Feb 9, 2022
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Case Study
I was worried the team would be skeptical of using an access management tool. No one wants to get slowed down. But Opal has actually helped us work faster—our infrastructure feels like a Ferrari.
Chris Jones
CTO
35
Employees
$38M Raised
Stage
You know when you’re about to present findings to your team over video and for some reason you can’t screenshare, or when you do manage to screenshare, you realize you shared the wrong window?
Then, when someone else needs to take the wheel, there’s some awkward screen shuffling, and when you look up, everyone’s faces already have that I’m-doing-something-else stare?
Team meetings are crucial in a remote world, and many apps are built for talking about work instead of actually doing it.
At Switchboard, they’ve designed innovative team workspace software that has video meeting rooms that are like physical rooms—everything stays put between discussions.
Each room is like a shared desktop where you can add content including sticky notes, files and images, media players — it’s like having multiple simultaneous screen shares, except no one has to share their screen. Most powerfully, Switchboard rooms also have embedded web browsers that let you share and interact with pretty much any web-based tool that your team already uses (including Opal!).
The Challenge
When you have a software product, you have to invest in the best talent and keep track of who has access to what.
Chris Jones, CTO at Switchboard, knew that the teams he’s worked with in the past have created in-house access management solutions that work just well enough to help them get by.
However, Chris knew it wouldn’t be enough to have a solution that only “just worked”, especially as they were designing their infrastructure for the next level.
They needed to have a way to make and respond to access requests, all while keeping an immaculate record for audits. Security wasn’t just important for protecting their users; it was also important to open doors to work with larger companies.
The Solution
Chris knew that they didn’t have the engineering resources to build their own in-house access management solution. Even if they did, he wasn’t confident they could both build and maintain a quality tool over time. That’s when one of his team members discovered Opal, a next-generation access management tool.
After implementing Opal, Switchboard saw the following outcomes:
1. Big Company Security without Big Company Bureaucracy
Chris was worried that in implementing an access management tool, he would face resistance from engineers that weren’t used to slowing down. Not only has Switchboard been able to implement a practical just-in-time access workflow, his engineers love it! Without tooting our horn too much, Chris has even mentioned that Opal has been like Ferrari for them, allowing them to work faster while staying secure. 😎
2. Lightning-fast access approvals
In Opal, the access request workflow is simple—users can browse resources and click a button to request access to it. Team leads get an immediate notification from Slack with a link to see further details on the request. They can also approve or deny the request directly from Slack, and this gets synced back to Opal and across its infrastructure. With this streamlined workflow, Chris and his team aim to approve and grant access requests within 30 minutes or less.
3. Decreased onboarding time
For a rapidly growing startup, quality hires are key. Getting these quality hires up and running in a technical environment saves headache and time. Using Opal, newly hired engineers at Switchboard can see all its resources in one place and familiarize themselves with the infrastructure. Instead of going back and forth with assigning access, Chris can assign new hires to a group with pre-defined permission sets and Opal immediately gives them the access they need across all Switchboard’s resources.
4. Peace of mind for future audits
Part of growing and becoming a bigger player in the space is being able to keep records of sensitive activities at the company. Opal logs every action and displays it in the friendly user interface. Opal also has a built-in user access review feature that allows businesses to contact resource owners easily and generate an audit-ready report at the click of a button. Chris is excited to test this out in his upcoming SOC 2 access review.
“I was worried the team would be skeptical of using an access management tool. No one wants to get slowed down. But Opal has actually helped us work faster—our infrastructure feels like a Ferrari.”