Migration to Kisi 2.0: A new milestone in Kisi’s evolution

We’re migrating the last few Kisi Standard customers to Kisi 2.0, the next generation of our software. Reaching this milestone, we wanted to take some time and reflect on where we started, how far we’ve come, and thank the partners and customers who are part of our growth journey.

In this two-part blog series:

• Part 1 explores how we migrated ~3,000 places to our new platform
• Part 2 shows how Kisi has become a one-of-a-kind, scalable, enterprise-ready product

Growing up is inevitable #

Kisi Standard, the previous generation of our software, was great at creating and configuring doors, managing users, assigning roles, and it helped us to build a strong customer base among small and medium-sized businesses. But we know that large customers need more robust, enterprise-ready functionalities. Among other things, they need the ability to automatically provision users via SSO, and simultaneously add, remove, or update roles and group memberships with their identity provider via SCIM.

Welcome to Kisi Organizations #

Over the last two years, we’ve built some major functionalities into the Kisi platform:

New integration possibilities #

Some partners have already launched white-label integrations with Kisi, meaning their users don't need to install or sign in to Kisi separately. This elevates the experience for coworking, gym, and workplace software users and saves administrators time as they don’t need to manage different tools.

Automated user provisioning via SSO and SCIM #

Compatible with all major SSO providers and supporting the SCIM 2.0 protocol, Kisi enables customers to sync users and groups between their user directories and Kisi. Also, it allows them to keep the user identities in their IdP in sync with the identities in Kisi, including provisioning, deprovisioning, role and group membership updates.

Simplified user management by bulk importing users #

User imports enable customers who don't yet have SSO set up to import hundreds of new user profiles at once or update the profile data of existing users through a CSV file.

Easier management of multi-place accounts #

The Kisi web and mobile apps got a new interface design that’s more suitable for multi-place accounts. Domains are the unique identifiers of organization accounts. It only takes two clicks to switch between places within an organization. We’ve unified the users’ list to make it even easier to share access to multiple places. Billing is unified too - one single bill for all your places.

Focus on what’s important with customizable dashboards #

Kisi admins can choose the information they want to see when entering their Kisi places by customizing dashboard tiles. Different places can have different dashboard configurations. If there is a widget you are missing - let us know and we will consider it for our roadmap.

About the migration #

We applied an automated migration approach to increase speed and minimize human error and downtime. Our teams reached out and helped the individual cases that required support. We phased the rollout to ensure the capacity to deal with unexpected issues. All in all we can say the transition went smoothly. The secret is a team laser-focused on the details and a strong team lead that can always look at the bigger picture.

In parallel, we were working together with our integration partners to help them support the new model, but also to make sure the switch will not cause any interruptions in their services. Our partners are constantly improving our integrations, making them more reliable by adding a way to easier troubleshoot potential issues and to proactively announce changes that could affect them.

Teamwork makes the dream work #

This was the most collaborative project we have led so far, and it would not have been possible without the contribution of many integration partners distributed across the globe. Therefore, we’d like to say thank you to all our integration partners who helped us make the transition possible.

Also, thank you to our valued customers for the continued trust you have put in our brand. Our ongoing success relies on the loyalty and support of customers like you.

And last but not least, thanks to the entire Kisi team, especially the Product and the Support teams, for their commitment and dedication to making the migration process super smooth.

Let us know what you think #

Which features do you still miss from Kisi Organizations? Let us know by sending us an email at support@getkisi.com.

And if you have read this far… #

…there is no doubt you would be interested in part 2 of this blog series where we showcase how Kisi has become an enterprise-ready access control solution.