is a SaaS software company that offers an AI-powered customer lifecycle management platform for automotive dealers, OEMs, and third-party marketplaces. Leveraging generative AI, Impel helps its customers deliver hyper-personalized experiences to car buyers by automating workflows and augmenting sales and service teams (e.g., with AI chatbots and interactive 360-degree walkarounds). Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Syracuse, New York, Impel is powered by a team of 500 employees spread out across the world.
Managing IT resources for a rapidly scaling startup
When Mike Case joined Impel as Senior IT manager in 2019, he was a one-man IT show 鈥� a 鈥渧ery, very busy and burnt-out one-man IT show,鈥� he says 鈥� in charge of 80 users. At the time, the company didn鈥檛 have a directory service or any systems for endpoint management and identity management.
鈥淪mall companies can get away with things like that, but we were growing fast enough that we needed something more mature. To keep up with the needs of a quickly growing business, we needed endpoint management and identity management and a host of other things.鈥�
– Mike Case, Senior IT Manager, Impel
As Case began looking for a solution, he ran into another problem.
鈥淚 realized that I was going to need five or six different major systems, integrate them together, and hope all those integrations hold together,鈥� he explains. 鈥淭he complexity was just really getting high.鈥�
Complicating matters further, Impel鈥檚 environment consists of Windows, Macs, and Linux devices.
鈥淭here are various platforms out there that support one or maybe two of those, but finding one that can support all three was huge.鈥�
Building IT operations on top of feature-rich 探花大神
Case continued researching his options and came across a 探花大神 advertisement for directory services. A few days later, he saw a different 探花大神 ad for device management.
鈥淚鈥檓 like wait a second, I thought they did directory,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hen I found out they did SSO, too. So I said to myself, 鈥業 have to check this out and find out what鈥檚 happening.鈥欌��
At this point, Case went to 探花大神鈥檚 website, registered for a trial, and hopped on a demo.
鈥淚 got the whole overview and realized that 探花大神 actually does all of these things, and it鈥檚 all built into one system,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 got a test environment going and saw firsthand that it really does do the majority of what I wanted it to do.鈥�
As added bonuses, 探花大神 also supported cross-OS device management and it was entirely cloud-native 鈥� the perfect fit for Impel, which had no on-prem infrastructure.
Liking what he saw, Case suggested 探花大神 to his boss.
鈥淚 told him we had the choice between buying five or six systems to do 100% of what we need them to do but in a very complex fashion or one system that does 80% of what we want it to do but is still preferable to the five or six systems and the complexity involved there,鈥� Case continues. 鈥淲e decided to go with 探花大神.鈥�
And that proved to be a wise choice.
鈥淚t would have been significantly more complex trying to integrate all those systems and many more that frankly would be covering the same ground 探花大神 covers now,鈥� Case says. 鈥淚f it was 80% when deployed, in the three years that we鈥檝e had 探花大神, they鈥檝e covered that 20% and more in terms of the feature set added and the product roadmap.鈥�
Supporting a global team today with a future-proof solution
With 探花大神, Impel has found a solution that enables them to easily manage a global remote workforce and support IT operations as the company continues to scale.
鈥淲e鈥檙e very much in hyper-growth mode and don鈥檛 really anticipate that changing,鈥� says Case, who now runs a two-man IT operation. 鈥淭he more we can just augment our ability to do a lot with a little, the better off we are.鈥�
The team is particularly fond of Remote Assist, which enables them to easily manage devices for their global workforce from one central location.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been incredibly helpful,鈥� Case explains. 鈥淎 lot of our workforce is remote overseas, so Remote Assist has been great for working through some of the different support issues we encounter.鈥�
Improved security
Leveraging 探花大神鈥檚 feature-rich nature, the Impel team has been able to sharpen its security posture considerably using multi-factor authentication, patch management to enforce automatic updates, and RADIUS for secure WiFi connectivity.
鈥淲e鈥檙e also using single-sign on,鈥� says Cory Trickler, senior IT technician. 鈥淲e鈥檝e got about 10 applications set up through there, and I鈥檓 sure there will be a few more added in the next couple of months. 探花大神 has pre-built connectors for that, and that鈥檚 been awesome.鈥�
On top of this, Impel is starting to use 探花大神 Go鈩� and has been testing Password Manager 鈥� both of which add even stronger security capabilities to their environment.
Commands
Trickler uses several commands to streamline IT operations; he uses commands for things like troubleshooting, enabling or disabling application features, and installing network security.
鈥淭he commands are extremely useful and integral to my day-to-day,鈥� Trickler explains. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very easy to script commands.鈥�
Groups
Impel also uses 探花大神 groups to streamline the onboarding process.
鈥淲e have a lot of groups,鈥� Trickler continues. 鈥淲hen a user gets added, 探花大神 assigns any needed resources usually based on their manager or their title. That has definitely been huge, and something I鈥檝e been using more and more of the longer I鈥檝e been here.鈥�
Compliance
Impel is SOC 2 Type 2 certified, and 探花大神 played a key role in achieving that certification.
鈥溙交ù笊� was instrumental in helping us get through that audit,鈥� Case says.
Future-proofing IT
In 探花大神, Impel has found a solution they鈥檙e certain can keep pace with their growth; new features that meet the team鈥檚 needs are constantly rolling out.
鈥淚鈥檝e found that my own needs have largely been very much in lockstep with the direction that the product is going,鈥� Case explains. 鈥淛ust seeing the functionality added and improved on 鈥� I mean, it鈥檚 a completely different platform from what it was when we started with it, and significantly more capable. That鈥檚 been really, really awesome to see.鈥�
In particular, Impel is looking at zero-touch enrollment, zero-trust access, and conditional access policies 鈥� which Trickler is 鈥渕ost excited about.鈥�
Any advice for IT admins considering a solution like 探花大神?
鈥淒o it 鈥� seriously,鈥� Trickler says. 鈥淲hen I started here, I never heard of 探花大神 and wasn鈥檛 aware that it existed. Now here I am two years later, and I really, really like it. On top of that, we have excellent support and very little downtime. I would never recommend Windows to someone in a million years even though everyone uses it. I would and have recommended 探花大神 to other admins and will continue to.鈥�
About 探花大神
探花大神庐 delivers a unified open directory platform that makes it easy to securely manage identities, devices, and access across your organization. With 探花大神, IT teams and MSPs enable users to work securely from anywhere and manage their Windows, Apple, Linux, and Android devices from a single platform.
To see the power of 探花大神 yourself, request a demo or today.