous affiliates. With many independent teams creating and managing their own sites, it became time-consuming for IT admins to manually ensure governance, security policies, and naming conventions were followed consistently.

Lack of visibility and manual governance slow down IT operations

The company's large, complex structure demanded a lot of effort to manage permissions and control access effectively. Without predefined templates or policies, users created workspaces that were inconsistent with company governance standards. This lack of control over the provisioning process made it difficult for IT to enforce policies, leading to potential vulnerabilities, such as the risk of data mismanagement.

IT admins were forced to handle all workspace permissions and governance issues, even though workspace owners had the best knowledge of how their workspaces were being used. This created bottlenecks and inefficiencies, slowing down business processes and increasing costs.

STADA needed a centralized platform that would provide complete visibility over the company’s tenant and management functions to automate, delegate, and control resources.

Syskit Point and Azure Marketplace help STADA streamline IT and regain control over workspaces

To address these challenges, STADA turned to Syskit, a software development company that provides visibility, governance, and security solutions for Microsoft 365 environments. STADA implemented Syskit Point, a centralized platform that simplifies the management of complex Microsoft 365 environments at scale. The decision to purchase Syskit Point from Azure Marketplace was strongly influenced by several key factors: streamlined procurement and invoicing, the opportunity to leverage Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC), the trustworthiness of the marketplace, and the fast time to value.

As a large company, STADA is committed to streamlining its financial and procurement processes. By purchasing from Azure Marketplace, STADA centralized invoicing, which drastically reduced the administrative burden associated with managing multiple suppliers and purchase channels. The marketplace also allowed the finance team to handle all vendor relationships through one platform.

The Azure Marketplace purchase enabled STADA to leverage its MACC agreement and benefit from special pricing by securing discounts on storage requirements associated with Syskit Point. MACC also helps track future costs, enabling STADA to effectively manage its Azure credits and forecast future expenses to prevent budget overruns.

Another major factor in STADA’s decision was the certification and optimization of all Azure Marketplace solutions. STADA had complete confidence Syskit Point would integrate seamlessly with its Microsoft 365 and Azure environments.

Mischa Dillmann, STADA’s Global IT Director Digital Workplace Services & Systems, said, "By leveraging the power of Azure Marketplace and Syskit Point, we improved operational efficiency, minimized data risks, and enhanced collaboration across all our affiliates."

Increased efficiency and enhanced security with Syskit Point and Microsoft 365

Deploying Syskit Point gave STADA complete visibility into its Microsoft 365 workspaces, enabling it to ensure adherence to governance and security policies and control over lifecycle management. All end-user actions in Syskit Point come with a short guide that enables quick adoption of the platform for users who don't have a technical background. This relieved the burden on IT admins, sped up governance processes, and saved the company time and resources. Now, the IT team at STADA is confident that workspace permissions are up to date and data is used appropriately.

With its structured hierarchy, Syskit Point lets the IT team quickly manage user roles, permissions, and access from a single interface, eliminating the need to jump between admin centers. Any misalignments in security policies appear as compliance and security alerts that are remediated immediately, if needed.

Syskit Point’s provisioning templates assure IT admins that the new workspaces and teams end users create comply with predefined standards, eliminating the risk of chaotic, inconsistent workspace creation. The automated provisioning process gave STADA control over naming conventions and reduced the risk of data sprawl, data leaks, and misalignments with Microsoft security best practices by 70%.

The centralized administration and collaborator access in Syskit Point accelerates the flow of information. This provides more users with access to critical reports and enables them to track changes themselves, resulting in an admin workload reduction of more than 30%. Finally, Syskit Point’s lifecycle management capabilities enabled STADA to maintain digital hygiene by tracking workspace inactivity. Inactive workspaces can be easily archived or deleted, creating a clean and organized Microsoft 365 environment and improving the overall user experience.

"With Syskit Point and Microsoft technology, we gained full control over our Microsoft 365 environment, streamlining IT processes and ensuring top-tier data protection across our global operations," Dillmann said.

Syskit Point and Microsoft 365 empowered STADA to centralize control, automate processes, enforce compliance, and delegate responsibilities efficiently, solving the company’s management and security challenges.