Qatar Steel’s Security Upgrade with MFA for Oracle EBS Suite

Challenges

The major steel industry player Qatar Steel faced operational risks because their unreliable authentication systems prevented smooth access to essential applications. The company operated in a demanding environment where each lost minute reduced productivity while facing growing operational problems and annoying login delays. Qatar Steel sought a contemporary identity solution from miniOrange to achieve both efficiency restoration and secure access protection for their production operations. Here are some of the issues they regularly faced:

• Password Problems: Users were not following good password hygiene. The basic passwords left ERP systems prone to exposure to attackers with stolen and easily guessable credentials, creating entry points for hackers.
• Security Friction: Too much security compromises user experience leaving them frustrated and slowing down the processes. This led employees to find ways to skip the login process that breached more security.
• Login Chaos: Multiple disconnected authentication systems created confusion and added some extra work for the IT teams. This added hassle to the user when logging into a new company application.
• Compliance Limitation: Data localization laws and regulatory requirements needed to be adhered to. Regulatory compliance issues with cloud-only forced the company to go on-premise or adopt a hybrid workplace when needed.
• Brand Confusion: Login screens that did not display a company name were a norm, and users were confused if they were reading the right page. It lacked the touch that impacted trust without a consistent brand identity at the login screens.
• Balancing Scalability with Performance: Too many users logged in at once slowed down the entire authentication system. That means the performance of the existing authentication system was impacted when scaling to 1.2K users.
• Downtime Risks: When an authentication system is down, employees are not able to access their information. Such a system downtime affects business continuity when, without a backup, the entire operation is disrupted.

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Result

The miniOrange solution delivered concrete results for Qatar Steel, which reshaped its access management operations. The deployment achieved three key outcomes: secure internal credentials, flawless system uptime and infrastructure integration which simultaneously enhanced operational efficiency and enabled future growth and productivity. Here’s a detailed look at the outcomes:

• Secured 1,200+ Employee Accounts with 2FA: The implementation of OTP-based two-factor authentication (2FA) protected 100% of internal employees from password-only login risks. The system excluded 500+ external supplier or customer users from 2FA to maintain frictionless access while protecting critical internal systems.
• Achieved 99.9% Uptime with Active-Active HA Architecture: The deployment of two miniOrange servers in active-active mode with load balancing resulted in no downtime during maintenance or traffic surges. The centralized caching system combined with redundancy achieved login response times below 2 seconds during peak usage periods.
• Integrated with Existing Systems, Saving $30k+ in Costs: The system synchronized user roles/permissions through a single Active Directory domain controller (LDAPS), which eliminated manual user management. The system used Qatar Steel’s SMS/SMTP gateways to send 8,000+ OTPs/month, thus eliminating third-party gateway fees.
• Scalable Infrastructure for 200% User Growth: The system maintains linear performance growth to support user numbers between 1,200 and 3,000. The system maintains future readiness to integrate 5+ applications (e.g., OWA, ERP modules) through its current architecture.
• Boosted User Productivity with Adaptive Authentication: The implementation of IP-based adaptive policies reduced login steps by 40% for trusted IP addresses. The custom-branded login pages built trust and compliance among users while matching the corporate identity standards of Qatar Steel.

About Qatar Steel

Qatar Steel is a leader in the steel industry based out of Doha. They specialized in reinforcement bars, wire rods of different grades, hot briquetted iron (HBI), direct reduced iron (DRI), and billets. They are at the forefront of great have strengthened their security for Oracle EBS with the help of miniOrange’s robust multi-factor.