We’ve all had those repetitive work tasks that must be done, are a total pain, and waste time too. Chaim Mazal, SVP of Technology and CISO at Kandji, makes the case for automation being used to free people up so that they can focus on more important work. 

Main Takeaways

• Automating for Freedom: There’s lots of talk about automation as a part of platforms and products. Chaim lays out in simple terms that the reason for automation is about freeing people up so they can drill down on more important work. It’s helpful to remember that humanity should be the guiding light at the core of any technological innovation. The question ought to be: How is this tech serving people. Or even better: How is this tech serving the world?
• From Customer to SVP and CISO: For Chaim, he came across Kandji in a previous job and Kandji was able to help him solve problems he was having managing devices for the prior company on an international scale. First of all, this is a really cool story. Secondly, it’s a reminder that employees can come from any place and that passion can be uncovered in any situation. 
• Building Products: Chaim makes a fascinating point about data and strategy. He suggests that many of the companies that he worked at previously focused on using data to make products better. Yet he also describes how he likes to think more on the strategic side of things. Strategy, for him, at least in part, seems to be more about bringing in knowledgeable people; then thinking together about where the overall industry might be headed and acting accordingly.

For a more in-depth look at this episode, check out the article below.

Article Notes

We’ve all had those repetitive work tasks that must be done, are a total pain, and waste time too. Chaim Mazal, SVP of Technology and CISO at Kandji, made the case for automation being used to free people up so that they can focus on more important work. 

“There’s a lot of companies that are focusing on automation; creating decisioning-engines that provide context to end users that allow them to do the right things in their organization,” Mazal said. “But without having to have all of these people spend the time that they should be using, right, for better things in other places. And again like this definitely doesn’t replace the need to have an awesome team of awesome individuals who do incredible work. It just allows them to redirect and focus their attention on doing things that matter and doing things that aren’t like super task-based that are tedious that they shouldn’t have to do because no one created the solution for it.” 

On a recent episode of IT Visionaries, Mazal explained how Kandji’s platform helps its customers manage Apple devices for their teams. He shared how his interest in Kandji first developed as a customer and how that experience led him to join Kandji. Mazal also talked about his own journey working at companies that have scaled teams and what he has learned along the way about building products. 

Mazal articulated Kandji’s work very succinctly.

“Kandji is an enterprise Apple device management platform that focuses on orchestrating and automating tasks for IT organizations and security teams,” Mazal said.

Mazal was first introduced to Kandji as a customer.

“I was so impressed by the product and by using it at my previous organization that I decided to join Kandji because I believed in all these huge strides that we’re making,” Mazal said. “And so partially, it’s trying to figure out how you can simplify repeatable processes for technology organizations to make sure that your IT and security team can focus on the things that are really important. And that’s really serving the internal consumers.” 

In that prior job, he had problems that needed solving and Kandji offered solutions.

“I was launching different devices to different offices across the world, and I didn’t have an easy solution to how to break up different business segments and give unified deployments of applications,” Mazal said. “[I didn’t know] how I was gonna go ahead and get devices to those foreign countries, and pre-enrolled, and [I had] a myriad of all these other complex problems. And so I was introduced to Kandji and they’re like, ‘Hey, we do that. We automate all of that.” 

Mazal learned lessons along the way at other companies, including how to effectively build products. He offered some of the wisdom he’s learned.

“And we’re not creating a solution in a box,” Mazal said. “Some organizations like to think about the enterprise solely and they shoot like three steps ahead…And by the time it actually gets to those enterprise capabilities, you’ve already missed. So really focusing on a main customer segment and being able to grow with them and scale with them and identify challenges as they experience them and then solve for them. If we all grow together, we all win together.” 

To hear more about how Kandji is helping its customers have winning experiences managing their Apple devices, check out the full episode of IT Visionaries! 

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