Healthcare organization selects BIO-key identity and access management for remote authentication

Nonprofit healthcare organization Partners in Health (PIH) has selected biometrics and access control provider BIO-key’s PortalGuard Identity and Access Management (IAM) solution to improve its authentication options for secure access to enterprise applications and cut down on ongoing difficulties related to password resets, according to a company announcement.

Boston-based PIH provides medical care and support in underserved communities or geographic regions, and found managing password resets for a global userbase often located in remote areas to be one of the primary challenges facing its staff. A portion of its mobile users do not have access to smartphones, cellular signal coverage or the internet, making a flexible IAM solution with different secure user authentication options necessary.

The digital identity project was therefore taken on to provide the userbase with a password reset solution that was easy to deploy and user-friendly enough to support self-service. The scope was then extended to provide PIH employees with a single sign-on solution for access to Office 360, Zoom, Salesforce, Atlassian, and several proprietary applications.

“Deploying advanced access management capabilities to a remote global userbase comes with extraordinary challenges and requires a well-architected security product,” states PortalGuard President Mark Cochran. “Inefficient password management processes create security risks, cause work stoppages, and can negatively affect the user experience. In healthcare, access to patient records and being able to process medical transactions is critical. PortalGuard was the perfect IAM solution to help PIH quickly and easily manage an international group of employees with unique needs and lower its operational costs.”

PortalGuard was also recently deployed by Eastern Florida State College, among a raft of institutions signing up with BIO-key since it acquired the solution in the PistolStar acquisition announced this past June.