When Password Reset and Account Unlock is transferred to a User Self Service Portal, the Organization will improve productivity and reduce cost substantially! Typical Payback time for the investment is in the range of 3-8 months!!
Does your organization look for initiatives to streamline the business and cut down operational cost??
IT-Service management - and in particular self-service - seems to be one of the large opportunities to benefit from!
Top management in general demands that service levels and production are increased, despite of reduced costs. This is a demand on IT management to increase productivity in the service operation by introducing new tools and optimizing processes.
User self-service is one key driver for that, and by empowering the users to help themselves in many areas, we are able to let analysts and support staff concentrate on more critical issues – potentially also using fewer resources.
There are 3 topics that are on top of the agenda for most CIO’s:
1. Cost cutting, in particular in IT operations
2. Ensure that compliancy demands are met
3. Deliver new processes and solutions that will help the end-users increase productivity
One area - where users and IT people spend time without creating value- is solving the issue of forgotten passwords. In most organizations a user, who has forgotten his password, will call the Service desk and ask for a new Password. If the Service desk is open for call at this point of time, the Service desk employee will verify the end-users identity – reset the password, and then transfer the new password to the end-user.
According to Gartner 20-50% of all calls to the Service Desk are related to Password management. According to Aberdeen Group it is between 20-35% of the calls.
Key drivers behind forgotten password calls are:
· Use of a short expiration rule
· Demands for complex passwords
· Number of passwords each employee has to remember
· Long periods without logging in like: vacations, maternity or sick leave or simply lapsed use of certain systems
The ideal process will however be an automated process where the user can help himself completely, and has no need to call the corporate Service Desk. This will not only improve the Service-experience by the end-user, but also save time and money in the Service Desk.
FastPassCorp has developed the FastPass product to address the needs that IT organizations have for an advanced and comprehensive Password Management product.
Changing the process regarding forgotten passwords and locked accounts, will give the organization tangible advantages:
· Strengthen security
Passwords are never given out over the telephone and Service Desk staff do not have to spend time verifying the user. This eliminates the non-secure practices around password resets and satisfies regulatory compliance legislation such as SOX and Basel 2, and at the same time facilitates the implementation of stronger password policies without an increased pressure on the Service Desk.
· Boost productivity
Because FastPass Password Manager users are able to reset their own passwords immediately and from anywhere any time - 24 hours 7 days a week -, the end-user satisfaction is increased as costly downtime decreases. This is caused by the simple and secure self-service interface where users enroll with challenge questions against which they authenticate to reset forgotten passwords.
· Reduce operational costs
FastPass Password Manager reduces the workload of the Service Desk support staff, allowing them to concentrate on more critical problems. A decrease of 20-50% of incoming calls will dramatically cut down running costs.
· Prepare for the future
FastPass Password Manager integrates with any platform or application you have already invested in or plan to invest in. Using the .NET technologies framework, FastPass Password Manager is a web-services application, using Microsoft Active Directory as the user data repository and ADLDS (previously ADAM) as the data store for FastPass data.