Alegent Health

Success Story

Novell Security and Identity simplifies identity management, allowing healthcare provider to deliver critical resources to employees, physicians and nurses while heightening overall infrastructure security.

Overview

Alegent Health (Alegent), one of the top ten integrated delivery systems for healthcare in the United States, is a network of 7 hospitals and nearly 60 clinics working together to provide the best medical care possible. Serving the citizens of Omaha, NE and Council Bluffs, IA, Alegent provides leadership in primary care, cardiology, orthopedics, oncology, rehabilitation, behavioral services, maternity, pediatrics, inpatient and outpatient surgery, home care and family counseling.

Challenge

Alegent separately managed three distinct Web sites-for consumers, employees and physicians. In order to simplify its management efforts, as well as the costs associated with maintaining three separate sites, the healthcare provider wanted to streamline these into one portal interface that would offer its 7,000 users customized access to the resources they need, including benefits, policies and procedures, company news and clinical applications.

With such a diverse network of users, Alegent was faced with many challenges, including the task of managing thousands of user identities. The healthcare provider needed a solution with the ability to authenticate and provision its users, enabling secure access to the specific resources they need. The organization also wanted a solution scalable enough to eventually be utilized by Alegent's consumers and patients, potentially reaching hundreds of thousands of users.

Novell solution

"With Novell's secure identity management solution, we can now centrally control our entire environment. We have based our organizational infrastructure on Novell and are counting on the scalability and security of eDirectory, as well as DirXML and iChain, to help us manage our network at optimal performance and efficiency." Mary Lu Steube
Data Communications Operations Director
Alegent Health

Alegent chose the Novell Security and Identity solution-encompassing Novell eDirectory, DirXML, iChain and BorderManager-and Novell Portal Services.

"With Novell's secure identity management solution, we can now centrally control our entire environment," said Mary Lu Steube, Alegent Data Communications operations director. "We have based our entire organizational infrastructure on Novell and are counting on the scalability and security of eDirectory, as well as DirXML and iChain, to help us manage our network at optimal performance, efficiency and security."

DirXML automatically synchronizes user information across Alegent's different databases, directories and applications-including its PeopleSoft application, which serves as the organization's employee information repository. With eDirectory and DirXML, Alegent is able to significantly decrease the repetitive and time-consuming task of creating user identities throughout its multi-system environment. Now when user profiles are created, DirXML automatically synchronizes the update throughout the entire infrastructure.

iChain and BorderManager play an integral role in the secure identity management solution by offering superior infrastructure security. iChain, Novell's identity-based security product, allows the organization to centrally control and manage the authentication of user identities, enabling 100 percent secure single sign-on for its internal and external applications. BorderManager enables Alegent to establish an effective barrier between its network and the Internet to ensure appropriate usage as well as to protect corporate resources from external threats. Border Manager also allows the healthcare organization to monitor and set rules for Internet access, including predetermining acceptable sites for nurses and other staff members.

With user identity management secured and centralized, Alegent was then able to implement Novell Portal Services to streamline its three Web sites into one portal interface. Through the portal, employees, general consumers and eventually patients can securely access information on employee benefits, policy and procedures, organizational news and other clinical applications from a single location. By leveraging eDirectory and DirXML, the portal solution delivers the appropriate resources to users, based on individuals' credentials, ensuring proprietary resources are safe.

Results

With more than 7,000 users already taking advantage of the new functionality provided by the Novell solution, Alegent users and its IT staff have experienced noteworthy results. By streamlining user identity management and eliminating the need for administrators to manually enter new user profiles or modify existing profiles, Alegent has already saved more than $25,000 and 11,000 man-hours, enabling its staff to focus on higher priorities and tasks.

Currently, Border Manager increases infrastructure security by controlling users' Internet activities, freeing employees from distractions and enabling them to focus on their jobs-saving lives. In the future, iChain will further help the organization to achieve 100 percent secure single sign-on for internal and external resources, enabling users to enter only one password to gain access to all of their applications.

"From the E.R. to Cardiology, Novell's secure identity management solution is an integral component of our entire network," said Terry Brown Alegent's operations leader information systems technical infrastructure. "Thanks to Novell, the stream of critical medical information flowing between all our departments is now reliable, immediate, constant and secure."