Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to Implement Converged Security and Access Management with Imprivata

Roll-out of converged access to 11,000 staff during 2008

LEXINGTON, MA - 23^rd June 2008 - Imprivata®, Inc., the converged identity and access management appliance company, today announced that Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has chosen Imprivata OneSign to provide strong authentication and single sign-on (SSO) for the Trust’s 11,000 clinical and administrative staff, improving productivity and removing password management issues. OneSign will also integrate with the Trust’s building access systems allowing them to create and enforce a single security policy for both IT network and physical access.

As part of its substantial construction and modernisation project, the Trust is implementing new building access control and physical security systems from Honeywell at its three sites across the city. Working with partner BMS, Imprivata OneSign was selected for its ability to implement an identity management system that links to the physical network and enforces security policy across the Trust’s computing assets.

“The Trust was looking to consolidate its physical and network security systems and reduce its management overhead. Before Imprivata, each user would have carried around up to three separatesmart cards in order to gain access to IT and building resources. In turn, this meant our helpdesk was also having to deal with large numbers of password reset requests: about 55 percent of all calls through were password-related,” explained Michael Mythen, acting deputy head of IM&T, Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. “Using OneSign, staff will only have to use one card for all their access needs with only one associated password.”

Following a pilot phase in January and February 2008, the Trust is beginning its roll-out of SSO and strong authentication with a new application for the Maternity department in March 2008, covering 350 users. “We expect to reduce the volume of password reset requests by around 90 percent, as well as improving staff productivity levels. This project is proving to be popular so far with both the IT help-desk team and the general user population,” continued Mythen.

The strong authentication factors to be used are combined in a single card with both chip and pin and proximity functionality, so that once users are authenticated, they will automatically be granted access to the applications they are allowed to use. Further groups of employees will join this system as more applications become enabled for SSO, with the whole user population to be enrolled by the end of 2008.

Imprivata OneSign is fully integrated with both the National Health Service smart card and the Trust’s planned physical access solution from Honeywell. By linking these systems together, the Trust can create and apply one single policy across all its access points, whether these are physical entrances or endpoints on the IT network. This single policy is far easier for the Trust to manage, while it also means that the organisation can build up a complete picture of user activity across both physical and network resources.

“This deployment of SSO and strong authentication is one of the largest in the UK health sector, and it has demonstrated how local needs can be met using innovative approaches linked to the Connecting for Health national scheme. Reducing the number of credentials that users have to remember, whether these are passwords for applications or carrying multiple smart cards, makes staff more productive and cuts the burden on the IT team that has to support these systems,” commented Omar Hussain, CEO, Imprivata. “Creating and enforcing a single security policy across all the Trust’s assets means that management is simpler and auditing of access is much easier. This implementation is a good demonstration of the value that Imprivata can deliver to organisations in the UK health sector.”

About Imprivata
Imprivata is the Converged Identity and Access Management (IAM) appliance company. Its OneSign platform helps organizations safeguard enterprise information assets by enabling secure employee access to networks and applications—improving user productivity and convenience, while reducing the time, risk and cost of complying with data privacy and protection regulations. OneSign has received top ratings in product reviews throughout the industry and has been awarded numerous accolades from leading publications including Information Security, InfoWorld and SC Magazine. Headquartered in Lexington, Mass., Imprivata is one of the fastest growing IAM companies with more than 550 customers and 200 partners around the world.For more information, visit http://www.imprivata.com.

About BMS IT
Business Management Services (UK) Limited or BMS is a leading computer solutions vendor specialising in the Healthcare market place. BMS provide a one-stop shop service, offering a broad range of IT solutions, into the NHS market and other Public Sector and Commercial organisations. BMS offer best of breed products and services at competitive prices along with installation, training and support services.
BMS is a wholly independent organisation dedicated to investigating business problems for clients, proposing technology solutions to best fit their requirements and implementing these solutions. For more information, visit http://www.bms-it.co.uk/

# # #

Imprivata is a registered trademark of Imprivata, Inc. in the USA and other countries. All other product or company names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.