University of Virginia Case Study
The Challenges
The University of Virginia (UVA), a prestigious R1 academic institution, medical center, and regional trauma center, faced significant operational challenges due to its legacy, home-grown Identity and Access Management (IAM) system. The system lacked essential documentation and heavily depended on two (2) employees serving as IAM subject matter experts approaching retirement. Its architecture could not support real-time processing, or cloud environments, creating substantial delays in access provisioning. Furthermore, deprovisioning was inconsistent, increasing security risks due to persistent inactive accounts.
Additional challenges included a poorly defined Source of Authority (SOA), leading to inefficient onboarding and difficulties in maintaining accurate, standardized data. New hires, including students, faculty, and contractors, required in-person credentialing, resulting in logistical inefficiencies and increased costs. Students often had to wait until move-in day to access their computing credentials, placing enormous pressure on IT support resources. Remote faculty and staff faced inconvenient and costly travel arrangements for credentialing purposes. Additionally, users frequently managed multiple identities and passwords due to inconsistent data across multiple Human Resources systems, complicating user experience and increasing vulnerability to data breaches.
The Solutions
UVA selected Fischer Identity to resolve these critical IAM issues. Fischer Identity introduced a streamlined Identity Claim process, significantly accelerating credentialing. This process allowed new employees immediate credentialing upon completion of their background checks and students upon admission, dramatically improving user experience and operational efficiency.
The solution facilitated the synchronization of credentials across all central UVA systems, implementing a single, unified UVA password. Fischer Identity automated provisioning and deprovisioning using dynamic, policy-driven Role-Based, Attribute-Based, and Policy-Based Access Control (RBAC/ABAC/PBAC) mechanisms. Real-time synchronization ensured accurate and timely access rights aligned with UVA’s security protocols.
Furthermore, Fischer Identity reconciled external accounts, migrating them into its centralized system to enhance oversight and compliance with IT security standards. Robust matching technologies eliminated account duplication issues and prevented their recurrence.
A user-friendly portal was introduced, enabling users to manage DUO device capabilities within Fischer Identity. This portal also allowed users to set and manage preferred names, serving as the authoritative source for this attribute. Users gained a centralized location to reset passwords, manage security questions, and set account recovery email addresses and phone numbers.
The Results
The adoption of Fischer Identity resulted in significant operational improvements for UVA, including:
- Immediate, automated provisioning and deprovisioning, drastically reducing delays and administrative overhead.
- Elimination of in-person credentialing processes, significantly cutting logistical costs and enhancing user satisfaction.
- Streamlined, standardized data processing, reducing data discrepancies and related security risks.
- Simplified user experience with a single unified password and reduced identity management complexities.
- Over 180,000 active users are now efficiently managed by Fischer Identity.
- Almost 2 million identity accounts reside securely within Fischer Identity.
All these achievements were accomplished within one year of signing the implementation contract with Fischer Identity, demonstrating rapid, effective, and transformative IAM improvements at UVA.
Six months after go-live, UVA consolidated three HR systems into Workday HCM—a significant SOA transition that Fischer Identity handled effortlessly. The necessary changes in Fischer Identity required only straightforward configuration updates, including disconnecting the legacy systems, aligning workflows to the new Workday logic, and synchronizing business processes. These adjustments were completed smoothly in just a few weeks, followed by coordinated user acceptance testing with IT and HR teams, ensuring an easy, successful concurrent launch using the new Workday HR source data.
About University of Virginia
In 1819, Thomas Jefferson founded the University of Virginia and inaugurated a bold experiment—a public university dedicated to advancing human knowledge, educating visionary leaders, and cultivating an informed citizenry. Today, UVA is an iconic institution of higher education featuring nationally acclaimed schools and programs, a distinguished and diverse faculty, and a proud legacy as a premier R1 research university. Anchored by its flagship academic division in Charlottesville, the University includes a world-class academic medical center providing exceptional patient care and groundbreaking medical research, the College at Wise campus expanding educational opportunities in Southwest Virginia, and an extensive network of regional medical clinics serving communities throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia. UVA’s vibrant culture is further enriched by a tradition of active student self-governance, a sustained commitment to the arts, and a dynamic NCAA Division I Athletics program.
