NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY

Without the product in placewe wouldn't be able toonboard people. Theywouldn't have access toanything. They wouldn't evenbe able to have email.

Matt Mason, TechnicalServices Manager, NTU

CASE STUDY

OVERVIEWChallenge: The university had outgrown their in-house Identityand Access Management (IAM) system.

Process: Intragen collaborated with Nottingham Trent University(NTU) to define and optimise functionality of the solution.

Outcome: Increased automation of identity governanceprocesses and security risk mitigated.

Future: Ongoing partnership between NTU and Intragen fortraining and upskilling NTU team for a future-proof system.

ABOUT NTUNottingham Trent University is the 9th largest university in the UK withover 33,000 students and 3,000 staff members. The university has seenhuge growth over the last 10 years both in academic success andstudent numbers. The growth of the university population introducednew challenges for the IT team both concerning manual administrativetasks and security controls.

Streamlined User LifecycleProcesses with IAM

HIGHER EDUCATION

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It has taken away themanual effort from ourhelp desk and is nowautomated.

Matt Mason, TechnicalServices Manager, NTU

Prior to their collaboration with the team atIntragen, Nottingham Trent University (NTU) hadoutgrown their in-house-built identity and accessmanagement (IAM) system.

Their previous system heavily relied on manualtasks and did not have the flexibility orscalability required for a growing highereducation institution.

Universities commonly face the challenge of anever-changing user population and having asystem that causes delays is detrimental to on-boarding and off-boarding time, which createsboth a poor user experience and poses asecurity risk.

On top of this, there were problems relating to theprovisioning of access, causing incorrect accesspermissions and difficulty revoking access. Thisled to security concerns which highlighted theneed for a new solution with flexible accessprovisioning and automation to reduce the timeand effort required by the IT staff, as well aseliminating the risk of human error that comeswith manual tasks.

It was important for NTU to collaborate withexperts in identity and access management (IAM)to ensure a logical, future-proof architecture tothe systems involved.

Intragen collaborated with the IT team at NTU,managing a project to optimise the functionality ofNTU’s One Identity Manager solution.

To align the project with NTU’s objectives anddesired security state, Intragen firstly took thetime to understand what NTU wanted to achievefrom their IAM system.

To avoid downstream access management issues,the team began with an analysis of NTU’s sourcedata to identify any issues there, such as in thestudent record system and HR system.

The IAM system that Intragen implemented forNTU connects the identity source with the targetsystems, such as email, printers and door access,for secure and seamless access provisioning.

The system is fundamental to the university’soperations, without which the students and staffwould not have access to the resources andapplications they need to succeed in their studiesor work.

CHALLENGES

PROCESS

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1Flexible access controls have beenparticularly valuable for highereducation institutions during Covid-19 where graduations have beenpostponed and students still requireaccess until they have officiallygraduated.

Access Control During thePandemic

Over the last fifteen years, NTU has embracedtechnological development in its creation ofdigital spaces for students and staff alike. Thishas been further accelerated by the Covid-19pandemic, where online resources andmeeting spaces have become vital toacademic success.

The university now utilises more cloudservices than ever before, and their evolvingidentity and access management solutionenables them to provision access to the rightpeople at the right time to the resources theyneed to succeed.

NTU are still working with Intragen to trainand upskill their IT team for ongoingmaintenance and continuous optimisation oftheir systems wherever possible. Matt Masondescribed one part of his role as having to seewhere technology can help the students tosucceed and having seamless access controlis a fundamental part of that.

FUTURE

Defined processes for joiner, mover, andleaver user management.

Optimised functionality of the Identityand Access Management solution.

Access security risks mitigated withflexible access control processes.

Expert training and support for futuremaintenance.

Automation of manual tasks - IT team candedicate time to more meaningful tasks.

To find out more about Intragen’sofferings and how we could help yourorganisation with identity and accessgovernance and security, contact oneof our team today.

www.intragen.com

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OUTCOMES

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