City of Amsterdam

Modern Identity and Access Management for the City of Amsterdam

The City of Amsterdam aims to focus on its core mission: serving citizens and businesses. This means outsourcing IT management as much as possible. While the City intends to maintain control, it seeks specialised partners for execution. For the workplace migration to a Microsoft 365 environment, Sogeti was selected as a partner. The tender also included updating the Identity and Access Management. To this end, Sogeti, along with their Identity Management partner Tools4ever, implemented a solution where access management is set up with Entra ID, and the cloud-based HelloID platform automates and streamlines the identity management processes.

Jurgen van den Broek (IAM lead consultant at Sogeti) shares more details on the project: “Selecting a new IAM environment was a key part of the broader workplace tender by the City of Amsterdam. The existing IAM solution had become increasingly complex over time. It involved a lot of custom work, and for every change, the City had to hire scarce and expensive specialists. Additionally, many account and access management tasks were still being executed manually, with business teams having little insight into the current status of users, accounts and access rights. All user inquiries and complaints went through a dedicated IAM team. In terms of the new solution, the City expected more capabilities for automating account processes, increased flexibility and transparency in account management, and greater agility and autonomy in implementing new functionality.”

He continues: “Tools4ever is our go-to partner for addressing IAM challenges. Our Microsoft 365 workplace solution leverages Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) for user authentication and authorisation. The HelloID platform enhances this with identity management functionality. The Provisioning Module automates the issuance and management of accounts and access rights for the onboarding, transitioning and offboarding of users. With the Service Automation module, we can further streamline the account processes. Sogeti has its own HelloID specialists and manages the deployment, integration and management for clients, while maintaining direct lines with our colleagues at Tools4ever for more complex inquiries. In our partnership, Tools4ever focuses on HelloID product development and support, and Sogeti concentrates on delivering end-to-end solutions to clients.”

Automated provisioning based on HR source data

The City of Amsterdam’s AFAS HR system now serves as the source system. Based on HR data, HelloID automatically creates user accounts and access rights, which are then synced with Entra ID, allowing users easy access (often via Single Sign-On) to their applications. HelloID also sets up accounts for the IT service desk tool, the Amsterdam Management Information System (AMI), and the HR self-service module. This way, the provisioning of both internal employees and external contractors is uniformly organised. Furthermore, the processes for internal migration and leaving the organisation can be streamlined. With online forms, simple actions such as email changes or password resets can now be directly managed by business teams, or by the employees themselves.

A transparent foundation for further growth

The main advantage of the new solution lies in the insight and transparency it provides. In a large organisation like the City of Amsterdam, you cannot fully automate account management overnight. However, administrators and support staff now have a central hub to view and manage information about issued accounts and access rights. From that basis, processes can then be streamlined more and more, in a gradual manner. One example is Role-Based Access Control, which automates access management based on an individual’s role and department. In a complex organisation, you cannot implement this in one big bang, but now there is a foundation to gradually introduce it. The new solution also aids in further professionalising information security and governance. For instance, HelloID can easily provide clear audit reports on access rights to privacy-sensitive resident data in the systems. These are examples of how a modern IAM solution can help improve the operations of the City.

Close collaboration between technology and organisation

Jurgen highlights the importance of collaboration between technical teams and the broader organisation: “Identity and Access Management is pivotal in an IT environment. At the City of Amsterdam, 23,000 employees log into municipal applications daily, and any disruption can lead to significant issues. Furthermore, the system must be intuitive, especially for our many colleagues who are often out in the field using smartphones. With this in mind, hundreds of applications have already been successfully integrated, with many more planned in the future. This requires not only mapping out related processes, but also accommodating the release schedules and development projects of those connected systems. It is a complex challenge that can only be addressed by blending technical expertise with an understanding of the municipal organisation and its processes. This was achieved through excellent collaboration with the project and IAM teams of the City of Amsterdam!”