The UIN Manager application is used by the member institutions of the Texas A&M University System to assign a unique identifier – known as the Universal Identification Number (UIN) – to employees, students, and individuals affiliated with the A&M System.
Often this is performed as part of an employee’s new hire process. As such, the UIN is used instead of a Social Security Number to help protect personal information in the HR and Payroll system.
Associated with the requirement to protect an employee’s personal information is the business need to have freer access to the data in administrative systems. As a result, the UIN is also used to identify non-employees affiliated with an A&M System member. For example, UINs are given to students, visiting scholars/researchers, contractors and others for use in various enterprise applications.
Note that it is quite possible for an individual to be a student, an employee and the dependent of an employee at the same time. Each of these roles requires a UIN within the enterprise; however, to ensure proper identification and access management, an individual must only be assigned one UIN at a time.
The UIN Manager function is used to provide UINs to employees and other workers.
The UIN Search function is used to query the UIN database and to add and update UINs, primarily for individuals other than workers, who need access to enterprise applications. This can includes students, contractors, and other classes of affiliated individuals.