Hilton Grand Vacations Company Relaxes Password Problems with Imprivata OneSign

Business Wire, Jan 14, 2008

Fast-Growing Global Timeshare Organization Leverages Imprivata's Easy-to-Use Appliance to Reduce Help Desk Reset Calls and Improve Security

LEXINGTON, Mass. -- Imprivata([R]), Inc., the converged identity and access management appliance company, today announced that Hilton Grand Vacations Company, the timeshare division of Hilton Hotels Corporation, has implemented Imprivata OneSign([TM]) Single Sign-On (SSO) throughout its global operations. Leveraging OneSign, Hilton Grand Vacations Company has successfully alleviated password management issues, reduced password reset calls to the help desk and improved overall enterprise security.

With 3900 employees worldwide, Hilton Grand Vacations Company is a fast-growing organization operating on a 24 hour basis. From its headquarters in Orlando, Florida the IT staff manages all technology issues including password management requirements of their call center users throughout the world. Prior to OneSign, the policy in place included a mandate for applications to have complex passwords with both numbers and letters to be changed every 90 days to ensure that IT access was secure across the global organization.

This system frustrated employees who were required to remember a large number of complex passwords causing the help desk to be overwhelmed with password reset and lockout calls. While the help desk, also based in Orlando, maintained long hours to handle the continual influx of calls, employees located in remote time zones often found themselves locked out of crucial applications until the following day. Due to this password management challenge, the IT team began looking at single sign-on solutions capable of addressing these challenges. In this search, manageability and ease-of-use were key factors.

The initial research included three other solutions, each of which required a significant allocation of in-house development resources. These solutions also came with lengthy rollouts, which once deployed were too high-maintenance. With the help of partner Tribridge, Hilton Grand Vacations Company set its sights on Imprivata's OneSign Single Sign-On (SSO) solution.

"Our team members are hired to be top sales and service people, not technologists. As such, we needed to find a way to streamline their workflow while maintaining our audit requirements and a major pain point - password management," explained Rich Jackson, vice president of technology operations for Hilton Grand Vacations Company. "After looking at numerous vendors and working closely with the people at Tribridge, we selected Imprivata. Imprivata's OneSign solution was both simple in implementation and use, yet elegant and sophisticated in design and functionality. It also delivered immediate results. "

The OneSign platform is an authentication and access management solution conveniently packaged in an affordable and secure purpose-built appliance. It offers an affordable way to achieve compliance while solving password management problems, reducing IT help desk costs and improving user productivity and security. The solution's access management capabilities enable organizations to record and control who accesses what and when, helping to comply with industry and/or government regulations. The OneSign platform includes OneSign Authentication Management (AM), which increases network security by replacing network access passwords with strong authentication options; OneSign Single Sign-On (SSO), which quickly and effectively solves password management, security and user access issues; and OneSign Physical/Logical, which integrates building and network access systems to enable location-based authentication. The OneSign platform was implemented by Tribridge in just five days, half the time of the original estimation.

"We designed our appliance to be a simple solution to very common, yet complex, security problems," said Omar Hussain, president and CEO of Imprivata. "Our straightforward approach in addressing these issues makes us a key partner to customers like Hilton Grand Vacations Company that are looking to improve security across numerous locations in an efficient and manageable way."

Since implementing the solution, the organization has seen a significant drop in password reset calls to the help desk and overall improved productivity. Additionally, Hilton Grand Vacations Company has seen additional benefits from OneSign including demonstrable compliance with PCI regulations and its reporting capabilities. Moving forward, the IT department is looking to potentially take advantage of OneSign's out-of-the-box integration with a full range of strong authentication options and integrating its Physical/Logical offering, which consolidates identities between physical access systems and IT directories to enable one converged policy for allowing or denying network access based on a user's physical location, role, and/or employee status.

"Imprivata's solution worked as advertised and was very easy to implement. Our initial approach was a phased roll out, but it was actually not necessary; we could have done it in two days, it was that easy," added Jackson. "There was really not a lot of training needed as the solution is very intuitive. It was overall a seamless transition with no disruption to business operations, which was a key success criteria for us."