Implementation of Corporate Identity Management Project for Hong Kong Housing Authority
Client: Hong Kong Housing
Authority
Challenge: The project is aimed
to improve cost-efficiency and security
of corporate identity management for
Hong Kong Housing Authority (HKHA).
Solution: ELM, the ASL Group's
subsidiary, helped HKHA adopt a single
sign-on technology to provide a better
and cost effective user ID management
scheme. ELM provided professional
services in the system design, project
management and consultation for a
centralized identity management solution
for HKHA.
Benefits: With the centralized
identity management solution, HKHA's
overall administrative workload and
helpdesk support demand are reduced. The
IT resources can then be deployed for
the HKHA to focus on other application
development.
For a long time, identity (ID)
management and access control were
handled by various individual
application systems using disparate
security policies at the Hong Kong
Housing Authority (HKHA). Thousands of
users IDs and passwords were generated,
and different measures of access control
were used for over 9,000 HKHA staff and
more than 500 business partners to
access systems across various IT
platforms. To access these applications
and information, the users were required
to enter different IDs/passwords.
Considering the administration cost and
effort required for managing multiple
user IDs/passwords, the HKHA decided to
initiate a Corporate Identity Management
Project (CIDMP) to provide a better and
cost-effective user ID management
scheme.
Provision of Centralized Identity
Management Solution
After reviewing HKHA's situation, ELM,
the ASL Group's subsidiary, implemented
a centralized identity management
solution and provided system design,
project management and consultation for
HKHA. ELM supplied and installed high
performance IBM pSeries 615 servers to
lay down a reliable and scalable
platform. ELM also provided systems
integration of a suite of IBM Tivoli
software into the IBM WebSphere
Application Server. The Web single
sign-on technology was deployed to
provide seamless authentication access
to multiple applications through a
common security infrastructure.
Single interface enables centralized
control of security and simplified
management
Upon the implementation of the solution,
a secure, automated and policy-based
user management process is in place to
help increase HKHA users' productivity.
The users can get access to various
applications securely with one single
user ID/password. They are also enabled
to perform password resets and
synchronization by themselves, reducing
the overall administrative workload and
helpdesk support demand. The solution
can automate the processing of
administrative request and facilitate
the management of user IDs. With a
centralized control of security and
consistent policy to be implemented
across HKHA, the organization security
level is enhanced.
