Zalud’s Blog just learned that The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company has selected Courion’s Enterprise Provisioning Suite solution to deliver identity and access management capabilities for users accessing the company’s geographically-distributed IT resources. Goodyear selected Courion based on the solution’s functionality, manageability and total cost of ownership over time after a rigorous, multi-stage vendor selection process.
For Goodyear, identity and access management are critical in supporting the company’s key business and IT operational goals of improving productivity and efficiency without compromising confidentiality, availability and integrity. A member of the Fortune 500, the company is subject to regulatory compliance requirements for the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).
“We selected Courion for its ability to quickly implement an identity management framework that enables Goodyear to provide immediate and appropriate access to our workforce and improve data security, while delivering a lower total cost of ownership than competitive solutions,” said Jim O’Neil, director, IT Security and Controls at Goodyear. “The ability to create connectors and workflows using the product’s configuration capabilities instead of java coding was a key differentiator. The Courion team achieved every objective required during a two week proof of concept, including ones that we were not able to implement with our prior tools. Courion’s strategic partnership with EMC Corporation was also considered an advantage given Goodyear’s existing long-term relationship with the vendor.”
Goodyear also deployed RSA Access Manager from EMC’s security division that helps the company enforce centralized identity assurance policies that protect web-based enterprise resources from unauthorized access, ensure compliance, and ultimately make it easier for users to do their jobs. The combination of RSA Access Manager and Courion’s provisioning and password management capabilities provides Goodyear with an integrated solution that is available directly from EMC Corporation.
Goodyear wanted to replace a mainframe identity management system that did not adequately support the rapid growth of distributed systems across the enterprise. The company needed a cost-effective solution that would combine disparate technologies and enforce access compliance policies across the entire organization.
The project, which began in October 2007, is being implemented in three phases. The first phase involves simplifying password management to increase employee productivity and reduce help desk costs associated with password resets. Courion’s transparent synchronization software – a component of the Enterprise Provisioning Suite – is being used to synchronize passwords for more than 30,000 active users across an environment that includes Active Directory, AS400, SAP, UNIX and Oracle. The second phase consists of automating user provisioning and de-provisioning to ensure that employees have access appropriate for their jobs. In the third phase, Courion will help Goodyear address compliance, auditing and role management. These steps ensure preventative controls around who has access to what and when by examining user access, how they compare against policy, and automating remediation and corrective action.
“Courion has been a significant contributor to Goodyear’s overall security and access compliance infrastructure, which has enabled the company to improve its overall operational efficiency,” said Chris Sullivan, vice president of customer solutions at Courion. “Goodyear will continue to realize time and cost savings with Courion’s identity and access management solutions, as it further simplifies and reduces complexity in the areas of password management, user provisioning, compliance and role management.”
About Goodyear
Goodyear is one of the world’s largest tire companies. Fortune magazine named Goodyear the World’s Most Admired Motor Vehicle Parts Company in its 2008 list of the World’s Most Admired Companies. The publication ranked Goodyear No. 1 in innovation, people management, use of assets and global orientation. The company is also listed on Forbes magazine’s list of Most Trustworthy Companies in America and CRO magazine’s ranking of the 100 Best Corporate Citizens. Goodyear employs about 70,000 people and manufactures its products in more than 60 facilities in 25 countries around the world. For more information about Goodyear, go to www.goodyear.com/corporate.
About Courion
Courion is the Enterprise Provisioning and Access Compliance Expert for results-driven organizations. Built on market-proven technology, Courion’s software solutions streamline operations and automate business processes to simultaneously achieve cost, security and service quality results. Courion’s innovative approach eliminates the complexity and barriers to provisioning and compliance adoption, resulting in an unparalleled track record of customer success. Courion recently achieved a perfect score in SC Magazine’s 2008 Identity Management Group Test and was recognized as a Network Products Guide 2008 “Hot Company.” For more information, please visit our website at www.courion.com.
