Penn Finds Lost Passwords Tech

In today's world, users are required to remember what seems like an infinite number of passwords. As a result, forgotten passwords have become commonplace. When a forgotten password prevents a user from completing a task, the convenience of the Internet becomes a burden.

Penn Mutual Life Insurance Co. (Horsham, PA) found that when one of its associates lost a password, it sometimes took 15 minutes to get a new one-a length of time when the advisor wasn't serving policyholders.

15-Minute Password Change

"Not only did our associates have to wait for a new password, our front-line help desk representatives and technical security resources would be tied up," says Nancy Alter, director of IT customer support, Penn Mutual. "The technical resources would be better served setting up accounts and testing security, things that a security group is supposed to do."

Penn Mutual's help desk handles many different calls, including trouble-shooting advisors' software, hardware, network and password problems. "They are considered the front door to the IT department and no matter what the problem is, they try to solve it," Alter says. "We are bent on quickly solving as many problems as we can at the help desk." However, because of security procedures, help desk technicians had limited authority to reset passwords. The requests for new passwords, numbering up to 150 per month, were forwarded to the Information Protection Group.

"We were looking for a way to solve problems on first contact, so our end-users could get back to work faster," Alter says. On a technical level, this meant providing an interface between the first-level help desk and the company's Novell (Provo, UT) LAN and applications on the mainframe—without needing special administrator rights. If this could be accomplished, there would be time and cost savings for the help desk group, the IP group and the end-users, Alter explains.

"When we began looking for a product, we couldn't find one that would do what we wanted," Alter recalls. For instance, some of the out-of-the-box applications on the market could handle password synchronizations among applications, but could not handle password resets-a function needed when a user forgets a password. Other solutions were part of larger packaged applications, Alter says, recalling the product search that happened in 1999.

Penn Mutual eventually chose Courion's (Framingham, MA) PasswordCourier, Alter reports. "I would say the implementation took about four months, in total," she says. "There were some bumps in the road in the beginning, but we quickly resolved them." One problem involved authenticating remote users when they called the help desk. "We had a devil of a time incorporating information that was already in our payroll system, the Social Security number, for identification purposes," Alter says, adding that by using the last four digits of the financial advisor's Social Security number, greater security is achieved.

After that hurdle was cleared, the rest of the implementation was fairly easy, with PasswordCourier being piloted one week before being rolled out to the field force the following week. "Plus, it's an easy tool to use, so that after only a few hours of training the technicians were up and running," she adds. The help desk technicians now have Web access to the applications that control passwords so problems can be addressed immediately.

User-Friendly Technology

Penn Mutual also did not need a large infrastructure investment to run PasswordCourier, Alter says. "We developed a Microsoft Access database for the identifications," and Penn Mutual needed a Windows NT server.

"PasswordCourier has proven to be an effective way for us to improve first-level support and achieve quicker problem resolution," says Alter. "The customers are delighted with the results." Alter estimates that savings could translate into several thousands of dollars a month.

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CASE STUDY CLOSEUP

COMPANY:
Penn Mutual Life Insurance Co., Horsham, PA, $39 bil. of insurance in force.

LINES OF BUSINESS:
Various life insurance and annuity products.

VENDOR/TECHNOLOGY:
Courion (Framingham, MA) PasswordCourier; Novell (Provo, UT) LAN; Microsoft (Redmond, WA) Access database, Windows NT.

THE CHALLENGE:
Allow CSRs to quickly reset lost passwords for advisors.

Greg MacSweeney is editorial director of InformationWeek Financial Services, whose brands include Wall Street & Technology, Bank Systems & Technology, Advanced Trading, and Insurance & Technology. View Full Bio