ITE safeguards the online experience for 25,000 students and 2,400 staff with CA SiteMinder
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CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORY
ITE safeguards the online
experience for 25,000
students and 2,400 staff
with CA SiteMinder
CUSTOMER PROFILE
Industry: Education
Company: Institute of Technical Education, Singapore
Employees: 2,400
BUSINESS CHALLENGE SOLUTION BENEFIT
The Institute of Technical With ITE’s online portal at ITE has been using CA CA SiteMinder helps ITE
Education (ITE), a statutory the heart of student/ SiteMinder since 2002 to enhance the online
board under the Ministry of teacher communication provide single sign-on experience for teachers,
Education, is a post- and e-learning, the authentication for the students and staff, improve
secondary institution that institute needs to ensure portal, which was recently information security and
provides pre-employment associated systems and upgraded in 2010. The simplify IT management
training to secondary data are secure but also solution authenticates up and support. This is key for
school leavers and training easy to access. to 26,000 users every day. maintaining the institute’s
for working adults. reputation.
we can
Institute of Technical Education
Business
Innovative technical education to support Singapore’s workforce competitiveness
The Institute of Technology Education has an enrollment of 25,000 full-time students aged 16 to 21
and 8,000 part-time adult learners under its continuing education system.
ITE is a principal provider of career and technical education in the country, and a key developer of
national occupational skills certification and standards, which enhance Singapore’s workforce
competitiveness.
The institute has three colleges – ITE College East, ITE College West and ITE College Central – with a
total of eight campuses located across the republic and 2,400 faculty and members of staff.
ITE’s five-year strategy is underpinned by 28 key initiatives designed to lead innovation in
technical education.
Challenge
Safeguarding the integrity and security of online learning systems
ITE’s Web portal is a vital tool for communication and collaboration between students, staff and
faculty. As Tan Kay Chuan, Divisional Director, Information Technology at ITE, explains, “For most of our
staff and students, the first thing they do each day is log onto the institute’s portal. We have 8,000
student desktops – which is a three to one student to computer ratio – throughout our campuses for
this purpose. The aim is to provide anytime, anywhere access to the online resources they need to
maximise their chances of academic and employment success.”
“We need to be able to set up
12,000 new identities for portal
access on an annual basis.”
Tan Kay Chuan
Divisional Director, Information Technology, ITE
02Institute of Technical Education
ITE’s portal is divided into three categories with various applications and functionality accessible via
each area:
• Live: provides self-service access to enrolment records and human resource systems so students
can update personal details and staff can request holiday or view employment benefits.
• Learn/Study: forms the foundation of ITE’s e-learning system, including knowledge-based
applications and e-tutoring for students.
• Play: a collaborative community space that features blogs, videos and other entertainment
for students and staff.
To safeguard the integrity and availability of the portal and associated data, ITE must prevent access
by unauthorised individuals. “With our online portal at the heart of our learning activities and internal
communication, we must ensure it is safe from misuse or malicious attack,” comments Tan. “In
particular, we need to protect confidential HR records.”
With a constantly evolving student community, ITE must balance its robust security requirements
with simple administration. As Tan explains, “We need to be able to set up 12,500 new identities for
portal access on an annual basis. This is a massive undertaking that can cause numerous problems,
particularly with new students regularly forgetting their passwords.”
Solution
A single sign-on platform for efficient authentication
ITE has been using CA SiteMinder to authenticate the identities of students, staff and faculty accessing
its Web portal since 2002.
When ITE embarked on an upgrade of its portal in 2009, it opted to continue using CA SiteMinder as a
crucial part of the online platform.
Tan comments, “CA SiteMinder has proven itself to be reliable, easy to use and able to handle high
transaction volumes. A few of our staff had attended CA SiteMinder training sessions in the past, which
were comprehensive and very informative. As we had built up extensive expertise and skills using the
solution, it made sense to continue to take advantage of its capabilities.”
Based on IBM WebSphere and Web 2.0 technologies, the new portal is supported by 11 application
servers, Web servers, content management servers and search servers.
ITE worked in close partnership with system integrator CSC to implement the new underlying
infrastructure for the portal. As Tan explains, “CSC provided end-to-end expertise throughout the
15-month development and implementation cycle for the revamped online portal. On the rare
03Institute of Technical Education
occasions when we required support from CA Technologies, it was very helpful and responsive, and
called back within 10 minutes to address our query.”
CA SiteMinder provides single sign-on access to more than 10 different key applications within the
ITE portal, including iStudent (student administration), eTutor (e-Learning), Lotus Notes applications
(workflow), CRM (industry-based training), plus knowledge management, business intelligence,
employee self-service and other systems.
26,000
users a day are authenticated
by CA SiteMinder
“Users are authenticated by a single identity and password and user profiles are passed on to the
relevant application to determine access privileges,” Tan comments. “Single sign-on means each user
only has one password for multiple applications and log-in is simple and fast, even for new students.”
The solution authenticates up to 26,000 users every day and is able to cope with peaks in demand,
including the annual student enrolment period.
Benefit
Providing students and staff with better access to online resources
The enhanced portal went live in December 2010 and provides ITE’s students, faculty and staff with a
more collaborative and interactive experience. Tan comments, “The portal is now more user-friendly.
CA SiteMinder plays a crucial role in ensuring the platform provides seamless and secure access to
learning materials and resources.”
04Institute of Technical Education
By using CA SiteMinder as a vital component of its portal, ITE has been able to:
• Enhance the online experience for students, staff and faculty by providing rapid
single sign-on access to more applications
• Safeguard the security and integrity of online systems and data
• Simplify IT management and support by reducing the number of password-related
calls to the helpdesk
“Our portal and e-learning offerings are particularly important to cater to the learning needs of our
students who are generally less academically inclined but learn well in an interactive computing
environment. As a technical college, we need to demonstrate that we are at the cutting-edge of
technology and can provide an unsurpassed experience for students and faculty. CA Technologies helps
us to achieve this,” comments Tan.
ITE is currently investigating offering its courses to overseas students. If the plan progresses, its online
teaching capabilities will become even more important to the college’s success.
“CA SiteMinder plays a crucial role
in ensuring seamless and secure
access to learning materials.”
Tan Kay Chuan
Divisional Director, Information Technology, ITE
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