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RM selects VASCO as two-factor authentication provider
September 2010 by Marc Jacob
VASCO Data Security International, Inc. announces today that RM an international education company is securing its remote access and extranet access for employees and partners with VASCO IDENTIKEY, DIGIPASS for Mobile and DIGIPASS GO 6. The solution offered by VASCO replaces an existing authentication solution which needed replacement since the life of the existing tokens came to an end.
RM is about improving the life chances of people by delivering outstanding education products and services that help teachers to teach and learners to learn. Since its foundation in 1973 RM has concentrated on the point where education and technology meet; exploiting the capacity of technology to improve teaching and learning.
RM conducted a benchmark comparing a number of authentication vendors on criteria such as the cost of the authenticators, the battery lifetime, user-friendliness, maintenance including provisioning and reporting, management of devices including PIN reset, account creation and deletion, lost authenticators. VASCO came out strongest in the comparison. The benchmark lead to a 3 month trial during which IDENTIKEY Server together with DIGIPASS for Mobile and DIGIPASS GO 6 were extensively reviewed.
RM’s choice of VASCO rested on some key benefits presented by the IDENTIKEY solution. RM decided to implement IDENTIKEY Server as back-end authentication server offering additional flexibility. The deployment of IDENTIKEY not only caters to the existing authentication needs but also the future authentication needs. Today strong authentication is mainly used by employees and partners for secure remote access and extranet access. RM plans to expand the use of two-factor authentication to MS Outlook webmail and looking at expanding it to use it for SharePoint. Furthermore RM also hosts a number of websites for local education authorities, which enables them to expand the use of two-factor authentication into their customer base. For this purpose RM followed in depth IDENTIKEY training and became an IDENTIKEY Certified Partner.
RM wanted a simple, user-friendly solution. They have a large iPhone user group, using their iPhone to connect to their desktop and the extranet. DIGIPASS for Mobile which is available for iPhone seemed the most straightforward authentication solution for this user group. DIGIPASS for Mobile also offered some additional benefits from a management point of view. The self-provisioning tool, allowing the end-user to activate the application themselves, offers additional efficiency resulting in lower back office costs.
For the users who do not have an iPhone RM chose DIGIPASS GO 6. DIGIPASS GO 6 speaks for itself; the OTP is generated at the push of the button. RM also implemented Virtual DIGIPASS, an SMS-based based solution used as back-up when the user has forgotten to bring their DIGIPASS with them.
“When choosing VASCO we had to convince our management that the new solution is extremely user-friendly, more flexible than the existing solution and more cost efficient. An important driver to choose for VASCO was the 5 to 7 year battery life expectation of the DIGIPASS. This allows us to maintain the same authenticators for a longer period, thus reducing the total cost of ownership. Today we have about 1500 users of which 300 use DIGIPASS for Mobile. The use of two-factor authentication at RM is growing. We receive on average 15 requests per month for a DIGIPASS,” says Marcus Richards, Solution Architect at RM.
