North Hunterdon-Voorhees Uses UMRA for Provisioning
| Executive Summary | |
|---|---|
| Problem | North Hunterdon-Voorhees was looking for a way to be more efficient in provisioning and de-provisioning accounts while maintaining security of their systems including granting of Internet access after receiving parental permission. |
| Solution | UMRA automates user account management for provisioning and deprovisioning to make this process less time consuming. |
| Products | User Management Resource Administrator (UMRA) |
| Connectors | Management Information Group - Student Information Record System, CSI Smarts, Active Directory, Exchange |
| Result | The security officers no longer have to deal with user accounts on a daily basis and all changes are made easily through the registrars. |
The North Hunterdon-Voorhees Regional High School District consists of two high schools – North Hunterdon High School located in Annandale, New Jersey and Voorhees High School in Glen Gardner, New Jersey. The schools are located 7 miles apart and cumulatively have a roster of approximately 3,000 students. With a substantial number of students in the schools’ computer system, it was difficult for technology officers to keep up to date with the movement of accounts while also insuring security.
Students were coming in as freshmen, graduating as seniors, or leaving mid-year, and all needed appropriate computer access to be assigned or removed. It is also crucial that students have access not only while they are in school, but also during after school hours. "School has become much more a 24/7 operation. It is no longer students coming in at 7:30 and being done at 2:30," said Patrick Butler, Network Server Administrator for North Hunterdon-Voorhees. "Grades, assignments, and courses are all available online, and students need to have account information as up to date as possible in all areas to facilitate this requirement."
Fast Implementation
North Hunterdon-Voorhees realized that they needed a solution in place which would automate the process of provisioning and deprovisioning accounts, so the IT department would no longer need to spend countless hours performing this task manually. They began using Tools4ever's UMRA Mass to provision accounts and had such a positive experience that they upgraded to UMRA Automation. The upgrade would allow them to make live changes in one system which would result in changes to the student’s account in all systems. UMRA had to be up and running before the beginning of the school year so that students could have access to everything that they would need when school began. "Tools4ever's implementation and planning were top notch," said Butler. "They made sure that we were 100 percent functional by the time promised to us and resolved every question we had."
Enhanced Efficiency
With UMRA in place, the technology officers no longer deal with account problems. Students are now able to go to the registrar with any information that needs to be changed and updates are made to their accounts instantly. Dealing with hundreds of accounts and password problems used to be a five hour task to make sure all of the errors were corrected. Butler adds, "All of that has been eliminated by the automation process due to the fact information is validated and managed before it gets into the system. With UMRA we have a set it and forget it system that takes care of it for us."
In the past, technology officers had to deal with the dif? culty of relocating a student from one school in the district to the other due to disciplinary reasons or movement of the household. This process, which was very labor intensive, is now totally automated and the student’s information and files get updated and moved appropriately. "It was like they were in the destination school the entire time," said Butler.
Improved Security
Another important benefit of UMRA was the improved security of the schools’ information systems, especially concerning a students access to the internet. North Hunterdon-Voorhees’ rule is that parents must sign a document which permits or prohibits internet access for their children. Before implementing UMRA, this process was managed manually by adding the children to the appropriate group that allowed internet access, taking several hours to complete. Now all the registrar has to do when they receive the permission slip is check a box in the child’s pro? le and internet access is granted.
Due to the success North Hunterdon-Voorhees achieved with UMRA for their students, the district is now looking at other Tools4ever products for its employees and faculty. "There has been a major change in the management of user information with UMRA," Butler said, "It is a huge time saver for us."
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