OASIS Member News - Abridean Releases Provisor 3.5

["Dana Robertson" <dana.robertson@abridean.com>]

Abridean Releases Provisor 3.5 to Bolster Enterprise Provisioning
Capabilities

Provisor Gateway Adds Extensibility while
Lowering Cost and Complexity


Chicago, Illinois - Abridean Inc., leaders in the development of user
management and provisioning solutions, has announced the launch of
AbrideanProvisor(tm) 3.5.  Provisor's secure identity administration
capabilities enable organizations to create and manage their user profiles,
and features a sophisticated provisioning engine for rapid, fully automated
account set-up and resource allocation. It replaces time-consuming,
error-prone manual processes, dramatically reducing ongoing IT costs and
mitigating security risks.

Provisor 3.5 adds the following functionality:

* AbrideanProvisor(tm) Gateway: an SPML-compliant interface and toolset that
allows customers to easily and rapidly deploy specialized provisioning
agents
* Identity Synchronizer: an important safeguard that ensures user
administration functions that happen outside of Provisor are synchronized

Abridean Embraces SPML

Abridean has adopted the emerging provisioning standard SPML (Service
Provisioning Markup Language) as an integral part of Provisor.  SPML was
recently developed and approved by a technical committee of OASIS (the
Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) for
use in its current and future extensible interfaces. Abridean has also
become a sponsoring member of OASIS.

"Abridean's adoption of SPML positions its Provisor solution to interoperate
with other SPML-compliant solutions. It represents a standards based
approach enabling applications to leverage the identity infrastructure in a
way that is less dependent on any specific vendor's implementation and may
result in lower deployment costs," said Daniel Blum, Senior VP and Research
Director at Burton Group.  "Abridean's move will result in faster deployment
of identity management systems that incorporate support for SPML, and adds
momentum behind the standard, ultimately benefiting customers of all
vendors."

Provisor Gateway

Provisor Gateway enables organizations to rapidly create and deploy
provisioning agents for internally developed applications, expanding the
overall reach and value of their user management solution while lowering
costs and deployment risks.  Agents can now be developed in days, not weeks.
The Provisor Gateway also enables an organization to leverage existing
investments in provisioning scripts by integrating them with Provisor and
utilizing Provisor's easy-to-use interface and audit capabilities.


"As an organization, we have always taken the approach of developing
solutions that are simple to deploy, configure, and use," said Greg
O'Malley, Abridean's CTO.  "Provisor Gateway's ease of use is now further
improved with simplified extensibility.  We have been able to develop and
deploy new provisioning agents faster than ever before, and more
importantly, so will our customers."

Expanded Security Enforcement

The Provisor 3.5 Identity Synchronization capability ensures that identity
information added directly to enterprise directories (such as Active
Directory) is automatically synchronized with Provisor.  This creates a more
secure environment by centralizing all user access information and
eliminating security gaps. The Identity Synchronizer can also be used as
part of a migration or mass movement of accounts and identity information
from one system to another (such as during an Exchange 5.5 to Exchange
2000/2003 upgrade) thus enhancing IT productivity.

"It is critical to organizational security that a user management solution
be aware of activities that occur outside of its framework," continued
O'Malley. "Provisor's Identity Synchronization features are easily deployed
and will start to identify and close security gaps immediately."


About Abridean Inc.
Abridean provides user management and provisioning software for Global 2000
and mid-market enterprises, as well as service providers hosting enterprise
software. The company's offerings replace time-consuming, error-prone manual
processes, dramatically reducing ongoing IT costs and mitigating security
risks. AbrideanProvisor(tm) includes secure identity administration for
creating and maintaining user profiles, as well as a provisioning engine for
rapid, fully automated account set-up and resource allocation. Named as one
of the world's Top 30 Enablers by ASPNews, Abridean is a key Microsoft
partner whose customers include Sprint, USA.NET, COLT Telecom, AT&T Canada.
For more information, visit www.abridean.com or call 1-877-520-4277.

Abridean Contact:
Dana Robertson
Marketing
dana.robertson@abridean.com
1.877.520.4277