University of Louisville Implements Secure Identity Management Solution from Novell to Improve Student and Faculty Productivity

Novell, the leading provider of Net business solutions, today announced the University of Louisville has implemented Novell's secure identity management solution for higher education, making the University of Louisville one of the nation's first universities to adopt a purely Web-based environment to address the information and resource needs of its burgeoning student and faculty population. The solution combines Novell® Net services software, PeopleSoft* applications and proven consulting services from Cambridge Technology Partners to solve access, security and identity provisioning challenges. With Novell's secure identity management offering, Louisville automates costly account creation, synchronization and update requirements across key network and e-mail systems for students, alumni and staff. This makes students and staff productive right from the start, reduces data errors throughout the university's system, enhances resource security, and lowers the cost of administering the university's overall technology infrastructure.

The University of Louisville exemplifies the challenges faced by institutions of higher learning around the globe. Serving 22,000 full-time students across three campuses and 150,000 alumni, the University supports 13 colleges and schools and employs 5,800 faculty and staff. The University faces the arduous task of managing numerous user identities and passwords across multiple systems, all in an environment with significant turnover of those individuals - the students - who most need access to the network's resources. Historically, the University deployed a manual process to create user IDs for key systems. The process, which could take up to two weeks to complete, was labor intensive, time consuming and costly. The University wanted an identity management solution that would automate new account creation and updates and enable single sign-on for users across its existing human resources, student administration and collaboration/e-mail applications.

Novell Meets the Challenge
The University of Louisville turned to Novell and its global eServices company, Cambridge Technology Partners, to implement the identity management solution, becoming in the process the nation's first university to adopt a purely Web-based environment. The initial phase of the project, focused on identity provisioning, involved an upgrade to PeopleSoft v8.0 and the synchronization of identity information in four key systems: PeopleSoft Human Resources/Student Administration, the authoritative source for user identity information for more than 90 percent of the university's user base; Novell eDirectory™, the central repository for identity information for authentication to multiple applications; Novell GroupWise®, an e-mail and calendaring system for faculty, staff and professional students; and the university's portal, the Web front-end to university services.

Tapping Novell's proven eDirectory capabilities was a critical criterion for Louisville. "Having experienced Novell's reliability, scalability and security, we selected eDirectory over Microsoft Active Directory*," said Tom Sawyer, University of Louisville assistant vice president of Information Technology. "We turned to Novell and Cambridge because we knew they could deliver the comprehensive identity management solution we were looking for."

The identity provisioning phase has made it easier to get new staff and students up and running quickly. For new hires, the system automatically and immediately creates an ID in PeopleSoft, an account in GroupWise, and provides access to the network. For students, a PeopleSoft account is automatically created upon application to the school. Novell's DirXML® technology then triggers updates to other systems, generating an e-mail account, enabling students to receive information from the school via e mail. Based on the student's pre-defined policies and rules outlined in PeopleSoft, students are also granted access to view the status of their application. Ensuring that the University's network resources are protected, the solution immediately revokes access across all systems when a student's application is turned down or voluntarily withdrawn.

Louisville plans to expand on the initial success of this Web-enabled identity management solution, moving to deploy a portal offering. Currently in an initial stage of deployment, the campus portal will ultimately provide Web-based self-service functionality to university users. The portal will be role based, giving students, alumni and faculty single sign-on access to their e-mail, as well as to campus news, course-specific information, and university-related resources that are tailored to the specific needs of each individual.

"The Novell secure identity management solution illustrates the power of directories in helping gain control of large, complex, fluid environments like those found in higher education," said Dan Bagwell, responsible for government, education and health care at Novell. "The success at Louisville shows how organizations can leverage Novell solutions to get more out of their existing systems, automating processes that reduce mistakes and lower the costs of redundant processes, making for happier students and lower administration costs."

For additional information on Novell's secure identity management solutions, please visit http://www.novell.com/solutions/sim