More than half of police forces sign up to use Siemens Enterprise Communications’ IAM Managed Service

Published 26th July 2010

LONDON, UK, June 22, 2010 – During the last three months Siemens Enterprise Communications has successfully concluded agreements with 31 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales to supply them with its new Identity and Access Management (IAM) Managed Service.

Based on robust and secure identity registration and digital identity production, the company’s new IAM managed service with flexible contract options gives forces a viable way to operate a common security platform for secure information database access and inter-force collaborations without undertaking capital investment.

The service is available under the four year National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) purchasing framework achieved by the company in 2009.

Siemens Enterprise Communications developed the service within NPIA guidelines to help justice and emergency services organisations simplify their development of common operational standards and secure information sharing while driving wider improvements and operational efficiencies.

Because it is delivered as a managed service, the new IAM platform gives subscriber organisations the ability to scale up their information access systems through operational budgets and maintain effective cost controls. User organizations also have the flexibility to deploy the platform for one to ten year contract periods, according to their organisation’s specific needs. In addition, the service is backed by state-of-the-art systems and technical back up from Siemens Enterprise Communications’ expert support teams.

Siemens is creating a full roadmap of additional features to enhance the managed service. Developments will focus on driving direct cost reduction and efficiency gains through the simplification of IT access & administration for the Police Service on the back of a nationally leveraged platform.

Andy Clark, head of public sector, Siemens Enterprise Communications, said: “This very rapid uptake shows how committed UK police forces are to establishing common, secure and streamlined information sharing processes. Our IAM Managed Service builds on the ‘build once, reissue many times’ principle - not only does it provides a robust and resilient solution to forces’ information access needs, it also supports their wider rationalisation of IT infrastructure and processes. We believe it has wider commercial potential with non-Home Office funded forces as well as other justice or first responder public safety organisations.”

NPIA Chief Information Officer, Richard Earland said: “The NPIA is committed to helping police forces improve the way they share information and intelligence. Easier access to information and better sharing of it directly impacts frontline policing by ensuring that officers get the information they need when they need it. Efficiency and effectiveness of police information systems means less time in the station for officers and more on the streets protecting the public.

"This is one of the first projects delivered under the Information Systems Improvement Strategy (ISIS) and we are very pleased with the wide and early take-up of Siemens Enterprise Communications’ new IAM Managed Service.”

ENDS

Notes to Editor
About Siemens Enterprise Communications Identity and Access Management (IAM) service

Fully compliant to NPIA-defined policies and standards, the Siemens Enterprise Communications IAM service provides a centrally hosted, managed, and integrated Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and Card Management System (CMS). Subscriber organisations can prepare and issue end users with identity credentials, as a smartcard or username and password via the IAM Central Service (CS). This allows forces to rapidly deploy IL3 and IL4 identity credentials for access to national restricted and confidential applications. The Managed Service is implemented on top of the IAM Central Services platform and therefore benefits from the same levels of support and resilience as the core IAM platform.

About NPIA
NPIA is a single national organisation created to support effective policing. It provides expertise in areas as diverse as information and communications technology, support to information and intelligence sharing, core police processes, managing change and recruiting, developing and deploying people. The organisation’s creation in April 2007 streamlined and simplified the way that policing improvement is delivered locally and nationally. NPIA works for the police service and is governed by a tripartite board comprising ACPO, APA, Home Office and independent members. The ACPO President is a member of the NPIA Board.

About Siemens Enterprise Communications
Siemens Enterprise Communications is a premier provider of end-to-end enterprise communications, including voice, network infrastructure and security solutions that use open, standards-based architectures to unify communications and business applications for a seamless collaboration experience. This award-winning "Open Communications" approach enables organizations to improve productivity and reduce costs through easy-to-deploy solutions that work within existing IT environments, delivering operational efficiencies. It is the foundation for the company's OpenPath® commitment that enables customers to mitigate risk and cost-effectively adopt unified communications. Jointly owned by The Gores Group and Siemens AG, Siemens Enterprise Communications companies include Siemens Enterprise Communications, Cycos, and Enterasys Networks.

For more information about Siemens Enterprise Communications or Enterasys please visit www.siemens-enterprise.com or www.enterasys.com

Note: Siemens Enterprise Communications & Co K.G. is a trademark licensee of Siemens AG. HiPath, OpenOffice, OpenScape and OpenStage, are registered trademarks of Siemens Enterprise Communications & Co K.G. or its affiliates. All other company, brand, product and service names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

This release contains forward-looking statements based on beliefs of Siemens’ management. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” "estimate," "forecast," "expect," "intend," "plan" "should" and "project" are are used to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the company's current views with respect to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause the actual results to be materially different, including, among others, changes in general economic and business conditions, changes in currency exchange rates and interest rates, introduction of competing products, lack of acceptance of new products or services and changes in business strategy. Actual results may vary materially from those projected here. Siemens does not intend or assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.