Bouman GGZ Streamlines User Account Management

Bouman Geestelijke Gezondheidszorg (GGZ) offers care to those who suffer from addiction diseases or other psychological diseases. Bouman GGZ’s approach is characterized by a combination of medical psychiatric, psychological and social care. Until the beginning of 2006, Bouman GGZ in Rotterdam had been managing its 900 Active Directory user accounts with Microsoft Active Directory Users & Computers (ADUC). With the help of manual procedures, the ICT workers provided the initiation, change and deletion of user accounts. Kees Schenkels, manager of information and communication technology, tells about the disadvantages of this method: “When employees left the company, ICT often wasn’t informed. As a result, on many occasions, ex-employees still had access to the company’s network. User accounts in the various applications were not up-to-date, because of manual procedures at the service desk. It was not easy to quickly employ temporary (new) staff and service desk workers needed relatively high rights to create or change accounts.”

Professionalize Management of User Accounts

Bouman GGZ wanted to improve and professionalize its user account management and evaluated a few solutions including Tools4ever’s User Management Resource Administrator (UMRA). They chose the latter. At Bouman GGZ, Tools4ever has implemented an integral user account management solution consisting of a connection between Beaufort and Active Directory and the delegation module for helpdesk. Kees Schenkels: “Within a couple of days the implementation was completed and was successful from day one.”

Clear Procedure

The connection automatically carries through relevant changes in Beaufort into the Active Directory. When Beaufort signalizes that an employee has left the company (permanently), UMRA detects this, disables the user account and informs the service desk so that additional procedures can be initiated such as the return of resources. Bouman GGZ now owns a clear procedure to maintain employee data. It only requires one point of entry, the Personnel department.

User accounts are created in time and almost entirely automatically, enabling network users to access the network immediately. Furthermore, accounts of ex-employees are disabled automatically in a timely fashion. “Via Active Directory, changes will automatically end up in TOPdesk, our service desk system, so that it always has the current data of employees and their workplace. Chances of technical staff going to the wrong building to fix problems have been reduced drastically”, says Kees Schenkels.

Controlled and a Safe Environment

The UMRA module offers a graphic interface that enables workers to choose from a select number of predefined actions. The operational manager of an application, for example, can maintain the AD security group by himself, arranging access to the application. Another example is the fact that an employee’s password can be adjusted by a non-ICT worker of the facility helpdesk. Kees Schenkels: “Because the service desk can do a number of user account management tasks, we can save enormous amounts of time. The service desk staff will not need admin rights, so this approach does not lead to additional risks. “