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Quick Facts
With its 173 stores and additional distribution centers, this department store had
a challenging task to keep its corporate directory updated for its 20,000 employees.
The Information Securities (IS) group was seeking an easy to use, Web-based application
they could link to from their Intranet with enough control to maintain security.
They were spending far too much time making simple changes to the directory and
they needed to reclaim that time for more strategic projects.
The IS groups selected Imanami's GroupID Self-Service to solve their directory management
problem and they are very pleased with the results.
Customer Profile
Headquartered in California, this chain is a family-friendly promotional neighborhood
department store offering trend-right fashions and home décor for the entire family
at affordable prices. They have a well-earned reputation for its extensive selection
of national and private-label fashions and house wares.
Operating 173 stores in 8 states, employing more than 20,000 associates and with
approximately 11.2 million retail square feet overall, the stores have an average
of 59,000 retail square feet and are located primarily in regional malls, community
shopping centers and freestanding locations.
With so many store locations and additional distribution centers, keeping track
of the company's 20,000 employees was a major challenge for the IS group.
Business Situation
The problem was simple, the address book was horribly out of date and it was eating
up time of the high-value IS group to manage it. The IS group would get at least
a dozen requests a day to update the phone directory, which meant manual entry by
one of the IS staff.
Also, the existing system was not Web-based and could not be linked into the Company's
Intranet, which was one of their goals. With the help of an IT consulting group,
Allin Consulting, two of the IS analysts, Sonny Vu and Anthony Lee, set out to find
a directory management application that could ease the pain of maintenance and be
integrated into the Company's Intranet.
Solution
After being introduced to Imanami's GroupID Self-Service and conducting a product
trial, the IS analysts saw the benefits immediately. They could have employees manage
their own contact information, while they could keep control over the fields and
security.
GroupID Self-Service is a powerful web-based directory management solution that
provides selfservice to users to update their own directory information, search
the global catalog, modify objects in different domains and manage their own groups.
It takes the burden of directory management away from Corporate IT, Human Resources
and other groups, saving time and resources. GroupID Self-Service also allows the
technology groups to maintain as much control and security as required by the organization;
and because it is Web-based, it easily integrates into a corporate Intranet to replace
less reliable phone directory applications.
"GroupID Self-Service was very easy to implement and has not caused us any trouble
since we installed it. It took approximately two weeks to implement from start to
finish and a half an hour to rollout. It is pretty much out-of-the box ready. We
only made a few customizations so that the Web page would look like the store's Intranet
format. Now, we just link over to Imanami from our SharePoint Intranet site and
our employees can maintain their records. It doesn't get much easier than that,"
said Sonny Vu, Information Security Analyst.
"I used to have to make directory updates several times a day and spend even more
time if the request needed clarification. Now I may get a request for help once
a week. Our employees really like the system and they are using it," added Anthony
Lee, Information Security Analyst.
These IS analysts are also looking toward the future and the potential for expanding
their capability with Imanami's other products. Some of the areas of interest are
advanced group management, provisioning of accounts and other customization features.
Return on Investment
The bottom line for the IS group is that their valuable time is now available for
high-impact projects, yet the important task of accurate corporate directory services
is solved. They have reclaimed 3-5 hours of their time a week.
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