Volkswagen expects to save more than £35m by
switching to an
identity management system that will allow it to control how
staff and business partners access its network, applications and
data.
The Access and Identity Management system from
BMC will give every VW employee
and thousands of external business partners, such as design
engineers and car dealers, a unique identity on the German car
maker's IT infrastructure, based on their job role.
Hans-Ottmar Beckmann, chief information security officer at VW,
said the system would save the equivalent of £33,000 per
application through simplified administration. "We have thousands
of applications. Now that we have centralised these functions,
administration is much cheaper and simpler," he said.
The system paid for itself when VW brought its 100th application
under the BMC identity management regime, said Beckmann.
He added that from having to define precisely who had access to
which applications, the company discovered it was 15% overstocked
with
SAP licences, allowing it to negotiate more favourable
terms.
So far, VW has added 650,000 individuals to the system, which is
about three-quarters of the expected total.
"We are still keeping our other identity management systems,
such as RAC-F for the staff who work on the IBM mainframes, but
access to them is through the BMC system," said Beckmann.
He said the project grew massively as VW started understanding
and responding to the implications of allowing identity-based
access to its internal systems.
In particular, the company realised that it needed clean,
verified data. To this end, it set up a separate section in the
human resources department that is dedicated to checking employee
data, especially for new hires and outsourced skills.
"This is very important when you are allowing external engineers
to access your designs and knowledge, or sending immobiliser codes
to China, for instance," said Beckmann.
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of trust >>
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