Novell Scotland calls in South African SSO expert to help meet client`s needs

When the Bank of Scotland needed a solution to its ongoing problem of mainframe authentication, Novell Scotland immediately suggested Single Sign On (SSO), and then flew in a South African expert to help meet the customer`s specific requirements.

Le Roux van Niekerk is marketing director of Velocit-e, a company that provides electronic security and transaction solutions to public and private enterprises.

"I had been working closely with the US developers of SSO to meet the special technological requirements of one of our own customers," Van Niekerk explains. "Every time I encountered a problem, I would contact the programmers, who would work on the code and phone back with a solution. After 18 months of working this way, we eventually succeeded in developing a workable solution that satisfied my client."

The problems experienced by Velocit-e`s client were similar to that of the Bank of Scotland`s. When Novell Scotland heard of Van Niekerk` s work on SSO, the company immediately decided to make use of his expertise.

"The Bank of Scotland was spending up to lb1000 a month on resetting passwords and correcting errors made by users as they tried to access the mainframe," Van Niekerk explains. "They had experimented for months with other, competitive products, but could not solve the problem of mainframe authentication."

The Bank required a system whereby their users could log on to the mainframe using a single, complex password, and thereafter access those applications to which they were entitled by re-authenticating themselves with another, standard user name password.

"Consequently, they decided to invest in SSO, which enables users to access applications to which they have rights with a single logon," relates Van Niekerk. "This significantly reduces password management costs, as users no longer need to remember more than one password. As a result, password-related help desk calls are reduced, which in turn alleviates redundant password administration tasks."

Additional, advanced authentication was provided by NMAS (Novell Modular Authentication Service), a solution that authenticates users through the use of passwords, biometric devices, or tokens. "Once the user has logged on, NMAS is used to provide further proof that the users are who they say they are," Van Niekerk explains.

Thanks to the extensive work Van Niekerk had already carried out on SSO in South Africa, he needed only one day to get the solution up and running in Scotland. "All I had to do was to install the system, and customise it slightly according to their specifications."

To say that the Bank was impressed is an understatement. "They immediately saw the value of their SSO investment," says Van Niekerk, "It gave them access to all the applications they needed, with additional security being provided by NMAS."

"Other, similar projects across the globe continue to prove how well SSO technology works," Van Niekerk adds. "It`s like a cellular phone. You don`t realise how convenient it is until you have one, and then you wonder how you ever managed without it."