NEC Expands Identity and Access Management Offering for Healthcare; NEC and Fischer International Form Strategic Alliance to Deliver Easy, Fast Provisioning on Top of NEC's Single Sign-On and Patient Data Manager Solutions

Business Wire, June 5, 2006

WASHINGTON -- NEC Solutions (America), Inc., a premier provider of integrated solutions for the Connected Enterprise in North America, today announced TouchPass(R) - Provisioning, which brings automated user identity management capabilities to healthcare IT environments and extends the benefits of NEC's TouchPass identity and access management solutions.

NEC's TouchPass - Provisioning is the result of a new partnership agreement between NEC Solutions America and Fischer International, security visionaries who provide the industry's only programming-free provisioning solution designed for rapid and easy integration into complex IT environments. The announcement was issued at this week's 2006 Gartner IT Security Summit in Washington, D.C., at which the new TouchPass - Provisioning solution will be unveiled at Booth # 111.

NEC's TouchPass - Provisioning incorporates Fischer Identity Suite's provisioning, password management, and compliance technologies to deliver an automated solution for user account management and compliance by centralizing the management of user identities for networks, databases and applications. Healthcare practitioners are faced with fast-paced work environments where patient care is priority. Removing tedious and time consuming tasks, such as application and network privilege requests and waiting for account approvals, allows healthcare practitioners to be more productive and focused on patient care. From an IT administrative perspective, TouchPass - Provisioning is a secure, efficient and cost-effective way to manage user privileges across any healthcare organization.

TouchPass is the only provisioning solution that requires no programming or scripting for implementation, administration or business changes. It's also the only solution that brings identity management to mobile devices, and provides PDA-based support for provisioning approvals, password management, data lookup, contact management and calendar synchronization with Lotus(R) Notes(R) or Microsoft(R) Exchange. Now managers on the go can approve application activation or termination requests without delaying the process.

"NEC's partnership with Fisher International represents a significant advance for our integrated solutions for healthcare's complex IT environments," said Lauryn Jones, general manager, Healthcare Solutions Division of NEC Solutions America. "TouchPass - Provisioning provides the healthcare industry with identity and access management that can be deployed rapidly and automates the labor intensive elements, thereby easing the IT burden. This performance improvement directly translates into cost savings and frees critical IT resources to be redirected to other pressing initiatives."

"Provisioning solutions can provide the automation and security needed to ensure that healthcare staff have timely access to the information they need, and can eliminate the cost of thousands of hours spent to manually manage user base," said Barry Runyon, Healthcare Research Director, Gartner, Inc. "The key to obtaining the maximum value from a provisioning solution is to automate provisioning and compliance for as many systems as is practical. With each added system or user population, the healthcare provider reaps the benefits, such as cost reduction, improved security and compliance, access to information and patient safety."

NEC's TouchPass - Provisioning enables healthcare organizations to effectively control and manage more systems and users, with less effort and at lower cost when compared to manual user account management processes, which are costly and complex. The benefits of NEC's TouchPass - Provisioning include:

--Automated User Account Management -- Automatically manage user identities and privileges in real time for all healthcare systems and applications

--Reduced Operating Costs -- Eliminate the need to manually administer user privileges, and decrease help desk calls related to user account problems and password resets

--Rapid Deployment -- Eliminate programming and scripting through a standards-based architecture and "point-and-click" configuration, including workflow and policy creation

--Low Total Cost of Ownership -- Reduce implementation and ongoing administrative costs through automation and easy-to-user interfaces, and lessen reliance on specialized IT resources

--Simplified Compliance -- Provide detailed access reports via a centralized audit database to assist with HIPAA and other compliance mandates

--Improved Security -- Reduce security violations through automated enforcement and up-to-date control of user data access privileges

--Greater User Productivity -- Provide clinicians with instant access to patient records

"The NEC - Fischer relationship is a commitment to provide healthcare clients with the best provisioning solution on the market," said Renee Bacherman, chief executive officer, Fischer International. "The blend of NEC's extensive healthcare experience and Fischer's long-standing expertise in developing enterprise-class solutions for large and small organizations has resulted in the first true enterprise-class provisioning solution for healthcare. TouchPass - Provisioning is an important breakthrough for healthcare provisioning."