Press Release
Calderdale & Kirklees Careers chooses the right path to cut the cost of remote access with 2FA
1 September 2008
 | Signify provides strong authentication for staff, saving time and money |
By employing Signify’s two-factor authentication service, Calderdale & Kirklees Careers has been able to deliver flexible remote access, whilst reducing costs by 30%. Its careers advisors are now able to securely access and update confidential details about the people they are working to help, along with information on education, training and job opportunities, from wherever they are, instead of being tied to a point-to-point ISDN connection. The service has proved so successful that Calderdale & Kirklees Careers has now extended remote access to provide authorised staff from Calderdale and Kirklees Councils with secure access to its client database.
With help from independent IT specialist Dataplex, it became clear that getting rid of 46 leased lines at £1,000 each and using internet connections already present at schools and colleges where the careers advisors worked from, was an obvious way to cut the cost of remote access. But it also meant security of the confidential and sensitive data became an issue and had to be guaranteed.
Strong authentication of people accessing the information was essential so on recommendation from Dataplex; Calderdale & Kirklees Careers chose a two-factor authentication hosted service from Signify. Two-factor authentication involves something ‘you know’ along with something ‘you have’. In the case of Calderdale and Kirklees, this consists of a small RSA SecurID token from Signify that produces a new unique one-time passcode (OTP) every 60 seconds. By using this, along with their known user name and secret PIN, staff are able to safely gain immediate access to the information they require, wherever they have an internet connection.
“Signify’s service was easy to deploy, get up and running and manage. And it has certainly brought down our costs,” said John Andrews, ICT Systems Manager at Calderdale & Kirklees Careers. “But just as important, 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 and it’s not just our careers advisors that are using Signify; it is anyone on the move or working from home. Signify’s service is not only saving us money but it has helped to improve the service we deliver.”
The changeover from ISDN to having secure access from anywhere with an internet connection gave an immediate 50% savings. Including all of the costs of deploying and running the Signify service, Calderdale & Kirklees Careers has seen a saving of saved around 30% of the total cost of providing this essential remote access.
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 & Kirklees Careers to easily manage the issue of tokens, handle user problems and enforce security policy. What’s more, it providesthe reporting tools to track each token and monitor usage information.
About Calderdale and Kirklees Careers
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). The majority of work is carried out with young people under its Connexions contracts with Calderdale and Kirklees councils. This includes providing advice and information, training and jobs, both on-site at schools and colleges and at its drop-in centres.
