With Windows 7 migrations in full swing, few would argue the advantages of a strong privilege management solution for IT. A recent vendor survey shows a 463 percent jump in demand to implement privilege management among companies moving this year to Windows 7. Sixty-three percent of respondents consider it critical to manage administrative privileges for end-users to ensure security and reduce vulnerabilities.

When users don’t have local administrator rights, they can’t make changes that destabilize the system, or require extra support to correct the problems they accidentally create. Additionally, a locked-down system is less susceptible to malware.

But by its very name, a “personal computer” is generally seen by a user as “my device.” Many organizations allow users to run with local admin rights simply because it’s too difficult to keep systems locked down.

But removing admin rights is only a part of the fix. There are legitimate situations that require elevated privileges for users to accomplish their jobs. What companies really need is a way for users who need those rights to gain those privileges smoothly.

How do you accomplish that? A strong privilege management solution needs to take individual and collective user needs into consideration. Users have a set of things they do to get their jobs done, and they expect to be able to perform their necessary work without IT intervention. If users have been able to perform certain tasks on their own in the past, they are naturally going to expect that right to still be in place after a desktop lockdown happens.

But removing administrator rights is only part of the story – organizations need a privilege management solution so that users are still able to perform approved tasks that require elevated rights. Simply removing local admin rights without providing for a way to elevate approved processes in a controlled way leads to end user frustration. Like any other infrastructure software project, a successful rollout and implementation of a privilege management solution requires planning.

Organizations need to understand what the operational changes will be and how to implement these changes in a way that is most helpful to the end users in the organization.

The steps I’m about to outline are described in more detail in a new eBook from privilege management provider Viewfinity (www.viewfinity.com). However, I’ll summarize them here, to provide an overview of the steps any IT administrator could take to enact a least privilege environment with the least disruption possible, and with maximum grace.

In short, these are the critical steps:

Acknowledge end-user requirements

Define the project’s operational and security objectives

Communicate objectives with end-users

Provide visibility of operational status

Enable a feedback processes

In future columns (as well as in subsequent chapters of my eBook) I will focus on breaking down the step-by-step process into project phases, including tools that will help you collect and organize the data you’ll need in order to get started.

We’ll address how to identify user accounts that have local administrative rights, discover which applications and desktop functions require administrative rights, and how to effectively manage the number of policies required to allow end users to have the functionality they need in order to do their job.

In this column, we’ll focus on the initial step of acknowledging end-user requirements.

Most organizations that are looking to implement a privilege management solution are coming from an environment where end users have had local administrator rights. Many organizations have allowed a number of users to run with administrator right because there has been no practical way to limit the access and maintain productivity. By its very name, a “personal computer” is generally seen by a user a “my device.”         Many organizations allow users to customize the systems according to their own preferences.

In many organizations, users have been running with local administrator rights because historically it has been too difficult to lock down the system.      There are a number of use cases where users need to have elevated rights to complete their tasks. In particular, with the growth in the use of laptops by an increasingly mobile and remote workforce, organizations have had difficulty in enabling productivity without granting users local administrator rights. Without a privilege management solution, the support of remote workers that don’t have administrative rights can be a challenge.

Information workers understand that computer systems access business confidential information and that there is a need to help ensure that the systems are free from malware to help protect this information. They also generally understand the value of using approved software and they want their organizations to be in compliance with software licensing and regulatory controls.            A successful privilege management project helps organizations enable end users to do what they need to accomplish their jobs and protect the corporate resources by adding a layer of defense against malware and helping to promote the use of authorized software.

As much as users may acknowledge the need for better security, they want to be able to get their jobs done.

A strong privilege management solution needs to take the user needs into consideration. End users don’t want to think in terms of privileges. The users simply have a set of things they do with their computers to get their job done, and they expect to be able to perform their necessary work without needing regular IT intervention. For example, if users have been able to perform certainly tasks on their own in the past, such as install approved software from known locations, they are going to expect to still be able to do it after a desktop lockdown happens. Many legacy applications require elevated rights to be able to run successfully.

In the planning phase of a desktop lockdown and privilege management project, companies need to acknowledge that there are tasks that end users expect to perform for their job functions that need elevated rights. Simply stated, moving to a locked down environment without acknowledging that there are going to be cases where certain processes need elevated rights will lead to disenchanted users.

However moving to a locked down environment in conjunction with a privilege management solution should make the transition nearly transparent to end-users, which is the optimal objective of every significant IT change.

For a full copy of the Viewfinity eBook “Moving to a Least Privilege Environment: A Step-by-Step Plan,” visit www.viewfinity.com. To reach author Dwain Kinghorn , email dkinghorn@sagecreekpartners.com

You can download the report here.

The complete article can be found here http://www.sandhill.com/opinion/editorial.php?id=176&page=1

1. Be a good coach
2. Empower your team and don’t micromanage
3. Express interest in team members success and personal well-being
4. Don’t be a sissy: Be productive and results-oriented
5. Be a good communicator and listen to your team
6. Help your employees with career development
7. Have a clear vision and strategy for the team
8. Have key technical skills so you can advise the team

Click here for a full copy of the article

Download full report here

In this report, SageCreek Managing Partner Greg Butterfield provides a detailed synopsis of the Hedgehog concept in Good to Great, a business book by Jim Collins. This report gives companies input on how to find their own “hedgehog” – the thing they are best in the world at and that they are passionate about.

Download Full Document Here