Determining users' access to services is important to creating an accurate and transparent overview. Establishing these connections can be completed through various methods, depending on what fits your situation best. If you have recently set up your account, you will likely find your first optimization opportunities already in this step by discovering orphaned services and licenses that can be canceled or revoked.
The purpose of the license audit is to:
Enable Substly to identify underused or unused licenses.
Give insights into how much you spend per individual and group.
Identify and remove licenses that ”float” around.
Ensure that the off-boarding is comprehensive in case a consultant/employee leaves.
Below are three methods for determining user access to services.
Automatic Access through Usage Tracking
Automatic Access through Usage Tracking
This method works best if you neither want nor have time to set up the connections manually. Let usage tracking determine who has access to what in order to save time and to establish a good foundation for your account. Future new users will automatically be shown to have access to a service if usage is detected.
We recommend utilizing this method even if you want to conduct license audits or manually determine access. In those cases, automatic detection of usage will give you a clear indication of usage rates, unsanctioned usage, and shadow IT.
To determine service access automatically, Substly can track usage from two sources; either through Google Workspace or Microsoft Entra ID, or through the Substly Extension. We recommend tracking usage from both sources to receive accurate data and a comprehensive overview of access rights.
This guide explains how to integrate with either Google Workspace or Microsoft Entra ID.
This guide explains how to invite employees and install the Substly extension.
Once these sources have been connected, Substly will automatically show which users have access to respective services.
Manually Determining Access
Manually Determining Access
This method works best if you as admin wants to quickly determine users' access to services.
This method is manual but effective when you don't have too many services and users. If you're looking to quickly determine connections between a specific service and user, try this method out.
To complete this method, follow the steps:
Navigate to Services > All Services
Select Actions > Manage Users for a specific service
Add users that have access to the service and Save
Navigate to the service's Usage tab to view your added users
License Audit
License Audit
This method works best once service owners have been defined and you want to work collaboratively with service owners in order to determine users' access to services. This method allows you to request service owners to manually determine service access.
This method is effective when you have many services and users, and want to continuously distribute the workload among service owners.
To complete this method, follow the steps:
Navigate to Service Matrix
Select Request Update
There are two options for conducting a license audit; either an audit based on services, or an audit based on owners. Either way, each service owner is sent an email where they review and confirm users’ access to those services, depending on the selected option. Optionally, select Watch Explainer Video for a more in-depth guide. In this case, we select the audit based on owners.
Select which license owners you wish to complete the following audit. In this case, Add all, and then select Next.
Verify and confirm selected owners by selecting Send Request.
Each of the selected owners will receive an email with a link to the User update request page, requesting them to update who has access to their respective services
The license owners are then requested to fill out the following service matrix by selecting which users have access to their respective services, by selecting the different fields. Once completed, Confirm Change to finish the license audit.
