Privacy and Security

eAccess

Before eAccess, U.S. Postal Service employees and contractors waited up to a month for permission to use management systems they needed to do their jobs. Someone working in accounting, for example, might need permission to enter the financial database or the payroll system. Each request for data access or software was made on a piece of paper and passed to a supervisor and then on to various administrators. With nearly 2 million requests circulating each year, more than a few got lost. And no one kept track of the permissions granted.

Now such requests take less than a week and don't get lost. From the Postal Service's intranet, users select the applications that they need. eAccess automatically routes requests to the right people. Supervisors and administrators get e-mail messages giving them 24 hours to sign off on requests. Employees who don't have computers use a telephone version of eAccess to update records, such as health benefits or home addresses.

Users can check the status of their requests online without contacting help desk staff. Managers can quickly check staff members' security clearances and revoke permissions, if necessary. And the agency has a centralized record of the applications that each of its 825,000 users can access.

WHAT IT IS

Web-based system for processing employee and contractor requests to access programs and data.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

Employees and contractors have faster access to systems and better data security.

LESSON LEARNED

Don't just post forms online. Use e-mail and the Web to standardize procedures, track information and build in administrative controls.