Success Story: SVB and SecureLogin

Novell Cool Solutions: Feature

Digg This - Slashdot This Posted: 4 Oct 2006

The Farmers' Social Security Authority (SVB) provides health, accident and retirement insurance for self-employed Austrian farmers and their families. Founded in 1974, SVB is headquartered in Vienna and has seven regional offices and five health centres (four special health treatment centers and one hospital). The organization works on the solidarity principle: all members receive the same level of benefits, regardless of contributions.

Challenge

As the number of internal systems at SVB grew, so did the number of different passwords that users needed to remember. An average user might have needed to access eight or ten applications, and most applications had different rules for password composition. Many of the applications required users to change their passwords regularly, and not to re-use previous passwords within specified periods of time.

The net result was that users would frequently forget one of their passwords, and would need to call the helpdesk for assistance, reducing their own productivity and putting a heavy strain on IT staff resources. Some users resorted to writing down passwords and kept them in a more or less unsecure place right by their desk - effectively rendering the entire password system unnecessary and creating a serious security risk.

Novell Solution

SVB aimed to create a single sign-on solution that would enable users to access all of their business systems securely and easily. After evaluating various solutions on the market, the organization - in cooperation with Madras, a Novell Platinum Partner - chose Novell SecureLogin.

Novell SecureLogin enables SVB to offer a single, secure login to all corporate resources, including the network, applications and secure Web sites.

"We use Novell SecureLogin to control access to 30 applications, and the integration was nearly seamless: there was almost no need to change individual applications," said Rudolf Fink, Head of IT, SVB. "Our users now have just one username and password to memorize; Novell SecureLogin sets and manages the passwords to the individual applications, keeping a very high level of security."

SVB has integrated its core business applications into the Novell SecureLogin solution, including SAP ERP applications, custom-built insurance data management systems and office productivity packages. The organization currently uses a one-step authentication process. If security requirements change, the Novell solution provides native support for two-step authentication, adding fingerprint or smartcard recognition to the username/password step.

Results

With Novell SecureLogin, 1,600 SVB employees no longer need to remember on average 10 separate usernames and passwords. The solution provides a single point of authentication for access to almost all corporate resources, and automatically renews expired passwords for each individual application. Employees now just change their entry password on a regular basis, instead of separate passwords for each application.

"The main advantage of Novell SecureLogin is improved security: users are no longer tempted to write down their usernames and passwords," said Fink. "Of course, it's also much easier for our employees to remember just a single password, which results in fewer forgotten passwords and fewer calls to the helpdesk."

User acceptance of single sign-on was very rapid, and there was soon demand for more applications to be added into the system. Since SVB did not need to make any changes to the existing applications, the Novell solution was both quick and easy to deploy, minimizing the additional work for the IT function.

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

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