Customer Case Umeå University

MORE OPEN AND WELCOMING IN A SAFER WAY

BACKGROUND AND CHALLENGE

Umeå University was founded in 1965 and is today one of the country's larger educational universities with approximately 43,000 students and employees. Life at the university is dynamic with a high mobility of students along with a rapid pace of local changes. The university should be an open place fundamentally while there is a high value in protecting research and infrastructure.

The university area consists of over 237,000 m2, excluding student and guest researcher accommodations. The properties have a large number of doors with card readers, and 43,000 identities should have access with their access cards to the right doors based on courses or other criteria. Additionally, the need for student access cards is somewhat uneven with peaks before the start of the autumn and spring terms, which is resource-intensive during these periods.

SOLUTION

The university chose the Serix IAM platform, which is software that can be connected to existing systems. Serix IAM retrieves information about identities from the university's AMPQ, which contains names, courses, employment information, etc. The platform also retrieves information from the access control system to determine which individuals have access to which areas based on their courses or employment.

The Serix IAM platform has self-service portals that allow identities to manage their own access cards, including uploading photos and applying for additional access. The university also has external contractors who need access, and to manage this, the Serix contractor portal is used.

The university has now automated the entire process for ordering access cards, and a hybrid solution has been chosen for card printing. The cards are printed at Seriline when there is high demand, but they can also be printed locally if needed.

"The solution fits very well for us at Umeå University as Serix IAM is user-friendly and is easy for both employees, students, and suppliers. We significantly increase security by having the right access for the right person at the right time, and it helps us meet the requirements we have from, among others, the security protection act and the MSB regulations for requirements for physical security, while being perceived as an open and welcoming place," says Mats Johansson, Security Coordinator, Umeå University.

RESULTS

If several systems need to be connected, there are many ready-made modules available. If there is no ready-made module, a modern API interface can be used to connect new systems or applications.

Currently, there are many different modules available, including access control systems, booking systems, education systems, digital ID control, and follow-me print. In addition, new integration modules are constantly being added based on customer needs.

Pierre Parrman, CTO at Seriline: "We have appreciated the collaboration we have had during the implementation. Through needs-driven innovation, we have together developed the functionality of the platform and also implemented Serix iD, which is a digital ID control. This facilitates the university to perform identity checks during exams or other attendance. A smartphone verifies the identity with clear feedback, this is done in a very secure way without installed apps in the smartphone."