Jazz Shrimp: Using Slack workflows to streamline Jamf device management

What began with a funny emoji found in the Slack app – Jazz Shrimp – has evolved from the unofficial mascot of the IT and Security team at The Trevor Project into a custom application that’s both improved the efficiency of the team and strengthened organizational security by automating user off-boarding, password resets, account lockouts, email box delegations and many other tasks.

In the JNUC session Jazz Shrimp: Using Slack Workflows to Streamline JAMF Device Management, IT team members from The Trevor Project discuss how they brought together Slack, Okta, Jamf, Google Workspace and other resources to achieve these goals.

Organizational growth, stressed support

The Trevor Project, a leading non-profit focused on providing suicide prevention and crisis intervention services for LGBTQ+ young people, experienced a significant amount of growth very quickly. In just a few years they nearly doubled in size, from less than 400 employees to over 700, with a software portfolio of over 100 unique applications and platforms. At the time, the majority of IT and business support processes were entirely manual.

As Jeremy Wilson-Herrmann, Head of IT and Security, The Trevor Project, explains, the problem they faced was that they were supporting more and more, with less resources to do it.

The solution: process automation, centralized in a tool they developed called Jazz Shrimp.

Scaling IT support by simplifying tasks

While “Jazz Shrimp” may have originated with a silly slack emoji, to The Trevor Project’s IT and Security team it’s a serious solution referring to the business automations they’ve built.

Jazz Shrimp is a custom Slack application utilizing Okta Workflows as a web server that integrates with multiple APIs including Jamf, Okta, Slack, Zoom, Lastpass, Google Workspace and more.

All work together in harmony to automate workflows for simpler, easier processes. “A big theme we heard at the keynote was doing more with less – exactly what we’re doing with Jazz Shrimp,” says Anthony Bonarrigo, SaaS Systems Administrator, The Trevor Project.

Jazz Shrimp is split into four parts:

• Slack API Okta Workflows Connector – custom-built user interface for help agents
• Jamf Pro API Okta Workflows Connector – custom built to authenticate calls to Jamf’s API
• Slack App
• Other Custom Connectors as needed for future actions

It enables both the Infrastructure team and Help Desk team to perform administrative actions in a trust-based, efficient, and accurate way, all within Slack, so it’s on any platform, both desktop and mobile.

Bonarrigo demonstrates how Jazz Shrimp can automate tasks of Apple device management such as remote locking of an employee device, including an approval process built into the workflow.

Automating device management within the Jazz Shrimp UI in Slack is made possible in their environment with the use of Okta workflows.

Why Okta workflows?

• No Code/Low Code that already exists in their environment
• Easy to modify and maintain
• No need to set up or maintain a development environment locally

Ben Busath, IT Infrastructure Manager, The Trevor Project demonstrates how they use Okta workflows to automate workflows, rather than admins having to sign into Jamf. By using this process, they can:

• Limit access to key functions
• Ensure compliance with policies and SOPs
• Reduce training/onboarding time
• Work across multiple systems with one action
• Log and report across multiple systems
• Do more work, with less resources

Because the interface is simple and easy to use, as their organization grows they can continue to scale to support it.

Check out the full session for a deeper dive into the details of creating automations to streamline Jamf device management at The Trevor Project