The Landes SDIS (Fire and Rescue Service) successfully manages a large user flow.

The SDIS 40 in figures:

• 400 professional firefighters
• 1600 volunteer firefighters

The needs of SDIS 40:

• Significant flow of incoming and outgoing volunteer firefighters
• Need for users to have autonomy over their credentials management due to staggered hours.

‍

Integrating our business applications with Youzer in one month? Impossible!

Philippe Arnould (CIO) and Romain Dejean (IT project manager) at SDIS des Landes.

What was the initial problem?

Organizational difficulties

We needed to optimize the working time of people in the IT department. We were wasting time with arrivals and departures. Before Youzer, when someone arrived, we knew about it 15 days later, and when someone left, we knew about it 5 years later. Moreover, they were still in the databases.

At the same time, for the department that was welcoming the new firefighter, it was very frustrating not to be able to provide anything. It took 10 phone calls to get all the information.

• We needed a tool to automate access based on our HRIS, which knows who is arriving and who is leaving.
• It was necessary to optimize the IT department's resources and ensure that users were satisfied with access to the information system.
• We needed a tool that would link with the HR department.

High fluctuation

We have a fixed base (administrative staff and permanent firefighters) that changes very little, and we have 1600 volunteer firefighters whose arrivals and departures are very frequent. We have about 10 to 30 arrivals per month. For the IT department, this is very time-consuming, and worse, we had dissatisfaction from the people arriving.

A search for user satisfaction

In addition, with the GDPR, we no longer wanted to take recruits' personal emails to send them information.

Admittedly, there was a tightening due to security and user rights, but that's not what motivated us in the search for solutions: we wanted to satisfy users when there were changes in their department.

There was great frustration among newcomers and an enormous waste of working time in the departments.

I still don't have my email!

A new arrival

Youzer will allow them to evolve towards their endowment: training software (self-service that allows them to manage their training), access to the intranet. We are working on these resource packages for each user profile.

How was the solution chosen?

We started our research without really knowing that there was a specific name for this type of solution. We came across the term IAM (identity and access management) several times and we understood that this was indeed what we needed.
We found some solutions that were very expensive, cumbersome and lengthy to deploy. Then we discovered Youzer. It was a French solution that had great promises at a very attractive price.

We had significant doubts about the feasibility of our request, as Youzer promised implementation in just one month, despite not having a connector for our HR solution (Cegid).

I thought they were going to break their teeth, they weren't going to make it.

Philippe Arnould (CIO)

The people on our team are sharp and responsive. They got along well with their contact at Youzer, so we tried the Youzer experience and implemented the desired connector.

The launch of Youzer within the SDIS of Landes

What was really good was that the project was concrete, there were things that were moving forward and that we were validating at each stage.

At Youzer, people are dedicated in their field, insightful, and sharp, with unbeatable pricing. In just a few months, they have shown that they can develop very quickly and are extremely responsive.
It is really pleasant to have highly technical contacts: it gives you the feeling of moving forward and having responsive support. The conversations are fluid.
In large companies, you deal with salespeople who always tell you that everything is possible.

When we tell you it's possible, it really is possible.

Philippe Arnould (CIO)

We implemented our trio of software: AD, Exchange, and Cegid. This allowed us to automate account creation and suspension.

Youzer in daily use

4 people are administrator members on our Youzer instance, but one person really uses it on a daily basis for creating and suspending accounts. Sometimes another person works on it for the HR database.

Is the interface easy to use?

It is pleasant to use on a daily basis and very intuitive. In addition, the communication about new features is appreciable. The platform evolves according to the requests of different clients, which benefits everyone. We also have a space to get answers quickly, which is really effective.

I could easily delegate because once configured, the usage is extremely smooth.

Romain Dejean (IT project manager)

What are your favorite features and which ones are missing?

What we like is the generation of packages for the creation of accounts for a new arrival. What was missing was work on the correspondence tables and you implemented it! As soon as we have needs, we report them to you and you implement them very often so we are really satisfied.

What improvements have you been able to make within the SDIS with our solution?

We used to process 20 users upon arrival in 2 hours and 30 minutes; now, it's done in 1 hour. We've reduced our account creation activities by more than half.

There is rigor in user creation, and we no longer have errors. This also affects the management of our user database.
We no longer have active units with departed users. Every month, cleaning is easy and quick, 'we've cleaned up, it's very beneficial'.

It's hard to quantify the time saved over a year because, in the departments that receive new recruits, the time saved in being operational is invaluable.

We achieved gains in another area: licensing. We have license packages for 2000 users. Now, we are no longer overwhelmed with 'excess' license issues for departed users. We have almost the correct number of licenses assigned.

We have also implemented sending credentials by SMS, which saves us a lot of time instead of sending letters.

What are the next steps with Youzer?

Recruits don't need a lot of software; as they are volunteer firefighters, what is important is to have an email. The AD unit will allow them to connect to business software later and have an email.

• Youzer will allow them to evolve towards their endowment: training software (self-service) and access to the intranet. We are working on these packages. We will then develop new connectors.
• We are also working on the user profile. Youzer will allow us to create profiles automatically and apply them to the job.
• We are implementing password reset because it will allow volunteer firefighters, who mainly connect in the evening, a great deal of autonomy. It will also save time within IT. This will increase user satisfaction.

Would you recommend Youzer?

In local authorities, identity management is a real problem. Youzer is evolving very well and very quickly, with a cost that defies all competition and an immediate response to expectations. The work that has been done for the SDIS 40 is valid for many entities for which the configuration is similar.