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Sundsvall Municipality

High quality secure e-services to citizens, co-workers and external users

The Municipality of Sundsvall decided that MobilityGuard offered the best solution to meet its requirements in terms of high security, flexibility and simplicity for the IT users. In addition, the MobilityGuard was the solution with the best quality/price ratio.

”The MobilityGuard solution comes complete with a remote password reset capability. This has reduced the workload of the IT Helpdesk staff, particularly during busy times such as after the holiday season when many staff often forget their passwords.”

Challenge

To provide 24/7 high quality e-services in a secure manner to its citizens, co-workers and external users – and in a single portal.

The Municipality of Sundsvall  must meet the objective of providing 24/7 high quality e-services to its citizens and external users. This required the establishment of a communal Portal with appropriate security measures, providing efficient access to services both internally and externally. A single portal to provide the gateway to the external website, www.sundvall.se, the internal City Hall website, as well as intranet and e-services.

In 2006, when the Municipality of Sundsvall analyzed its requirements, several challenges were identified:

A large number of web sites and external web pages hosted on multiple servers.

Each web page differed greatly in terms of the quality, appearance and design.

The intranet had static content and was difficult to update. Special tools and expertise were required in order to update webpages and it was not possible to add any new pages at all.

There were no means of secure Access to their electronic services. At that time access to electronic services was scattered and not properly integrated.

The management of software and user licenses varied for each type of electronic service.

In 2006, it was not possible for users to access to the intranet from a standard PC with an Internet connection. This caused difficulties for people who needed to use a mobile device or home PC to connect to electronic services at the City Hall.

Sundsvall City Hall also had no secure solution for users needing to login via the web. The Municipality used VPN connections to enable remote workers and home workers to access to the internal systems.

The problem with this solution was that once connected by a VPN, the users had access to the entire internal system. e.g. a user who needed to check his e-mail from home, could access also other files, applications and servers and this posed a security risk. Such a solution is open to threats from Trojans and viruses that could enter the internal network through unprotected PCs.

Solutions

A platform that can handle all types of accesses and login in a single solution

In spring 2007 the City of Sundsvall signed a contract for the installation of the MobilityGuard solution and by the summer of that year the system was operational. All municipal employees, students and the local population were then able to securely access the City Council’s systems.

There are also other City Councils in the region and their portals, are connected to the Sundsvall MobilityGuard system and are managed by the IT Department at Sundsvall.

All 120,000 people in the Municipality have secure network access via the MobilityGuard at Sundsvall.

During autumn 2010 the City of Sundsvall further expanded the services provided through MobilityGuard. In November the “Draknätet” Wireless Guest Network service was launched, allowing all users that are near a Sundsvall Wi-Fi hot spot to connect to Internet via WLAN. Once validated, using one of MobilityGuard’s secure authentication methods, users can surf the web without charge. Even tourists can take advantage of this facility by requesting their own secure login from the Tourist Office or the Municipal Library.

The Municipality of Sundsvall choose MobilityGuard

The Municipal portal includes:

Full SSL/TLS support with military standard encryption.

Secure session handling with no direct access to the applications from the device.

Full Cache Control and no foot prints are left after usage. Built in RDP-Gateway based on HTML5 technology.

External and internal services integrated into a single portal. Easy and secure access to Information and services for the users.

An adaptable security solution that varies according to the level of security demanded by the different systems.

Users login to a single interface and structure (Single Sign-On).

Some of the administrative systems are located outside the municipality and employees who need to access these can also do so in a secure manner. By using MobilityGuard’s Federation SAML2.0 functionality, secure access to these external systems is provided with Single Sign-On (SSO).

The website contains guidelines for electronic publications as well as the standards to be adhered to.

The MobilityGuard solution comes complete with a remote password reset capability. This has reduced the workload of the IT Helpdesk staff, particularly during busy times such as after the holiday season when many staff often forget their passwords.

The Municipality of Sundsvall facts

The City of Sundsvall is the capital of a region with 200,000 inhabitants, making it the largest labor market in northern Sweden employing around 10 000 staff. Sundsvall City Hall developed an IT Strategy with the aim of being the leading provider of IT access services in the region.

”The Municipality of Sundsvall decided that MobilityGuard offered the best solution to meet its requirements in terms of high security, flexibility and simplicity for the IT users. In addition, the MobilityGuard was the solution with the best quality/price ratio”

Solutions for The Municipality of Sundsvall