Authentication Solutions - By Challenge

Help Desk Burden and Costs

Challenge

The IT Help Desk is overloaded with calls for password resets, which make up about 30% of all calls they receive on a daily basis.  Addressing password issues consumes the IT staff’s time and resources, which could be better spent dealing with more important matters in terms of security and compliance. 

The reason for the large influx: end-users possess separate sets of credentials for each application and server they need to access, which means they typically have between 8 and 12 passwords they need to remember.  The more passwords that end-users need to remember, the more likely they are to forget them and call the Help Desk for password resets.

Solution

PistolStar’s Password Power and PortalGuard allow end-users to employ their Active Directory password for accessing numerous enterprise applications, such as Lotus Domino and Notes, IBM WebSphere and System i, SAP and Oracle.  Both products also enable end-users to perform self-service password reset/recovery, permitting them to change only one password in one location.

As a result, end-users have one password they need to remember to access all these applications, which greatly reduces the incidence of forgotten passwords and dramatically cuts the amount of calls received by the Help Desk.  Empowering end-users to do their own password resets contributes to the reduction in Help Desk calls and further frees up time for the IT staff.