Nuremberg, 20. July 2011 -The IT development and consulting company Peak Solution, specialized in integrated solutions for identity and access management (IAM), simplifies the use and management of employee ID cards at EURONICS Deutschland eG. Access control, time recording and the cafeteria payment system have been combined with authentication to IT systems in a multifunctional card, for which a uniform administration workflow has been implemented.
The group comprising about 1,800 electronics retailers had already established ID cards for its approx. 250 employees working at the headquarters in Ditzingen, Germany, back in 2006, with a non-solid-state JAVA chip supplementing a solid-state LEGIC transponder. Whereas the transponder serves for identifying employees, visitors and consultants, the JAVA chip was not in use so far. To be able to use it for authentication in computer networks, EURONICS now makes use of the services offered be Peak Solution.
Technology integration and management
One special challenge of this project was to incorporate the older specification of the existing JAVA chip as well as newer tools like USB crypto tokens at the same time. Based on IDExpert SmartACT, Peak Solution set up a central smart card management system for all ID media. A workflow was defined for the transparent management of the cards throughout their entire life cycle. From printing and initialization of smart cards, via assigning the LEGIC ID to personnel master data to the issuing, locking and destruction of cards. In addition, procedures for issuing temporary ID cards and replacement media were set up. Based on Novell SecureLogin, a single sign-on solution for authentication has been implemented, enabling employees to access different IT applications and the respective shared data without having to enter a password each time. Additional security is offered by file and folder encryption with Secude Secure Folder, based on certificates on the smart cards.
Peak Solution also took care of setting up a public-key infrastructure as basis for the authentication solution, as well as consulting and customizing and the migration of legacy data to the new system. Continuing to use the existing cards makes this authentication solution more economical for EURONICS and reduces the administrative effort while at the same time increasing functionality.
EURONICS
New technologies like HD TV, DVD recording, telecommunications and portable computers are part of the company’s portfolio as well as traditional products in the entertainment electronics and household appliances sector. The cooperative has about 1,800 members in Germany, with more than 1,900 locations and 12,000 employees. Key characteristics of the mostly family-owned medium-sized specialist stores are a comprehensive service portfolio, personal consulting and highly qualified specialist staff. With a total turnover of 4.0 billion Euros in the 2009/2010 fiscal year, EURONICS is the second largest market participant of its sector in Germany. EURONICS Deutschland eG is a partner of the European sales and marketing alliance EURONICS International seated in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Currently, the group is active with more than 11,000 locations in Europe and generated total revenues of 14.1 billion Euros in 2009. More than 50,000 employees work for approximately 6,400 member companies. In Europe, EURONICS is the largest marketing group of its sector.
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