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Login.Point helps Cardinal Newman College reduce the time spent on user account maintenance and password resets

Cardinal Newman is a catholic sixth form college, located in Preston, Lancashire. With a mission to be the centre of educational excellence for the community, the college is dedicated to providing high quality teaching and learning.

To support this aim and also to be ready to offer individualised learning, Cardinal Newman has invested heavily in IT and now boasts a network of over 300 computers through which students can access e-mail and the Internet for research purposes. The college is also linked to the National Network used by Universities and other higher education institutions (the Joint Academic Network - JANET) and the new National Grid for Learning.

The problems of manual user account creation

With over 1800 students and 200 staff, Cardinal Newman is faced with the annual task of adding nearly 1000 new user accounts to the IT network and deleting a similar amount, between the end of one academic year and the start of the next.

Previously these tasks had been undertaken manually. Steve Petchey, Network Manager at the college explained:

"We had to use batch files to generate the new accounts in bulk, in time for the start of the new academic year. This involved auto-generating passwords for each new account based on the user's postcode. Although this provided a reasonable level of security, it was possible for a user to work out another user's password. Once this initial setup was done, we were also spending a considerable amount of time, during the term, dealing with password resets for users who had forgotten their passwords."

Fortunately, through contacts at St. John Rigby College in Wigan, Cardinal Newman was recommended the Login.Point solution from Netmania IT.

Self-service solution

Login.Point, developed by Netmania IT, specifically for educational establishments, is designed to remove all of the headaches usually associated with account creation and password resets by making the processes entirely selfservice. To activate an account the user simply swipes their existing ID card at the Login.Point till, this then automatically:

• Checks that the user is valid against the MIS/HR database
• Creates an account based on data from the MIS/HR database
• Ensures students are still enrolled at each password reset

Login.Point is designed to automatically create network accounts for the most popular operating systems, directory structures and applications, including:

• Novell eDirectory
• Microsoft Active Directory
• Microsoft Exchange
• Novell GroupWise
• UNIX
• LINUX

Based on the user's profile, it will create accounts and issue a common, random password for all applications they need access to. It can be deployed from any service desk and is extremely secure, as there is no need to give administrator rights for it to operate.

Reduced housekeeping

Netmania IT worked closely with Cardinal Newman's IT staff to ensure a smooth and trouble-free implementation of Login.Point. Now, the college is enjoying the benefits of their investment in the solution.

Steve Petchey concluded:

"The amount of time we have to spend on routine housekeeping tasks like account setup and password reset has been greatly reduced, enabling the IT staff to concentrate on more important tasks. The self-service functionality of Login.Point enables our users to create and maintain their accounts without having to wait for the IT staff to get involved, this improves their productivity as well. At the end of the academic year all the old accounts of the students who have left will be automatically deleted, saving us the time of having to go through these manually. Working with Netmania IT was an enjoyable process. Their understanding of our requirements enabled them to quickly implement the solution and advise us on the best way of using it. I would have no hesitation in recommending Login.Point to other schools and colleges."