Healthcare Technology Featured Article

January 21, 2013

Tools4ever's UMRA Account Management System Now in Use at Several Healthcare Facilities


In the fourth quarter of 2012, several healthcare facilities started using Tools4ever’s User Management Resource Administrator (UMRA) solution. The software package makes managing user accounts easier, while still complying with regulations like SOX, SEC, GLBA and HIPAA.

Major facilities like New York Presbyterian, CentraState Healthcare, South Jersey Healthcare and Providence Hospital (Columbia, SC) have implemented UMRA. Other sites using UMRA consist of other hospitals, community care facilities and senior care centers.

UMRA is an identity and access management solution that allows healthcare facilities to manage their user accounts more efficiently. Once a new employee is hired, it creates a user account from HRM data and uses role-based access control to set up the account to have proper access rights. Delegating the task of managing user accounts is quick and easy and results in the creation of a workflow to expedite the process.

Tools4ever claims that facilities using UMRA will see results in a matter of days and an average ROI of four months. A phased implementation combined with a wealth of predefined procedures makes it possible for care facilities to achieve these cost savings so quickly.

UMRA synchronizes user accounts on the network and in HR software like SAP HR, PeopleSoft and Beaufort. It also works with other Tools4ever solutions like E-SSOM. It uses Follow Me and Fast User Switching to accommodate users who log in at multiple workstations.

Any software package for the healthcare industry must be compliant with regulations like SOX and HIPAA. URMA complies with such regulations by providing audit trails. Any user activity that falls into certain categories generates a logged record available to future audits.

Cloud computing is another technology that URMA is designed to work with. While working with the cloud provides many benefits, like the elimination of many hardware and software installations, it makes controlling who has access to applications and data difficult. Active Directory, which UMRA uses for managing user accounts and access, will not provide access control in a cloud environment by itself. UMRA provides links or cloud connectors to Active Directory to provide greater control over access. Password changes, account and identity management are all synchronized through these links.

One of the features of UMRA that provides additional potential cost savings is the Real Use Manager, a mechanism for tracking application use by user. This gives administrators the ability to better handle licensing costs by identifying money wasters like licenses applied to users who do not use the software, users who should not use the software but do or licensed applications that no one uses. Real Use Manager can easily be integrated with facilities management systems that track software use.

A number of tools allow UMRA to manage the Active Directory environment. They integrate with Windows Active Directory, LDAP, SAP and also include tools for bulk operations.

Tools4ever has developed a much-needed solution for the healthcare industry. One of the things you can count on in life, in addition to death and taxes, is the cost of healthcare rising. Trying to stop these costs from rising may be as futile as a basketball player trying to stop Michael Jordan; the best you can hope for is containment. If UMRA can deliver what Tools4ever says it can with immediate results and a short time to reach ROI, healthcare providers will have a great opportunity for significant cost savings.




Edited by Brooke Neuman
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