On-boarding, the way it should be ...

I HAVE A DREAM!

One of the things you have to do to build automation tools is be a visionary. This can be a difficult task at times, especially when you only see part of the process. I hope this post accomplishes 2 things. One, you will get a glimpse of what System Center can truly do for any organization, and two, help you understand how wide the spectrum of processes you have to envision.

Tools are great but whats the purpose of the tool if you can not integrate its knowledge with another. It solves the immediate need yes, but how can I get information from its database, say if its a progress database and my other tool uses SQL database, without writing a custom app or wasting hundreds of man hours on custom queries. Better yet how can I get information from both databases to trigger off a set of events, like say an on-boarding process? I mean that is the title of this post. 

WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE

So on-boarding is a task that every business has, so most people can relate to this scenario. One of the exercises you should do is build a process for on-boarding. The problem with that statement is it's completely relative to where you are, in fulfilling that process. Maybe you are in HR, and you handle all the background checks, posting positions online, or getting the manager to fill out certain information. Maybe you are in IT, your creating the accounts, imaging the PC, or you assign assets. You get my point, so the first thing you have to ask, no matter where you position is, what is the very first step to on-boarding. Now, depending who you ask, and even in a recent debate I started over this very same question, some people immediately get tunnel vision and rattle off this tool or that tool. After about 2-3 minutes of arguments you politely tell those individuals that you can understand why they might think its this tool or that tool and can follow their logic, but they are unfortunately incorrect. The very first place on-boarding begins is the same where any request begins, a need. Manager has an opening, they will submit a request for the position to be filled. We have our beginning point, write it down. 

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? 

The is all relative to your organization, you need to figure out what tools you have and what processes they fulfill. The idea is to not rebuild the entire process, but supplement the areas the disconnects are and transfer information needed throughout the process. HR might use a tool like Red Carpet or some other workflow on-boarding solution, what you need to do is sit down with your HR personnel that use these tools and know the processes (and their failures) to learn what information you can use from the tools and where they need help in supplementing these processes. Here is an example. 

You work for Company X in their IT department. You understand the on-boarding process from the IT side and now after talking to HR, you have a good grasp on the tools HR uses. You know HR uses a workflow tool called OnBoardMe and does several things very well. It will manage job postings, applicant screenings, applicant I9 documentation, and drug screenings with background checks. This tool is very useful and the people in HR have nothing bad to say about it. The problem is that once an applicant has been approved to be hired, its up to the manager to put a request to provision IT assets to this new hire on day one. 3 times out of 10, managers procrastinate or forget all together to put in that request, a reality for IT staff today. Once the request comes in, IT assigns an asset, images the asset, an account is created with a email address and all this information is delivered to the manager either the day before or the day of the new hires start date. 

Now we know the whole process for Company X, what we don't know is they are using a SharePoint list as a asset spreadsheet and use Configuration Manager to image those assets. Their ticketing application is Service Manager and they have Orchestrator as well. 

SYSTEM CENTER TO WORK

So the whole process with System Center in play would look something like this. The manager would go to the Service Request Offerings site to request a new FTE. The form would require a certain set of information like, Job Description, who the manager will be, approximate start date, department and cost center for payroll. This info is pushed into the OnBoardMe database as well as sending a email to the HR notifying them that a request has been made. HR starts their process in OnBoardMe and once a candidate is selected an email is sent to the manager with a link, which opens a form to request the needed IT assets. Once submitted, a request is generated, a process is started to select an IT asset from the asset database with the status of "instock" is selected. The MAC address is added to the configuration manager imaging collection to be imaged. All that is left to do is plug in and PXE boot the device. Another process takes the name and other information from OnBoardMe database to create the Active Directory account and email.This information is then forwarded to the manager prior to the start date and the asset is ready to go.

Now this explanation is over simplified and this would takes several weeks to implement depending on how complicated your environment is, but this is very plausible and can save IT hours of time. Additionally, the process is constant and consistent, two very important factors.

Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks for reading!
DadDrummerITGuru\Cameron

The Introduction

First post, here it goes.

My name is Cameron Cox, I do many things in life but their are probably 3 things that define me. One, I am a father of 3 kids, 2 boys and a girl, and for the sake of their identities I do not plan on giving any more detail. Two, I am a drummer. I have been playing drums since the sixth grade, now totaling 16 years. I have developed my skills more so in the past 6 years than in the past 10. Music is a passion of mine and I love being behind a drum kit. Finally, and hopefully what this blog will mostly be about, I am a IT guy. I have been working in IT since 2005, pulling network cables and repairing peoples personal PCs. As of late, I have been able to take my career down the path I have been aiming at for the last 3 years. My true IT passion is Microsoft's System Center, and currently I am the System Center Configuration Manager Administrator at a certain hospital in the DFW area. Among other things, I also handle Group Policy, Active Directory, and several other general System Administration tools. 

I know it may seem odd to be passionate about this one Microsoft tool, but one of the biggest problems I face as a Systems Administrator is a lack of processes. Even if you work for a company that has every process possible, if those processes are people dependent 9 times out of 10 they are not being enforced. If they are enforced, its still a pain for them to be processed manually. As a typical IT guy, one of the things I look for in my day to day are task I can do with scripts, especially PowerShell scripts. When you can take a multi-step process and narrow it down to just a double click, or better yet schedule it and forget about it, it generally makes my life 100 times better. Well, System Center can do that but on a whole different level. It can do the small stuff, but it also can help you completely automate your on-boarding process or off-boarding process, just as an example, and your HR systems don't even need to be SQL servers, of course that makes things easier. 

That's a little bit about me, more on myself and System Center later. I think I will give an example I put together for an on-boarding scenario at an old job for my next post. Just to give you an idea of what I am talking about.

Thanks for reading!
DadDrummerITGuru\Cameron