It’s a technology that many companies still find elusive, but single sign-on (SSO) is working as promised at Southwest Washington Medical Center (SWMC), while delivering a return on investment in just eight months. As a bonus, the SSO project also prompted the company to delve into virtualization technology, which is saving the firm some 20% on server resources along with heating, electricity and support costs.

Click to see: Christopher Paidhrin

The Vancouver, Wash.-based SWMC embarked on its SSO project to reduce the “hassle factor” for the 6,000 users that log on to an average of six to 12 applications per day, according to Christopher Paidhrin, CSO for the firm. During a session at the recent Network World IT Roadmap Conference & Expo in San Francisco, Paidhrin told attendees that SSO saves 15 to 30 seconds per logon, or roughly five minutes per day per employee – paying for the $100,000 price tab of the project in just eight months.

See a video from the show.

The SSO project, which involved implementation of the Imprivata OneSign appliance, was impressive enough on its own to earn SWMC a Network World All-Star Award. But during his IT Roadmap presentation, and in a follow-up interview, Paidhrin also expounded on the virtualization angle of the project. That involved implementation of the Softricity (now Microsoft) SoftGrid application virtualization platform, which reduced the number of Citrix servers required to provision applications for some 2,500 remote users while simplifying provisioning for internal users as well.

Driving the need

SWMC’s quest for SSO began in early 2005, driven by business and IT considerations. Reducing the hassle factor was important not only from a business productivity standpoint but also a competitive one, Paidhrin says. “Physicians work in a highly competitive environment and there’s competition right down the street,” he says, referring to the hospital eight miles away. Making their logon experience as seamless as possible can help encourage physicians to bring their patients to SWMC instead of another facility.

From an IT perspective, Paidhrin was looking to gain centralized control over all access management. And of course the medical center had to comply with regulations, including HIPAA and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Information Management requirements.