Ping Identity and SURFNet

Ping Identity is a leading provider of federated identity management solutions, delivering secure internet single sign-on (SSO) software and services to more than 300 companies worldwide. Ping Identity helps companies address compliance concerns for Google Enterprise deployments and provides standards-based SSO support for Google Apps, Google Search Appliance and Google Security and Compliance (Postini).

SURFnet is the organization that develops, implements and maintains the national research and education network (NREN) for the Netherlands. SURFnet was established in 1986 and is a subsidiary of the SURF organization, in which Dutch universities and research centers collaborate on innovative Information and Communication Technology facilities.

Challenges

Shortly after it was established, SURFnet developed a propriety solution for internet SSO. Over time, as larger numbers of entities joined, building out the proprietary solution became too time intensive and costly. SURFnet needed standards-based internet SSO that could integrate with a variety of existing internet SSO implementations, could be deployed quickly, and could support connections to Google Apps and other web-based applications.

Solution

SURFnet chose PingFederate for its proven ability to eliminate passwords by delivering standards-based SSO that supports a wide range of protocols, its short deployment time (operation in days), and its ability to scale as SURFnet’s interface and application access requirements change and expand.

Results

The PingFederate interface was implemented in days. Cross-federation connections are now deployed in a matter of hours with virtually no management overhead. The multi-protocol gateway currently supports internet SSO connections for 30 entities with a total user population of more than 350,000.

“PingFederate has delivered tremendous value to the identity federation service provided by NREN,” said Hans Zandbelt, Manager Middleware Services, SURFnet. “This includes support for connections to Google Apps.”

Cloud Sherpas and TechCFO

Cloud Sherpas is a cloud computing systems integrator and application developer that helps organizations leverage Google Apps and Google App Engine. The company delivers deployment, change management, support and development services to commercial, enterprise and educational institutions.

TechCFO is a team of seasoned Chief Financial Officers (CFOs), controllers, and accountants who work with clients to help them with strategic planning, capital strategy, fundraising, accounting, and other financial needs. TechCFO’s strategy of providing outsourced financial management services is paying off in the form of expansion – since its founding, the firm has grown rapidly, with offices across the United States.

Challenges

TechCFO's core asset is the cumulative expertise which its seasoned financial professionals offer to clients. With 14 partners – all CFOs with 15 to 20 years of experience – the firm's value revolves around their collective intellectual capital. As the firm continued to grow across the country, they needed a better way for the partners and additional staff to easily, securely exchange ideas and share knowledge.

In 2008, TechCFO began to address this need, collecting intellectual capital across the entire company. The firm published 700 key internal documents to public folders on the firm’s hosted email system, but results were disappointing. “Our hosted solution was slow, clunky, and difficult to search,” said Neal Miller, partner at TechCFO. “People had to know in advance where to look for a document. Overall, it wasn’t really functional.”

Solution

TechCFO learned about Google Apps Premier Edition at a seminar hosted by Google and Cloud Sherpas, a leading Google Apps enterprise deployment partner. One of the hands-on demonstrations showcased Google Sites, a service included with Google Apps that lets users easily search file attachments and publish free-form content, rich media and other information to a website.

“I saw that Google Sites and Google Apps were really perfect for us, especially because we could leverage Google’s search capability to help our staff efficiently find relevant information,” Miller recalls.

In addition to the knowledge base, Cloud Sherpas showed TechCFO how they could use Google Sites as a company intranet, and as a tool for partners in the firm to collaborate with clients. With new office openings targeted for early 2009, the firm enlisted Cloud Sherpas to implement Google Sites for their organization.

Cloud Sherpas guided TechCFO through the information design and deployment strategy of their new company intranet. To migrate the firm's 700+ document repository, Cloud Sherpas developed the Google Sites Bulk File Uploader, an automated tool that uploads files into Google Sites and preserves folder hierarchy with nested Google Sites file cabinet pages. And to promote adoption of the new suite of tools, Cloud Sherpas hosted a training session in Atlanta, with others participating online, and developed a short primer to help partners build their own Sites to share files with clients.

Results

Without adding hardware and complexity to the firm's IT mix, Cloud Sherpas has enabled TechCFO to collaborate online cost-effectively and securely with Google Sites. Partners across the firm are now able to quickly find the information they're looking for, and the new intranet has become an information hub central to helping the firm manage its growth.

“Cloud Sherpas did an exceptional, methodical job,” says Miller. Moving forward, TechCFO plans to roll out the other portions of Google Apps, starting with Gmail. “On a relative spend basis, what we pay in two months for our previous hosted email will cover a full year for the entire Google Apps suite,” says Miller. "That's a major benefit for us."

For more information, watch this recorded webinar featuring Cloud Sherpas and TechCFO or read the full case study.

