Naturalis

Flawless HelloID deployment at Naturalis

Naturalis is widely recognised as a museum, but it is much more than that. It serves as a biodiversity centre with an immense collection, playing a significant scientific role, while making its collection digitally accessible to researchers and the public in numerous ways. Naturalis was in search of a future-proof Identity Management solution and opted for Tools4ever’s HelloID Identity-as-a-Service offering.

“Naturalis has undergone a major reorganisation in recent years,” says Marc de Hart, ICT service manager at Naturalis. “Following our merger with the National Herbarium and the Zoological Museum of Amsterdam, our collection has expanded to 42 million plants, animals and rocks. We’ve also moved into a new building and completely revamped our exhibition. Along with this, the number of employees has significantly increased. In addition to the staff, there are over 100 scientists, students and PhD candidates working at Naturalis, and we have many collaborations with universities and research institutions. Naturalis is an innovative ICT organisation where we develop applications using big data and artificial intelligence to conduct research on biodiversity (including automated image recognition, DNA sampling) and to analyse and make the collection accessible. With these changes and dynamics, our existing Identity Management solution was no longer up to the task. Managing over a thousand accounts with daily changes, our self-developed script-based solution had become too complicated, labour-intensive and error-prone.”

After scouting the market, Naturalis put out a competitive tender. Several parties were evaluated, with Tools4ever’s HelloID emerging as the best fit for Naturalis’ requirements and expectations. HelloID offers a cloud-based IAM platform that includes a Provisioning module, Access Management features and Service Automation capabilities. Marc de Hart shares more details: “For the initial rollout, we primarily focused on the Provisioning functionality. We needed a solution that could automate the creation and management of user accounts and their corresponding rights based on source information from the HR system. This automation had to include adjustments for changes in an individual’s role within the organisation or upon their departure. It was crucial for us to have access to a fully developed and forward-looking solution. Additionally, it was important that after the rollout, we could manage many administrative tasks and further development ourselves.”

The organisational policy as the foundation

“The new solution fully automates our account management, with AFAS HR source data serving as the starting point. As the ICT department, we have deployed and managed the Identity Management functionality, but the Human Resources & Organisation department manages the HR source data, and our system processes only changes previously recorded or modified within the HR systems. We have also deliberately invested in establishing a clear Identity Management policy. Using role-based access control features in HelloID, we have mapped out the various personas within the organisation and our organisational structure—including sectors, departments and teams—and translated these into a set of business rules. This ensures clarity for every employee about which groups and distribution lists they are linked to, as well as the resources and access rights that come with their position and role. This approach not only eliminates errors, but also ensures our system is completely auditable.”

Flawless rollout and handover to our management team

“As a service manager, I’m thrilled with the flawless rollout of the project. The preparation actually took the most time. Choosing HelloID was the result of a tender process involving several suppliers, and of course, as an organisation, you need to have your requirements and preferences well-defined. After the selection, our team, together with Tools4ever, carefully considered the personas, groups and associated business rules to use. With that foundation in place, the rollout took little time, requiring only a brief migration period. Thanks to HelloID’s detailed project plan, the intensive involvement of our specialists and Tools4ever’s comprehensive training facilities and documentation, our own management team was able to take over the solution’s management smoothly. We are now comfortably managing tasks like adding new groups, tweaking business rules and connecting new systems on our own. Plus, should the need arise, we have direct access to Tools4ever’s support team.”

Thrilled with the results

“Without exaggeration, switching to HelloID has been a breath of fresh air for the entire organisation. As mentioned earlier, we have a dynamic workforce, while the old account management involved a complex chain of automated scripts and manual steps. If someone forgot something or made a mistake, that caused a lot of back-and-forth to correct things. With daily account changes, this meant some employees spent a significant portion of their time on such tasks, often with frustratingly long turnaround times. Now, we have a fully automated process chain for onboarding, transitioning and offboarding processes. It is clear to everyone that the HR system provides the source data, and HelloID automatically orchestrates the communication of the correct information to the correct receiving systems. As the IT department, we no longer have to worry about account management, and for our employees, this has made their work much more enjoyable.”