Off shore Call Center Locks Down Thousands of Linux Desktops
Company Size
1,000+
Region
- Asia
Country
- India
Product
- PowerBroker Identity Services
Tech Stack
- Active Directory
- Linux
- SUSE Enterprise Linux
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Cost Savings
- Productivity Improvements
Technology Category
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
Applicable Industries
- Finance & Insurance
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
- Human Resources
Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
- System Integration
About The Customer
The company is a leading global financial services firm operating with more than 150,000 employees in over 50 countries. The Customer Service division operates some 15,000 desktop workstations. The company was operating a customer service call center in India. The desktop workstations ran SUSE Enterprise Linux, which the company found to be a cost-effective choice for supporting its call center workers. As the size of the operation grew to more than 5,000 desktops, it became difficult to manage users and security on that many Linux machines.
The Challenge
The customer service division’s offshore call center had grown to over 5,000 Linux desktops that needed to be better managed and secured. Because authentication was being handled locally on the Linux machines, there was no easy way for the IT department to verify that any security policies were being followed. The company lacked the kind of central user account management for its Linux fleet that Active Directory typically provides for a Windows shop. In addition, the management of new hires, departures, and changing job roles had become a challenge. High turnover rates at the call center just made the problem worse.
The Solution
The company decided to implement PowerBroker Identity Services across its whole call center. The company now uses PBIS to manage all 5,000 of its call center Linux machines. Each machine has the PBIS agent installed, which allows it to be joined to Active Directory and managed from there. Now the call center IT group uses Active Directory tools, augmented by PowerBroker extensions, to manage user identities and establish group policies much as if they were managing Windows machines. User roles and group access rights are now centrally created and controlled. New users with specific sets of access rights are created quickly and easily within Active Directory and the PowerBroker Identity Services.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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