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Wolters Kluwer Turns To RSA Security
SecurityProNews
Staff Writer
2005-01-04
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RSA Security announced that Wolters Kluwer has developed an identity and access management system based on RSA ClearTrust web access management software.
RSA Federated Identity Manager for its North American Tax, Accounting & Legal division. The combination of the two products enables Wolters Kluwer to share secure, trusted digital identities across multiple domains and applications with a single sign-on. The solution provides a streamlined and efficient user experience for customers, employees and business partners while reducing overall costs for managing a comprehensive identity management infrastructure.
With approximately 18,750 employees, Wolters Kluwer is a leading multinational publisher and information services company, with core markets spread across the health, tax, accounting, corporate, financial services, legal and regulatory, and education sectors. Wolters Kluwer is committed to simplifying and improving its customers' online experience by more efficiently managing access to information while still protecting valuable corporate web resources. After a careful evaluation of several web access management vendors, Wolters Kluwer chose RSA Security as the best identity and access management provider to meet its needs.
"Achieving single sign-on is a common issue for multinationals. As businesses expand, so does an array of unrelated web services platforms, mostly developed in-house, and not operating on a common framework," said Mike Antico, chief technology officer for North American Shared Services at Wolters Kluwer. "Wolters Kluwer has now made a significant step in solving this issue. RSA Security helped us create a common identity and access management framework for our multiple online services based on RSA ClearTrust software and RSA Federated Identity Manager software."
Today, when a customer logs onto the system, RSA ClearTrust software is engineered to automatically identify the user and the resources that are available to them, such as tax compliance, planning and auditing programs. Through single-sign on (SSO), the customer's productivity increases as he or she moves between these online applications without having to authenticate for each resource. As a result, Wolters Kluwer has improved both its security posture as well as the customer's online experience by eliminating the multiple login scheme required through the previous, disparate architecture.
A federated identity manager provides for identities and entitlements that are portable across autonomous domains. This arrangement is analogous to a driver's license where one state provides a credential to an individual that is trusted and accepted as proof of identity by other states. Under a federated identity system, this trust requires -- and is a result of -- the combination of powerful, reliable technology and the business and legal agreements that enterprises enter into to establish mutual responsibility and commitment.
Through the addition of the RSA Federated Identity Manager, Wolters Kluwer is able to expand the SSO experience for all of its services to every customer who is granted access to them. The RSA Federated Identity Manager bridges the SSO gap between two separate domains, providing transparent yet secure access to their services through the establishment of a federated identity that grants access without having to re-authenticate at each Wolters Kluwer site.
In addition to the enhanced customer service that is provided through the RSA Federated Identity Manager, Wolters Kluwer was able to quickly implement a SSO experience for every end user with the least impact on existing systems -- saving its IT staff thousands of man-hours and nearly a year's time required to migrate every user to a single domain to access their applications.
RSA Professional Services and CryptCOM Securities Inc., a certified partner and value added reseller of RSA Security products, integrated RSA ClearTrust software and RSA Federated Identity Manager ensuring the two applications were interoperable with Wolters Kluwer's numerous legacy applications. Additionally, the organizations created a new user wizard mapping system that is built to allow users to map their own identity when accessing a new application for the first time, providing greater control at the manager and user level. This process is engineered to save administrators the burden of mapping users for each application while allowing the user to quickly access the application when they need to begin using it.
"Each of the business units has a unique population of customers that need to access our network in order to work more efficiently," Antico said. "Through the addition of RSA Federated Identity Manager, we have maximized the convenience, ease of use and productivity for our partners while protecting our resources and reducing costs and the need for IT staff to continually update access authorizations."
"The ability to cost effectively manage users while providing secure access to web applications is absolutely critical for companies that want to leverage the Internet to grow and enhance their business," said John Worrall, vice president of worldwide marketing at RSA Security. "With an identity and access management infrastructure, enterprises can strengthen trust relationships with key user groups both inside and outside the organization, develop new revenue streams, reduce IT management and support costs and create a seamless e-business environment."
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SecurityProNews is a daily online and email publication focusing on internet security issues.
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