Successful Identity Management Across Complex Platforms
NuStar Energy, one of the largest independent liquids terminal and pipeline operators in the U.S., has implemented Omada Identity to automate its identity lifecycle management, maintain continuous compliance, and simplify administrative processes.
The previous manual nature of NuStar’s user provisioning processes continued to pose the risk of errors, and conflicted with its expected high annual growth.
Employee information was spread across different data sources (HR, Employee Performance Review (EPR), AD, MS Exchange, Limits of Authority) which required a vast amount of manual updates across multiple systems. Identity sources were managed manually, summary of employee data was not possible, and synchronization between data sources was not regarded as reliable.
Identity governance and administration
To support its continued growth, NuStar needed an identity governance and administration solution that would be operational across complex platforms and support its long-term IT strategy.
The Omada solution now in place at NuStar spans across Microsoft infrastructures and SAP systems, providing centralized audit reporting, automated processes for on- and off-boarding employees, and enables provisioning decisions at the business owner level.
Increased efficiency with automation
Omada’s solution has simplified and automated NuStar’s identity lifecycle management. The solution includes a self-service access request web portal, as well as automation and optimizing notifications to approvers, and role based security access requests.
Today, user rights are managed from one central point – the Omada Identity. Data sources are synchronized, multiple accounts are tied to single identities, and a 60% reduction in data entry and overall reduction of data source mismatches has been achieved.
”Omada Identity was the only solution I was confident would meet our aggressive delivery schedule. Enabling provisioning decisions at the business owner level where they belong, has freed IT from the manual entry form system previously used at NuStar,” says Robert Amos, Director of Infrastructure Systems for NuStar. ”Omada Identity is the perfect solution, not only to meet our current compliance reporting needs, but also the requirements of future regulations that will affect our company.”
Reduced administration workload
The Omada Identity also increases NuStar’s level of compliance by automating the processes required to support internal and external audits. Business approval workflows for access requests are implemented, as well as centralized audit reporting in support of the user access lifecycle management.
The amount of time required by NuStar’s personnel in supporting the auditing processes, and the risk of errors in provisioning has been greatly reduced. The strong management of approvals, the facilities for audit trailing and reporting, and firm segregation of duties are very important business benefits for NuStar within the area of compliance.
”I am very happy that we now control our identity lifecycle management in one single system. It gives us a unique overview, a solid basis for achieving even more efficiency, and makes me confident from a security point of view. Moreover, the ability of the Omada Identity to seamlessly connect to different data sources and web services is crucial, as well as easy management of approval workflows with audit tracking and built-in notification and escalation of the solution,” states Robert Amos, Director of Infrastructure Systems.
Omada Identity
Omada Identity is a Microsoft based solution for identity and access management and identity governance and administration. The solution integrates seamlessly with various systems including Windows Server IIS, Active Directory (AD), Azure IaaS, Forefront Identity Manager, and SAP to deliver a complete solution for identity and access management:
- Advanced role based access control
- Compliance reporting and attestation
- Workflows with approval
- Self-service
- Segregation of duties
- Delegated administration
These features provide immediate and significant business benefits including:
- Fulfilled regulatory compliance requirements
- Increased enterprise productivity
- Reduced user management cost
- Heightened data security
