Resolving Active Directory issues at Shrewsbury and Telford

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust use Microsoft Active Directory as the foundation of their ICT network. Over time, the processes around the management of the user accounts on Active Directory were leading to a number of problems. Accounts were remaining live after employees had left, large numbers of accounts could not be linked to current staff, and inconsistencies in the administrative approach were causing support and address book issues.

"Directory Manager is simple to use, requiring only an hour or two of my time a week at most. BDS’ support has been great and the system has been tailored to our Trust’s needs. It is now an integral part of our AD and user management process and I only wish we’d had it sooner." - John Williams IT Support Engineer

Linking ESR to Active Directory

Shrewsbury sought a solution that would provide a ‘managed’ Active Directory user base, without the need for significant input from ICT staff. Shrewsbury turned to Cloud21 and Directory Manager to achieve this. "Previously we had no link to ESR making Active Directory difficult to keep up-to-date. Directory Manager immediately resolved that problem."

Improve Security and automate provisioning with Directory Manager

Directory Manager integrates directly with the NHS Electronic Staff Records (ESR) via the Generic Outbound Interface (GOI). New and changed staff records result in the creation or update of Active Directory accounts and Exchange mailboxes. This reduces cost of administration and ensures the directory is updated in a timely and consistent manner.

Directory Manager:

• Automates provisioning of user accounts, mailboxes, folders and security rights
• Ensures accounts for leavers are de-provisioned promptly reducing security risks
• Notifes other system administrators with starter and leaver information and other details from Active Directory

Shrewsbury were able to quickly take advantage of the benefits of systematic provisioning, including:

• Improved Information Governance evidence with Directory Manager providing a full audit of all changes applied to Active Directory
• Reduced redundancy with the identification of a large number of expired accounts
• Improved communication and security due to improved quality of data and the management of distribution and security group membership

Improve staff experience and reduce the admin burden on your IT teams with Directory Manager. Learn more