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Question

Access management software for online products

Oct 20, 2014 11:39AM PDT

I am a librarian with a very limited technical background. I work for a government department with offices distributed across a large geographical area. Over the last 5+ years, we have amalgamated with other agencies and departments, all of which have been on different ICT systems. (I cant answer technical questions on our systems.)

Access to our online library services is IP address recognition. This means that until a staff member from a newly incorporated agency is brought into our ICT infrastructure, they cant access our library services. Also every time there is a change of IP addresses, we need to inform dozens of suppliers of our products. Finally new senior management wants to be able to track staff who use our services so that they can charge back to their unit (user pays).

What we want is a (relatively inexpensive) product which will register clients (preferably be able to upload client details, and not enter them manually), so they can access our services with one username/password (Is this a proxy server?), as well as track the usage of our products. This will also move us away from the IP address system we are currently using, and make our library services easily accessible both to new staff and in the mobile environment.

The previous project leader has looked at products such as Onelog, Athens, Shibboleth, and Ezproxy, which have traditionally been used by libraries. But there was always a problem with them, too expensive, or only allowed access, but didn't track usage, or vice versa (He has left and I cant find his report/notes, so I am basically starting from nothing).

I am now asking the ICT community if they can think of any software that might meet my requirements. I would appreciate any suggestions. Thank you.

(If this isnt the appropriate forum, please advise where I should go.)

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Too broad.
Oct 20, 2014 12:36PM PDT

I did some apps for the VA decades ago. It was a database to track and report work but the internal IT struggles always meant such was a long road to the solution. Over the years I've come to a few answers. Pay for it, use an open source system, or write it and develop a thick rhino hide.
Bob

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Access management software
Oct 20, 2014 1:00PM PDT

Hi Bob, thanks for your input

I agree with your answers, but in my situation it is the "Pay for it", "off the shelf" solution that is the only viable option.
I will investigate open source, but I cant see management agreeing to that

Regards
Jennifer

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Another system I deployed...
Oct 20, 2014 1:50PM PDT

Used MySQL for the backend. It was a major company and their IT didn't like it but would not pony up the bucks for Oracle or other. It went online over 9 years ago and has been on autopilot for 5+ years. Sometimes you have to go for open source/free since they won't pay.
Bob