‍Smarsh is a global leader in data governance and compliance, helping organizations in highly regulated industries manage and audit communications across email, chat, and video. The company works with some of the world’s largest financial institutions and regulated organizations to ensure their data remains secure, searchable, and compliant.

Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, Smarsh operates across 12 offices worldwide, supporting teams and customers across multiple regions.

Dustin Baker, Director of Infrastructure and ITSM at Smarsh, leads the teams responsible for workplace systems, IT infrastructure, and the tools that support secure operations across offices.

Because Smarsh operates in highly regulated industries, maintaining strong security, compliance, and auditability across workplace operations is essential.

Challenge: Fragmented workplace access created operational complexity

As Smarsh expanded its global footprint, managing visitor access and workplace resources across offices became increasingly complicated.

Different locations used separate systems for badges and visitor management, creating inconsistent workflows and additional overhead for workplace and IT teams. Employees traveling between offices often had to navigate different processes, while guests required manual setup to access the office or Wi-Fi network.

“We had separate badge systems and separate trackers across offices. That created a lot of overhead for our workplace services team and for IT.”

Security was another concern. In some cases, guest Wi-Fi access relied on shared credentials, which introduced potential risks and made it harder to manage temporary access.

At the same time, maintaining visibility into visitor activity was important for compliance. Retrieving visitor records could require manual effort, slowing down audits and internal reporting.

Smarsh needed a more consistent and automated way to manage workplace access while maintaining the strong security standards required in its industry.

Working with Envoy to standardize visitor management

Envoy had already been partially deployed at Smarsh before Baker joined the company. Rather than replacing existing tools, the team looked for ways to expand the platform to solve their broader workplace challenges.

By standardizing Envoy across offices, Smarsh created a unified system for managing visitors, workspace reservations, and workplace access.

Today, the company uses Envoy Visitors and Reservations (Desks, Rooms) to support workplace operations.

Visitors now check in through Envoy kiosks when they arrive. The system automatically prints a badge, provides a name tag, and generates secure Wi-Fi credentials. Employees can also preregister guests so everything is ready before they arrive.

“When guests arrive, they simply tap their name on an iPad and everything happens automatically—badge, Wi-Fi access, and check-in. It just works.”

Envoy also helps support employees traveling between offices. Using Envoy Reservations, employees can reserve a desk or meeting room ahead of time when visiting another location.

The automation has simplified workflows for Smarsh’s workplace and IT teams while creating a consistent experience for visitors across offices.

Integrations that power secure, automated access

To streamline workplace operations and improve security, Smarsh integrated Envoy with several core systems across its workplace and IT infrastructure.

Envoy integrates with Okta, allowing employees to authenticate through the company’s identity platform when reserving desks or accessing workplace resources across offices. This ensures consistent identity management while simplifying the experience for employees traveling between locations.

For network security, Smarsh integrated Envoy with Cisco Meraki and LenelS2 Netbox, enabling automated guest Wi-Fi provisioning and badge access. When visitors check in, they receive unique network credentials and temporary building access that automatically expire when their visit ends, eliminating the need for shared passwords and reducing security risks.

Smarsh also connected Envoy with Jira, allowing workplace teams to create visitor requests directly through their ticketing system. Once submitted, Envoy automatically prepares the visitor workflow so that when guests arrive, they simply check in on an iPad and receive everything they need to access the office.

These integrations created a seamless end-to-end workflow that connects identity management, workplace access, network security, and IT operations

Results: Saving 10–20 hours weekly with automated visitor workflows

Standardizing workplace workflows with Envoy has helped Smarsh significantly reduce operational overhead.

Tasks that previously required manual coordination such as creating visitor badges or providing Wi-Fi credentials are now handled automatically. As a result, Smarsh estimates it saves between 10 and 20 hours of operational time each week across its global offices.

“It’s become a seamless function within the business. We’ve been able to take our hands off the process because it just works once it’s configured.”

Envoy has also strengthened the company’s security posture. Temporary credentials are automatically issued for guests and removed when a visit ends, reducing the risks associated with shared access.

For a company operating in regulated industries, having clear visibility into visitor activity is critical. Envoy provides centralized visitor logs that help Smarsh maintain audit readiness and quickly access records when needed.

The platform has also helped the company scale its workplace operations more efficiently. Across its 12 offices worldwide, only one location maintains a traditional reception desk. The remaining offices rely on Envoy kiosks to manage guest check-ins and access.

As Smarsh continues to grow and relocate offices, the system makes it easy to deploy the same workflows at new locations.

“Envoy is one of the things I don’t worry about when opening or moving offices. We know we can plug it in, configure the space, and be up and running quickly.”