Stuff4U needs self-service password management, workflow integration, and auditing and reporting capabilities. It also wants to implement a centralized zero-day start/stop provisioning environment. Given our scenario, we would likely choose Business Layers eProvision solution and gave that company our Editor's Choice award. Business Layers provided everything we wanted: password and resource self-management and integration with virtually any custom or off-the-shelf system. Its pricing offered an acceptable ROI of 19 months, according to our calculations.
Our Budget
As with everyone, Stuff4U's budget is limited this year. The solutions for our scenario ranged from $175,000 to $600,000--expensive even at the low end, and without including professional services costs--so we were forced to consider which vendor would provide the best functionality and highest return on investment. Self-service and automation features carry the most and quickest returns, so our calculations focused on those features.
Because of Stuff4U's high turnover rate and the large number of nontechnical employees logging a high volume of password-related helpdesk calls, we calculated a potential 30 percent reduction in expenses in these areas with the automation of the provisioning process and reduction in helpdesk calls.
While Novell's solution was the least expensive to implement ($175,000 for our PeopleSoft, Novell 5, Windows NT 4.0 and Lotus Domino systems), only its automation features would provide us with any return because the product lacks integrated self-service management. Without that component, Stuff4U would need almost two years to get a return on investment. Meanwhile, Access360's enRole can address Stuff4U's helpdesk issues with self-service support, so at five times the cost of Novell's product ($600,000), it would take about 30 months to realize a full ROI. Both Business Layers' eProvision and Waveset's Lighthouse were more affordable initially, with implementations taking 20 and 26 months, respectively, to realize ROI. (For more on our ROI calculations, see our ROI Chart).
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