Identity management software company Netegrity Inc. plans to announce a new version of its user provisioning product on Tuesday.
The Waltham, Mass., company will unveil IdentityMinder eProvision 4.0, with improved workflow features that allow administrators to create and manage policies for extending or curtailing user access to network resources and applications. It is the first major release of the eProvision product since Netegrity purchased provisioning company Business Layers Inc. in December 2003, said Randy Fuller, product marketing manager at Netegrity.
Netegrity has added a new workflow engine to eProvision 4.0 that includes a graphical user interface that allows administrators to use “drag and drop” features to build workflow processes, such as creating a series of actions needed to change a user’s access to network resources. Earlier versions of eProvision required administrators to write scripts to create new processes, Fuller said.
With a feature called “intelligent workflow process,” eProvision 4.0 allows multiple workflow tasks to take place simultaneously, rather than requiring one task to be complete before another can begin, Netegrity said.
The new version of eProvision also extends the eProvision product from Microsoft Corp.’s Windows environments to those that use the Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) architecture, such as Sun Microsystems Inc.’s Solaris, he said.
Together, the changes are intended to make eProvision more enticing to enterprise customers who are looking for ease of use and solid administration features, he said.
A number of factors are driving interest in user provisioning technology, which makes it easier to manage access to resources on a company’s network. Enterprises want to extend access to a broad range of users, from employees to customers and business partners, and a diverse range of applications, including internal and Web-based external applications. In addition, companies are anxious to comply with new regulations governing information privacy, including the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 which mandates that companies maintain strict control over their financial systems, Netegrity said.
The newest version of eProvision is due out in June and costs, on average, around US$30 per user. Pricing differs depending on the number of user licenses purchased and the number of network resources that will be provisioned, Fuller said.