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Reducing the Cost of Forgotten Passwords

A simple way to reduce the cost associated with users forgetting their passwords is to
implement an automated, self-service solution to allow users to reset their own passwords.
Enabling users to reset their own passwords relieves the help desk of that task. Implementing
this small solution will improve the productivity of your users as well as the help desk team.

Moving this password reset process into your corporation for Windows Active Directory will be a
seamless transition for your employees. Nearly every employee has at least one account on the
Internet, so the overwhelming majority of your users will be comfortable with using answers to
personal questions as a method of resetting their passwords.

Another benefit of using a self-service password reset solution is increased security. If the help
desk can reset user passwords, a help desk admin could reset a user account to gain access to
network resources that would otherwise be unavailable to that admin.

When considering the overall cost for someone on the help desk to reset passwords, the cost
per call goes up as the number of overall calls increases. After all, the help desk can only
handle so many calls. If the call volume increases, the time to handle each call increases,
forcing the user to lose more productivity time. As noted above, if the help desk call volume
increases due to password resets, it also means that other key issues are not being handled as
quickly either, causing delays for these issues as well. So, as the number of password reset
calls increases, all costs increase. However, if you implement an automated solution so that
users can reset their own passwords, the number of password reset incidences will reduce the
total cost of ownership of implementing the solution. This is due to the fact that an automated
solution can handle any number of password reset requests at one time. There is no limitation
on how many users can reset their passwords at one time, or over time.

Summary

Every organization must implement solid password requirements to protect network resources.
As a result, every organization must deal with users forgetting passwords. The consequences
for users forgetting passwords are significant. These consequences include lost productivity,
slower response times for key issues to the help desk and increased cost for help desk support.
Increased support call times due to high percentages of password reset calls to the help desk
can cause significant issues for your entire organization. Also, with the cost of a single
password reset call close to $70, there needs to be an investigation into how to reduce this
number — if not eliminate it all together.

A simple and easy-to-implement solution is to allow users to reset their own passwords. Nearly
all employees are already familiar with this solution on the Internet, so there will be very little, if
any, need for training users on how to perform this task on their own. The help desk will be
more productive, total cost of resetting passwords will drop dramatically and users will be more
productive and receive better response time for other issues that arise. It makes so much sense

35 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – January 2015 Edition
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