Keusote

Efecte’s IAM solution allows Keusote to manage their 5000+ identities using a single, unified system.

How Keusote, the Joint Social Welfare and Health Care Authority of Central Uusimaa, automated its identity and access management. Efecte’s IAM solution allows Keusote to manage their 5000+ identities using a single, unified system.
Keusote is the Joint Social Welfare and Health Care Authority of Central Uusimaa, which runs the public social and healthcare services for six municipalities in Finland. The municipalities have almost 200 000 inhabitants combined.

The Organization: Keusote 

Inhabitants 200 000
Identities to manage 5 000
   

 

The Challenge: How to increase speed and reduce costs

Keusote recently adopted Efecte Identity Governance and Administration (IGA), and the organization is also in the process of deploying Efecte’s Service Management system. The decision for implementing these systems was made over a year ago as a response to the Finnish parliament’s new Act on Information Management in Public Administration and Keusote’s need for increasing the efficiency of its service and process management practices.

“The Information Management Act certainly played a key part, but we also identified a real need for increasing the speed and cost-effectiveness of our identity, access, and service management processes”, explains Keusote’s ICT Development Manager Benita Kapp.

Benita Kapp_Keusote 600x 600

Benita Kapp, ICT Development Manager, Keusote

"Our IAM system is responsible for over 5,000 active identities at a time. Previously, creating a single user ID by hand could take up to 15 minutes. This system will help us save a great deal of time and money.”

benita kapp

ICT Development Manager, Keusote

The Solution: Extensive automation

Efecte’s IAM solution Efecte IGA has allowed Keusote to manage its user IDs and access rights with a unified system by centralizing its user information data in a single Azure AD instance. Efecte’s service has also helped Keusote automate the synchronization of its workstation IDs and access permissions with its client and patient record systems.

“In the first phase, our aim was to automate the creation, deletion, and changes of workstation IDs. And after that, to automate anything and everything we could when it came to the provisioning and management of Keusote’s access rights. Efecte’s service will also allow us to manage our Microsoft licenses, and our extensive automation efforts should provide us with a great deal of savings in, for example, our licensing costs”, Kapp notes.

Speed and security

The first objective for Keusote’s deployment project was the automation of all workstation IDs. Now, the automation system can look at the start and end dates of an employee’s contract and provision the necessary IDs accordingly. During the project, Keusote identified and developed seven cross-system integrations in total. These integrations will allow Efecte IAM to sync the right access information with the right sources, for example, Keusote’s personnel management system, a self-service portal, mobile phone, and device vendors.

“We currently have around 4,000 permanent employees and about 1,000 temporary workers. This means that our IAM system is responsible for over 5,000 active identities at a time. That’s a lot of work for any organization, even when we’re talking about just our workstation IDs. Previously, creating a single user ID by hand could take up to 15 minutes, so it’s obvious that this system will help us save a great deal of time and money”, Kapp emphasizes.

In addition to enhancing and automating Keusote’s operations, Kapp also believes that the system will greatly help improve the organization’s IAM-related information security and data protection practices.

“Another benefit of the system has been that our municipal ICT partner has received far fewer requests for assistance after we automated our IAM processes. Naturally, this has also helped us save on our costs as well.”


90% action, 10% technique

So far, Keusote’s deployment projects have proceeded smoothly, but the organization has identified some challenges in its operational and data management processes.

“Just like with any other project, a successful change is 90% action and 10% technique. If your processes are unclear, you need more time for definition and data collection. It is like they say, your system is only as good as the data that you put into it”, Kapp explains.

The Future: Automate anything and everything

According to Kapp, all deployment projects, large or small, should reserve enough time for determining the necessary definitions and process descriptions, and a project is far from over even after the service has been deployed successfully.

“We’re well underway, but we’re certainly not done yet. This entire process is about continuous development: our goal is to automate anything and everything we can, and we are ready to forge ahead with Tiera, our partner, and Efecte, our ICT vendor. This process involves multiple steps. For example, we will continue to host a bi-annual strategic steering group where we can check in on our achievements and progress as well as any further development and alteration needs.

Keusote is also currently in the process of deploying Efecte’s Service Management solution.

“Efecte’s Service Management solution will allow us to monitor our entire roster of services. By managing our services with just a single system, we can make even more use of the information we receive as we analyze our activities and plan our future efforts. In addition, it will allow us to provide our client services via a single access point.”

According to Kapp, the purpose of Keusote’s ICT services is to enable and enhance the work done by its social welfare and health care specialists. By maximizing the potential of its tools and environment, Keusote can help its professionals focus on what they do best: looking after the health and well-being of their clients and patients.

The Collaboration: Trusted partner serving the public sector

Efecte executed KeuSote’s IAM project in co-operation with Kuntien Tiera Ltd, which is Finnish ICT service supplier for municipalities and other public organizations owning the company. “We have successful co-operation history with Efecte. Shared goals guarantee the best service for Finnish public organizations. In addition to daily business, we have regular weekly meetings where the situation of all our common customers is checked. In that way we can react quickly to changes and ensure operational excellence of Efecte services for our public owners”, says solution manager Hannu Ylinen from Kuntien Tiera Ltd.
If you want to read the blog post in Finnish, have a look at Tiera's blog.

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