Somerford puts Westinghouse Rail Systems on right track

Security reseller implements Imprivata OneSign at signalling firm

The Imprivata OneSign was implemented within six weeks

Identity and security access reseller Somerford Associates has announced a contract win and successful implementation at Westinghouse Rail Systems.

Swindon-based Somerford Associates rolled out an Imprivata OneSign to more than 1,500 Westinghouse employees at the signalling and integrated control systems firm.

OneSign will assist the company in reducing IT help desk costs by cutting down on password reset calls.

Working with employee access management vendor Imprivata and Westinghouse Rail Systems' IT team, Somerford helped install the OneSign across five major UK sites and 11 global satellite sites.

The project was fully implemented within six weeks and plans are in place for the application to be implemented across other parts of the Rail Group.

Omar Hussain, chief executive of Imprivata, said: “Organisations globally face similar pain points around employee access management, whereby securing applications and ensuring employee productivity are often conflicting business objectives.

“By implementing Imprivata OneSign, hundreds of organisations from various sectors are addressing these challenges head on, and at the same time helping to significantly reduce helpdesk related costs by streamlining access to business applications and data.”

The company has also improved employee productivity and user satisfaction through the replacement of complete multiple password requirements. This included multiple password requirements for more than 15 separate applications, such as HR intranet, expenses, web-driven and legacy applications. A sign-on is now delivered through the OneSign appliance.

John Woodriff, application architect at Westinghouse Rail Systems, said: “An IT satisfaction survey showed that our users’ major frustration was having to remember multiple passwords for applications, on top of those passwords that were being reset at regular intervals, leading to locked-out, unproductive staff.

“With OneSign, we are able to simplify user access through single sign-on, which helps boost employee productivity by streamlining the log-on process, reducing the number of locked out users whilst delivering the right levels of security for our organisation.”

Westinghouse’s IT team ran a pilot with selected key trial users from across the organisation to test the OneSign solution.