Categories
Pages
-

IT Center Blog

Replacement of the Partner Procedure

June 4th, 2025 | by
ConnectMe figure on laptop screen

Source: Own illustration based on Freepik

In recent years, the RWTH partner procedure has helped external persons with tasks at RWTH to gain access to RWTH’s IT services.

This process is now being changed: The partner procedure is being replaced by the role “Angehörige Organisationseinheit”. Like all other roles, this role is assigned by the role administrators of the individual chairs, institutes, and facilities.

The Partner Manager associated with the Partner Procedure will be deactivated on September 1, 2025. All coupons and authorizations issued by the Partner Manager will also expire on this date at the latest.

The good news?

You can now make the switch without any hassle. Find out how in the text.

 

From the Partner Procedure to the Role „Angehörige Organisationseinheit“

The RWTH partner procedure has served us well for many years. Now it is time for a change.

External persons are now authorized for RWTH IT services via the role „Angehörige Organisationseinheit“. This utilizes the role assignment process already established at RWTH.

The advantages?

The chairs, institutes, and facilities now have an overview of which external persons are authorized in the IdM role and group management system. A comment field can also be used to enter information about the reason for authorization and the activities at the organizational unit.

In addition, there are now clearly defined contact persons:

The roles are administered by the role administrators of the respective organizational unit. This makes it easier for both internal and external persons to ask specific questions or request further information.

 

Which Organizational Units Can Assign the Role?

The activation of the role „Angehörige Organisationseinheit“ depends on the category of the institutes, chairs, and facilities. An overview of the categories of organizations in Identity Management can be found at IT Center Help.

If you do not know which category your organizational unit belongs to, you can easily look it up in RWTHcontacts. To do this, go to the page of your institute, chair, or facility. In the upper right corner, you will find a box labeled “Organizational Data”. The category is specified there.

 

What Happens Now?

From now until September 1, all RWTH partners – provided they should remain activated – must be assigned the role „Angehörige Organisationseinheit“. Once the role coupon has been redeemed, the status „Angehörige Organisationseinheit“ will be entered in the system.

Don’t worry: it is possible to have multiple statuses at the same time. Entering the new status does not block any old permissions associated with the “RWTH partner” status. Since the two statuses have the same permissions, it is more of a duplication. The partner coupon in the Partner Manager can then be removed by the sponsor.

The Partner Manager is now also only available for limited use:

Since the role „Angehörige Organisationseinheit“ is already available, no new partner coupons can be issued. Existing partner coupons can no longer be extended and will only be valid until September 1, 2025.

 

Procedure: What Do I Have to Do Now?

To ensure that you know exactly what to do, we have listed the tasks for all affected groups of people:

Sponsors:

  1. Check the Partner Manager for any partner coupons that you have issued and are currently valid: https://www.rwth-aachen.de/partner-manager
  2. Consider which persons should continue to perform activities at RWTH and have access to IT services beyond September 1.
  3. Ask your role administrators to issue the role coupon „Angehörige Organisationseinheit“ for these persons. Please provide the following information:
  4. First name, last name, email address
  5. Reason for activation / tasks at the organizational unit
  6. If you do not know your role administrators, you can find them in IdM Selfservice under Roles and Groups > Role Administrators.
  7. Inform your partners accordingly.
  8. Once the persons concerned have redeemed the role coupon, you can delete the partner coupon in the Partner Manager.

 

Role administrators:

  1. Once the role has been activated for your organizational unit, please issue the necessary role coupons for the role „Angehörige Organisationseinheit“ to the external persons in accordance with the applicable specifications and criteria.
  2. In the IdM role and group management under “Roles,” enter a meaningful comment for the external persons so that you can later track what the external person is doing at your organizational unit and why the activation is necessary.

If the role cannot be issued for your organizational unit, please contact the IT-ServiceDesk by email.

 

Partners:

Please give RWTH some time to make the change. If your partner status expires or you do not hear from your previous sponsor by July 2025, please contact them. Otherwise, contact the chair, institute, or institution and clarify how to proceed.

Are you unsure of your current status? You can check your status at any time in IdM Selfservice under User data > Personal data.

 

Any Questions

Do you have any questions or need further information? Please refer to the documentation on IT Center Help:

For role administrators:

 

 

Of course, you are also welcome to contact the IT-ServiceDesk team at any time.

 


Responsible for the content of this article are Thorsten Kurth, Christian Pudel and Linda Stroh.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *