Exclusive: How Calvary Health Care partnered with SailPoint

In the realm of cybersecurity and healthcare IT, SailPoint and Calvary Health Care exemplify the integration of advanced identity security systems to enhance operational efficiency and security. These organizations are at the forefront of addressing the unique challenges posed by digital transformation in their respective fields.

Nam Lam, Managing Director ANZ at SailPoint, articulates the core of their operations: "We're a global cybersecurity company specializing in identity security. Consider us the ERP for identity management," he explained. SailPoint's presence is expansive, operating on almost every continent, with over 100 million identities under management and nearly 3000 global customers. "We focus very much on solving for that internal threat," Lam stated, emphasizing their approach to mitigating risks within organizational infrastructures.

Aaron Le Saux, Architecture & Integration Manager at Calvary Health Care, shared insights into the complexity of their operations. Calvary Health Care, a major player in the Australian healthcare sector, has diversified into various services, including aged care and virtual care. "With identities in the tens of thousands, automation and clever use of technology become essential," Le Saux noted, underscoring the scale and complexity of managing secure identities across their network.

The challenges that Calvary Health Care faced were complex, and one area of discussion was the prevalence of identity siloes in managing information between various healthcare sectors, with Le Saux noting, "My user account might be in 30-40 different systems just because of the architecture and the legacy and the model of care. So when I first came to Calvary, I realized there was a real opportunity here to tie things together."

In selecting an Identity Security/Identity Governance vendor, Le Saux used the analogy of a Swiss army knife, saying, "The different types of systems that are out there, you can imagine there are 10s of different electronic medical record systems in Australia alone. So you need a partner that's got that Swiss Army Knife capability to be able to integrate with them all... they need to be highly interoperable."

The partnership between SailPoint and Calvary is crucial, especially given the sensitive nature of data in healthcare. Lam highlighted the susceptibility of the healthcare sector to cyber threats: "Healthcare is the number one breached sector. We are intensely focused on protecting personal identifiable information which is highly valuable on the black market."

Discussing the specific solutions implemented, Le Saux detailed their use of SailPoint's IdentityNow platform: "It is a bit of a bespoke model, how we've gone about it, but the root solution that we're using is IdentityNow." The platform's functionality significantly alleviated the burden on IT staff, enhancing operational efficiency. "We looked at an approach where we could get some immediate value out of the systems. And for us, deploying self service password reset as a phase zero, if you will, was a great way to get value back immediately...we were having 600-700 password resets done a week that would have been calls to the service desk."

Lam also commented on SailPoint's competitive advantage, emphasizing their recognition by industry analysts and the robustness of their integration framework. "We have a first rating endorsement from all key analysts (including Gartner, Forrester and IDC). Our integration framework, developed over 500 person-years, is what really gives us a competitive edge," Lam proudly stated.

Looking forward, both Lam and Le Saux are keen on integrating more advanced technologies like AI and machine learning into their security frameworks. Lam expressed optimism about future capabilities: "We see the future of identity involving sophisticated techniques like AI and machine learning to stay ahead of cyber threats."

The collaboration between SailPoint and Calvary Health Care showcases a successful application of identity security technologies in complex environments like healthcare. Through direct engagement with cutting-edge solutions and strategic implementation, these organizations demonstrate how technology can significantly fortify cybersecurity defences while enhancing operational efficiency in critical sectors.