Remote, secure access enhances service, streamlines operations.

The key to improving bottom line performance often hinges on boosting staff productivity as well as enhancing customer service. Both objectives can be achieved through controlled dial-up access to corporate data resources.

At Caterpillar, a leading worldwide manufacturer of construction equipment

and diesel engines, dial-up security was provided with a dial-back technique, or via a hardware token and PIN (personal identification number) system for a number of years. However, the requirement to offer Caterpillar's service providers remote access to corporate applications, as well as the snowballing trend towards telecommuting and nomadic computing--the use of laptops by mobile managerial and field staff--forced us to develop a more secure, cost-effective, and easy-to-use solution.

Our new solution is elegant in its simplicity: Before authorizing end users, we authenticate the workstation attempting the access. The system utilizes a standardized communications package that streamlines and speeds access while eliminating our former dependency on manually controlled, one-time-password generators which required a secret PIN.

The backbone of the system, called Cat Secure PC (CSPC), includes connectivity, presentation and performance software products from Simware Inc., Ottawa, Canada. CSPC is entirely software-based and depends on an encrypted exchange of data between our host and the remote PC--a process that is transparent to the end-user. In operation, all the end-user does is select an access option from a main menu. If the PC is authorized, access is achieved in 30 to 40 seconds. With our previous system, this access could take as long as four minutes.

Once handshaking is completed, end-users are connected to a session manager that provides a second layer of security by requiring password entry. This password is linked to a user profile within the host that identifies the application access for that end-user.

To speed actual data transmission, CSPC significantly improves mainframe-to-PC response time by minimizing the amount of screen display data. By cutting response time by as much as 70% for an average 2400 baud line, our end-users--including both internal staff and customers--boost their productivity.

Another benefit of CSPC is that it provides the same look and feel to end-users wherever they are located. A staff member is in Singapore who wants to access corporate data simply selects the city they are in. The system automatically accesses the appropriate X.25 carrier, much the same way as it does domesti-cally via toll-free lines.