* HIMSS Analytics study into the healthcare sector
HIMSS Analytics specializes in IT research for the healthcare industry and for the past 17 years, it has conducted an annual study called the “Leadership Survey.” The latest one asked about single sign-on and included the remarkable finding that “79% of IT executives ranked SSO/identity management as the highest priority for the next two years.”
Novell has sponsored HIMSS to publish a document based on the findings entitled “Things To Consider When Evaluating An Enterprise Single Sign-On Solution” (PDF). It’s useful not only for those in healthcare but for anyone looking to reduce significantly the number of logins their users have to do during the course of their business day.
Novell recognized early on that healthcare was ripe for this technology when it released earlier this year the Novell Clinical Workstation, a product bundle that leverages identity management technologies and integration tools to effectively connect disparate clinical applications and back-end systems and deliver information to medical personnel at the right time and the right place. Clinical Workstation ensures fast, secure, role- and location-based access to key clinical and business applications, giving healthcare organizations the capability to deliver next generation clinical desktops on a variety of devices.
Among the key features of the Novell Clinical Workstation, relevant to the HIMSS study, are:
* Quick login/logout of workstations, measured in only a few seconds, not minutes.
* Strong authentication methods, for example, biometrics and proximity, to protect data.
* Single sign-on to most target applications.
* Cross-platform support for mainframe, fat/thin client, and Web applications.
* Centralized management of passwords and user IDs.
* Support for multiple devices, including wireless, PCs, laptops and PDAs.
I wrote about the product when it was released, and as I mentioned at the time, SSO isn’t only relevant to healthcare, so everyone should be looking for opportunities to simplify their users’ sign-on situation.
Among the other things HIMSS discovered:
* Senior IT executives are most concerned with the ability of SSO technology to integrate with enterprise directories and the organization’s core clinical vendor products. The other requirements include the ability to integrate with other technology vendors, and support for strong authentication. Respondents were least concerned with whether the vendor has a sole focus on the healthcare industry.
* Ninety-one percent of respondents see improved user satisfaction as the top benefit of SSO technology.
* Ninety-one percent of respondents indicated a single user ID and password as a critical function, while 66% identified a quick login/logout as a key capability.
I’d say those findings are also relevant to most of you.
Novell and HIMSS have put together a Webinar on the findings and will also present possible remedies. You can watch it here after registering at the Web site. There will most likely be a follow-up marketing effort to you – but this is Novell marketing, after all, so maybe it’ll simply ignore the leads (that’s almost a joke, son.)
SSO is important and simplified sign-on is achievable on your Novell NetWare/OES network. Find out more about it – your users WILL thank you.
