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Calderdale & Kirklees Careers

Signify provides strong authentication for staff, saving time and money

Calderdale & Kirklees Careers is a not-for-profit organisation that has been providing a wide range of careers services to young people and adults in the area since 1995. Its key objective is to reduce the number of people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET).  Its professionally trained careers advisers work at every educational establishment; so it is essential that they have immediate and reliable access to details about the people they are working to help and the ability to update these details, along with up-to-date information on education, training and job opportunities.  And because of the personal nature of information held on its large client database, this access has to be totally secure.

Previously, Calderdale & Kirklees had been providing remote access from the schools and colleges through an ISDN connection. Because this was a point-to-point connection, security was not considered to be a problem. However, it was an extremely expensive solution, requiring a leased line costing £1,000 a year at each of the 46 schools and colleges it was working with. Not only that,  the approach lacked flexibility because it was only while working at one of the established remote sites that staff were able to benefit from remote access.

Alleviate IT strain by outsourcing

Calderdale & Kirklees turned to independent IT specialist Dataplex for help. It was immediately clear that to drive down costs, getting rid of the leased lines and using internet connections already present at the schools and colleges, was the obvious choice.  Of course, this made security an issue and to ensure that confidential and sensitive client data could not be compromised, it was decided that strong authentication would be essential. 

But without the internal resources needed to set up, manage and deal with the logistics of a two-factor authentication solution, Signify managed service was selected.  No additional internal staff or training are needed because Signify handles everything from the logistics of despatching devices and rights administration to handling lost devices and forgotten passwords. 

Easy to use and hassle-free

“When talking to us about how the new remote access solution would work, our account manager logged into his system remotely to check something. He was using Signify,” explained John Andrews, ICT Systems Manager at Calderdale and Kirklees. “It just looked so simple to use and he was able to speak from personal experience and demonstrate there and then how hassle-free it is. We then met with Signify and were impressed by how easy the system, consisting of RSA SecureID tokens, would be to deploy, get up and running and manage.”

Effortless, cost-effective IT Management

The changeover from the leased lines to having secure access from anywhere with an internet connection proved to be seamless and has continued to work without any problems. Today over 100 tokens are in regular use.  All upgrades and changes are handled centrally through Signify’s Identity Management Centre (IMC), this enables the internal IT helpdesk at Calderdale and Kirklees to easily manage the issue of tokens, handle user problems and enforce security policy. What’s more, it provides the reporting tools to track each token and monitor usage information.

In the first stage of the project, the leased lines were dropped and now all that is left is a small fee for using the broadband networks at each of the schools and colleges. This gave an immediate 50% saving.  Including all of the costs of deploying and running the Signify service, Calderdale & Kirklees has seen a saving of saved around 30% of the total cost of providing this essential remote access.

Cut costs and enable greater flexibility

“The new solution has certainly significantly brought down our costs,” said Andrews. “But just as importantly, it has provided us with far more flexibility through the added advantage of anytime, anywhere access to anything the user is authenticated to access. This is invaluable. For example, when one of our senior managers was in Budapest and some very important work needed to be done, he was able work as if he was at his desk just using his laptop and a wireless connection. So it’s not just our careers advisers that are using Signify it is anyone on the move or working from home.”

Expanded application and improved services

The system was originally implemented over three years ago and has proved so cost effective and easy to use that Calderdale & Kirklees has recently expanded it to include others working within the remit of the Connexions contract. This includes people employed directly by the local authorities themselves, who are now able to access the client database securely. “We thought this would prove to be complicated, but just like the initial implementation it was simple and these authenticated external users are now accessing our database through Signify. Signify’s service is not only saving us money but it has helped to improve the service we deliver.” Andrews concluded.

“We then met with Signify and were impressd by how easy the system, consisting of RSA SecurID tokens, would be to deploy, get up and running and manage”