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Schneider Electric is a global manufacturer of products for electrical distribution, from low-voltage products such as circuit breakers and switches to medium-voltage equipment for transforming and transmitting electrical power. The company is also a global leader in industrial control and automation systems, and employs more than 100,000 people in 190 countries around the world.

Challenge

The IT department at Schneider Electric México manages access to 70 applications for approximately 950 users, who work in 21 sales offices throughout the country and at two factories in Mexico City and Tlaxcala.

With no centralized system for access control, users needed to remember dozens of different logins and passwords, and were spending several minutes each day just gaining access to the systems they needed. They would also frequently forget their passwords, requiring helpdesk support to regain access, which both increased the workload for the IT function and led to significant losses in productivity.

Novell Solution

After evaluating several options, Schneider Electric México selected Novell Identity Manager to synchronize user identities across all systems and enable a single password for each user.

Schneider Electric México deployed Novell Identity Manager to consolidate multiple sources of user information into a single central vault, then synchronize it across all applications. The solution enabled employees to use a single secure password to access all their applications, saving time and effort for both users and the IT department.

"In the past, we struggled to manage multiple passwords and maintain effective security," said Ramón Luna, Information Technology Manager. "Novell understood the challenge and delivered a solution that met all our requirements in terms of speed of response, reduced administration and improved security."

Using Novell Identity Manager, non-technical staff in the human resources department can easily set up new employees and give them access to the applications they need. Equally, the HR team can remove access rights from people who leave the company, without requiring any assistance from the IT function.

Results

The introduction of Novell Identity Manager has simplified and accelerated the creation of new user identities at Schneider Electric México, releasing skilled technical staff from routine administration and making them available for higher-value work.

"With Novell Identity Manager, provisioning a new user takes just a few minutes," said Luna. "We have seen a 99 percent improvement in the speed of provisioning, and removing users is also faster and more reliable."

The synchronization of a single password across all applications makes it faster and easier for users to login, while the enforcement of password standards in Novell Identity Manager ensures high security.

"Before the Novell solution, users had up to seven passwords - now they have just one," said Luna. "With our self-service portal for password administration, we have seen a 15 percent drop in calls to the helpdesk - representing a significant reduction in costs."

For the entire success story, see:
http://www.novell.com/success/schneider_electric_mexico.html

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It was contributed by a community member and is published "as is." It seems to have worked for at least one person, and might work for you. But please be sure to test, test, test before you do anything drastic with it.