Vodacom Outside Contractors Constitute Approximately One Third of VodaCom’S Workforce

Case Study

Vodacom Outside contractors constitute approximately one third of Vodacom’s workforce. As a telecommunications business protecting confidential customer data, Vodacom knew it had to properly manage access for these outside workers. Vodacom used NetIQ Identity Manager to formalize and automate its identity and security management. The solution reliably removes access rights when employees leave and significantly reduces administrative workload.

Overview Managing access—to physical buildings, At a Glance Vodacom is a Pan-African cellular network resources and more than 100 Industry communications company that provides corporate applications—for this workforce is world-class Global System for Mobile extremely challenging. Contractors may work Telecommunications Communications (GSM) service to more in different locations on contracts of various Location lengths, making it difficult for Vodacom to than 35.7 million customers in South Africa, South Africa Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the maintain an accurate view of access rights. Congo, Lesotho and Mozambique. Challenge Previously, Vodacom relied on line managers The organization needed to simplify and Challenge to correctly provision and deprovision accelerate identity management processes. contractors. Vodacom wanted to close this As the cellular telephone market leader in Products and Services South Africa, Vodacom operates more than potential security loophole and simplify and NetIQ Identity Manager 6,400 base stations, putting 97 percent of accelerate identity management, enabling NetIQ Access Manager the population within its cellular coverage. zero-day starts for new employees and Vodacom has a highly mobile workforce reducing administrative costs. Critical Success Factors of almost 10,000 people. The company • Ensures immediate access-rights outsources much of its IT operations, Solution • Eliminates the manual assignment of base station maintenance and call center Vodacom conducted a detailed study of the credentials operations, creating a virtual workforce identity management solutions on the market • Saves significant administrative time and effort around the core employees in its 20 corporate and undertook a proof of concept pitting • Accelerates the provisioning timeline Identity Manager against an alternative. locations in South Africa. from days to hours

Identity Manager and the enthusiasm and “Moving forward, our focus will be local skills of partner Ubusha Technologies impressed Vodacom during the proof of on building the productivity gains concept. “We knew that success would that we saw from day one.” depend not only on good technology, but also on strong local skills,” said Trevor Trevor Owen Owen, executive head of IT, Region South, Executive Head of IT, Region South Vodacom South Africa Vodacom South Africa. “By giving them everything they need immediately, we can differentiate Vodacom and ensure that we attract the best applicants.”

Trevor Owen Executive Head of IT, Region South Vodacom South Africa

Vodacom first wanted to improve the of applications with Identity Manager, the About NetIQ deprovisioning process, starting with the introduction of identity self-service tools, NetIQ provides security solutions that help highest risk areas: access to the IT network increased automation, integration with organizations with workforce and consumer and physical access to corporate sites. To this partners and greater sophistication in role- identity and access management at enterprise- end, Vodacom created a digital identity vault based provisioning. scale. By providing secure access, effective in NetIQ Identity Manager for all employees governance, scalable automation, and and contractors and integrated it with Results actionable insight, NetIQ customers can Vodacom’s SAP human resources system. By using Identity Manager to ensure achieve greater confidence in their IT immediate access-rights deprovisioning, security posture across cloud, mobile, The combined team then synchronized Vodacom has met the key compliance and data platforms. identity information across key systems objectives set by its chief risk officer and and conducted an intensive data cleansing helped ensure security for sensitive data. Visit the NetIQ homepage at www.cyberres. exercise. Vodacom created for the first time com/netiq to learn more. Watch video demos a single contractor database, fed by a self- “As a telecommunications business, on our NetIQ Unplugged YouTube channel at registration website. Vodacom has legal obligations to safeguard www.youtube.com/c/NetIQUnplugged. confidential customer data,” said Owen. By integrating Identity Manager with Identity Manager helped Vodacom eliminate NetIQ is part of CyberRes, a Micro Focus line its Microsoft Active Directory services gaps in its risk management process. of business. and physical access control systems, “Moving forward, our focus will be on Vodacom has automated provisioning and building the productivity gains that we saw deprovisioning of network accounts and from day one.” access rights for employees and contractors. Identity Manager handles basic provisioning “We can now reliably revoke all access at Vodacom, automatically assigning an rights—physical and logical—on the day that email address, network login credentials an employee or contractor leaves Vodacom,” and the appropriate physical access rights. said Owen. This has eliminated the manual assignment of credentials, saving significant administrative Vodacom has also implemented NetIQ time and effort and accelerating the Access Manager to provide users with single provisioning timeline from days to hours. sign-on across Microsoft Active Directory and the various web applications they use. The company can now put employees to By combining the two products, Vodacom work on their first day. “By giving them is now saving significantly in time and everything they need immediately,” said administrative effort. The next phase of the Owen, “we can differentiate Vodacom and identity and security management project ensure that we attract the best applicants.” at Vodacom will see further integration

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