PivotLink and DMA

PivotLink is a leading provider of business intelligence solutions delivered as Software as a Service (SaaS). PivotLink Reporting and Business Analysis makes it easy for users to access their business information where they need it and to collaborate within their company and with external partners.

DMA is a national food service distribution system whose shareholders are prominent regional food service distributors. Their shareholders joined forces to provide food service operators with the pricing, distribution and technological advantages of a national organization, and the service priority of a local business.

Challenges

DMA's wanted to increase the visibility of supply chain information for their customers. DMA's customers also wanted to interact with this information alongside other data that impacts their performance like gasoline prices. DMA turned to PivotLink to address these challenges.

Solution

DMA chose PivotLink as its business intelligence solution to provide users with shared information, reports, and performance goals within a highly secure and collaborative environment. With PivotLink delivered as a cloud-based solution, DMA receives all the benefits of enterprise analysis without a hardware environment to maintain, software to install, or upgrades to manage.

DMA worked with PivotLink to develop a gadget that would make their business data available within Google Apps and iGoogle, allowing users to access PivotLink data and analytics alongside news, market trends, and other gadgets. The PivotLink Gadget allowed DMA to extend the value of PivotLink without requiring additional IT resources to setup or maintain it.

Results

DMA is realizing more benefits than anticipated. Information on sales, budget, performance, and costs are readily available and can be used to monitor and proactively adjust conditions that lead increased costs like extra deliveries and will-call pickups.

“The senior management team at DMA is a fan of Google Apps. We use it every day to gain information on what is happening locally, in our region and in our industry,” said Jim Szatkowski, vice president of Data Services at DMA. “With the PivotLink Gadget, we’re increasing information visibility by combining a complete view of our business through PivotLink with all our vital business information. We have all the information where we need it to stay at the top of our industry. It requires a very collaborative focus, but the benefits are huge without requiring an extraordinary amount of effort.”

Cast Iron Systems and the Schumacher Group

Cast Iron Systems is a leading SaaS / Cloud integration company with thousands of customer integrations connecting cloud applications with the enterprise. Cast Iron for Google Apps is a ready-to-go solution that provides everything needed to integrate Google Apps with the rest of the enterprise in just days. Cast Iron has added support for the Google Secure Data Connector to let enterprises connect hundreds of on-premise and SaaS applications to Google Apps.

The Schumacher Group is the third largest and fastest growing emergency medicine practice management company in the US. They manage 2,500 physicians who care for 2.8 million patients each year in over 150 emergency rooms across 20 states.

Challenges

Over the past few years, Schumacher’s CIO Doug Menefee has been searching for a secure, efficient and cost-effective way of providing emergency room information to the thousands of providers that they manage. Providers wanted to monitor and measure their performance in the emergency room over time relative to other doctors in the same facility. They also wanted easy access to this information from anywhere at anytime. Schumacher saw offering this service as a source of competitve advantage in the emergency practice management business.

Doug looked at number of ways to solve the problem but they proved to be complex and costly. The large enterprise portals and integration products that he investigated cost millions of dollars and had low ROI. He also looked at custom coding the whole thing but realized that this would not be scalable or reliable over time.

Solution

Schumacher chose Google Apps as the portal for the providers and Cast Iron for Google Apps for the back-end integration. With support for gadgets in Google Apps, Schumacher's providers could view and interact with visualizations of their performance history right within the browser.

Cast Iron for Google Apps provided everything Schumacher needed to exchange data between the gadgets and Schumacher’s multi terabyte data warehouse that contains this provider data - complete integration functionality, including the Google Secure Data Connector and pre-configured Cast Iron connectivity to their backend systems.

The solution works in three steps:

1. When a doctor logs in and wants to view the data, the gadget sends request to Cast Iron via the Secure Data Connector
2. Cast Iron performs OAuth validation and then extracts data from the backend systems
3. Cast Iron transforms the data and sends it back to gadget using the Google Secure Data Connector

Results

Providers and doctors get access to emergency room data via Google gadgets from anywhere, anytime through a secure login. Providers and doctors can use gadgets to chart and compare their performance against others in their community and in the hospitals, which helps them identify and address areas for improvement. Offering this information to the providers via Google and Cast Iron is a competitive advantage for the Schumacher Group and helps differentiate them in the emergency medicine management industry.

“Cast Iron for Google Apps has enhanced the way we develop and deploy our secure provider portal, by providing a cost effective and flexible option. The solution developed by our staff using Cast Iron and Google provides valuable feedback to our clinical providers enabling us to improve the quality of healthcare provided during challenging economic times,” says Doug Menefee, CIO of the Schumacher Group.

For more information, watch this video from the Schumacher Group or visit www.castiron.com/google/demo.