Entrust Gets An “A” for Entrust® Certificate Management Service from Commission Scolaire Marie-Victorin

Before providing an online service to its teachers, all student grades were submitted manually and were managed on a central system.  This process took longer than the new online system and required more administrative work.   It also reduced the accuracy of data since multiple administrators would enter the information into the system. As a result, Commission Scolaire Marie-Victorin moved their business process online.  This enabled teachers to submit grades while they were marking tests at any point in the day and access the system from any location.  Due to the sensitivity of the information being submitted, security was required in order to move the process online.  Now, teachers can log into one site (even though there are numerous sub-sites for each school) and access student information.

Marie-Victorin previously secured their Website with SSL certificates from another vendor.   The issue they had with this vendor was that it took a long time to renew certificates and it was very time consuming.  After a recommendation to try Entrust from their sister school board, they purchased Entrust® Certificate Management Service - Enhanced Edition.  Marie-Victorin switched to Entrust because of its reputation in the industry as a reliable vendor, as well as the cost savings they would incur by using the Entrust managed service over and above the existing service from the other vendor. 

When Normand first used the service he couldn't believe how fast it took to renew his certificates.  "What used to take me five days, now takes me 30 seconds to renew."  With his previous service, Normand had to renew his SSL Certificate one by one with a credit card.  With the Entrust service, now all Normand has to do is log in to the extranet and renew his certificates. The interface is easy to use and he is able to train others on his team to manage the SSL Certificates while he is away.  It is so easy to use that the service practically takes care of itself.

Another important feature within the Enhanced edition that Marie-Victorin leverages is the ability to re-use and re-cycle SSL certificates.  Normand is able to deactivate a certificate and re-use it on another server for the duration of his service.  This saves the education bureau time and money, as they don't need to expire their SSL certificates prematurely.

"It was very easy to switch to the Entrust service. The security is very transparent to our end users and the fact that Entrust SSL Certificates are rooted in the browsers is very scalable.  Previously, I had to move from station to station to install the root which was extremely time consuming,"  said Normand.

Using the Enhance edition of Entrust Certificate Management Service has made Normand's job easier, enabling him to focus more time on other urgent IT matters. Normand has also saved his organization over 50% of its SSL costs by switching to the Entrust service.

As a result, productivity has increased at the Commission Scolaire Marie-Victorin since the teachers and administrators can update and access confidential information online from anywhere and at anytime.