Randstad Germany: All authorizations in one solution

One colleague gets sick, the other has to fill in quickly – and needs access to the data. In the past, assigning access authorizations at Randstad Germany was a major hassle. With the support of the Heilbronn-based consulting company IBsolution, Germany’s largest personnel service provider reorganized its identity management and can now manage access authorizations, user names and accounts with just a few clicks and at short notice.

Randstad is Germany’s leading personnel services provider. The Eschborn-based company places and leases workers and advises on recruitment projects in all aspects of HR work and planning. Randstad employs around 49,000 people, most of whom work as temporary staff at client companies.

The administrative effort is enormous: If an employee is promoted, registers for parental leave, leaves the company or changes departments, not only does the master data in SAP ERP Human Capital Management (SAP ERP HCM) have to be changed, but all access authorizations also have to be adjusted. Only in this way can employees access all the data that is important to them at all times – and only this data. No employee receives information that they do not need for their work. Data misuse is thus prevented.

Assigning authorizations efficiently

Randstad did not previously have a uniform identity management system. Employees’ accounts and their access authorizations were created in different systems that were hardly linked to each other. “The assignment of authorizations was complicated and inconsistent. We wanted faster processes. New employees should automatically get a new email account and be able to access all the systems they need,” says Michele Tucci, project manager at Randstad Germany. “Even if one of our employees changes positions or takes a vacation replacement, they should quickly get the necessary authorizations.” SAP partner IBsolution therefore introduced the SAP Identity Management (IdM) platform at the staffing company, accelerating all application and change processes: User data is now generated automatically from the HR solution. If the data changes there, the access authorizations are also automatically adjusted.

Double check for uniform data

Before the actual implementation, there is an extensive system check. “Technically, SAP Identity Management is the right platform. But everything must also be right in terms of content, so that no employee gets the wrong system access and they can only access the data they really need,” explains the project manager of IBsolution. “That's why we first used a specially developed method to examine all authorization procedures, identified their properties and used them to develop new schemes according to which authorizations were assigned.” To track down old or duplicate data, SAP Identity Management also checks all master data for duplicates. The system then creates a separate, unique ID for each employee and replaces the old identifiers step by step until every user has a uniform ID for every system.

Automatically integrated

With SAP Identity Management, most application processes now run automatically: when a new employee joins Randstad, SAP ERP HCM records to which group of people and to which organizational unit he belongs. Even before his first day of work, the software automatically creates the correct e-mail address, assigns user names, authorizations and passwords. If the employee changes department, this is registered in SAP ERP HCM and passed on to SAP Identity Management, which in turn adjusts the authorizations. “If an employee needs access data for a particular system at short notice, he can now apply for it himself in a straightforward manner,” says Michele Tucci.

Significantly reduce licensing costs

However, Randstad not only saves time with the solution, but also license costs. A standardized blocking, delimitation and deletion date means that all systems are informed of employee absences or departures. License fees are now only incurred for those who actually use the respective solution. And Randstad has another advantage thanks to the new identity management: the automated solution is audit-proof. It is possible to track at any time who has processed what and when.