USPS gets SSO

To move the mail across the network of 37,000 locations, Postal Service workers must access mail processing systems, tracking and distribution software, scheduling and financial recordkeeping databases and the usual array of office applications. The average user has 10 unique identities, higher than the six-to-eight average of most enterprises. Stretch that across 300,000 regular computer users and the dizzying array of applications they touch every day, and you've got a lot of pain, says Bob Otto, the Postal Service's CTO.

"If users can't remember their passwords, they'll write them on sticky notes and post them on their monitors, or call our help desk, which costs us money and lost productivity," says Otto. "We wanted to simplify."