Fix your identity management processes and systems and your entire cybersecurity program will improve. Once you get into the details, it quickly becomes evident that improving identity management is quite difficult. If you miss one new hire or one system, your entire system can fall apart.
How do you overcome identity management problems and minimize fraud? First, you need to clearly define the value of identity management for your organization. After you have clarity on that point, you can start looking for an identity management company. Don’t make the mistake of starting by browsing the web for identity management solutions first. You need to understand why and how this security process is valuable for your situation first.
What Problems Are You Solving with Identity Management?
Before we go any further, let’s step back and define identity management. According to Gartner research:
“Identity and access management (IAM) is the security discipline that enables the right individuals to access the right resources at the right times for the right reasons. IAM addresses the mission-critical need to ensure appropriate access to resources across increasingly heterogeneous technology environments and to meet increasingly rigorous compliance requirements. This security practice is a crucial undertaking for any enterprise. It’s increasingly business-aligned, and it requires business skills, not just technical expertise.”
Now how does identity management help you to improve your cybersecurity program? While the details will vary depending on your company, there are a few benefits commonly seen in different organizations.
- Manage privileged user risk: Imagine if the CEO or CIO’s email and other business accounts were hacked? That would expose your organization to chaos and loss, such as approval of fraudulent expenses. Strong identity and access controls reduce the chance of problems with privileged user access.
- Reduce employee fraud risk: Sadly, some employees commit fraud. To reduce the likelihood of this occurring, manage user access more closely.
- Improve internal controls: When controls are weak, your company is more likely to be hacked, suffer fraud, and experience audit findings. Improved identity and access management is a critical piece of the puzzle.
- Reduce the impact of cybersecurity attacks: Some hacking attacks will succeed; there’s no way around that fact. You can reduce the damage of those attacks with a robust identity management program.
- Fulfill compliance requirements: Does your industry require strong identity management controls? If so, failing to meet those expectations will only hurt your company.
Now that you know a few of the problems you can solve with identity management, how do you choose the right identity management company for your situation?
The Six Traits of Highly Effective Identity Management Companies
Use this list to create a shortlist of identity management vendors. Of course, we also recommend you involve the procurement department if required by company policy.
- Offers a Streamlined Solution for Identity and Access Management
When you seek out an identity management solution, simplicity and automation both matter. For example, if managers have to manually set up and approve user access privileges for every customer support representative, that process will quickly become frustrating.
One hallmark of a seamless identity management solution is the ability to delegate approval authority. You don’t want your identity management administration to slow down due to bottlenecks at the management level.
- Support for Container Technology
Comprehensive coverage of container technology is crucial for a cybersecurity program to succeed. That’s why you need to evolve your identity management to stay current with new technology such as containers.
You may have adopted containers because they improve productivity and help your technical professionals succeed at work. What about cybersecurity support? When it comes to selecting an identity management company, does it offer support for containers? If container support is critical to your organization, take a close look at Identity Anywhere.
- Easy-to-understand Pricing
When you sit down with the CFO to propose your budget, how important is it to be confident in your numbers? It’s vital if you want to keep your credibility. If you choose an identity management company with complicated pricing, you’ll never know when a sudden surprise charge will appear on your invoices. Surprise price changes and costs make it harder to run your business.
What does simple pricing look like? Consider Avatier’s pricing model; it’s a fee-per-user on the service. You can start with a small set of users to evaluate the service on a pilot basis and then scale up your service by simply adding more users.
- Relevant Industry Experience
Have you ever sat down with a friend who knows nothing about your industry? It’s tough to relate your problems to that person. That’s why you need to consider industry experience when choosing an identity management company. Without relevant experience, you’re likely to face problems. You’ll have to explain regulations, industry jargon, and more, and do so repeatedly.
If you choose Avatier, what kind of industry experience will you benefit from? Avatier has worked with customers in the manufacturing, banking, healthcare, and government fields. Find out more about Avatier’s customer success stories here.
- Support for Different Business Users
Implementing a new identity management company is tough. Suppose you find that you need it for you entire organizational structure. That’s frustrating to hear. Even worse, it dramatically increases the cost of improving your identity management program.
In your research process, make sure you choose an identity management solution that’s compatible with your org chart. For example, you want to give administrators authority different from managers and end users. With Compliance Auditor, you receive the benefits of robust corporate governance. You’ll no longer have to track access requests and approvals manually by email and other means.
- Recognized by Industry Experts
With some types of technology, it makes sense to experiment. For instance, with sales automation technology, you might want to try out a different tool every month. That approach doesn’t make sense when it comes to selecting an identity management solution. Instead, we recommend focusing your attention on companies that have won recognition for excellence. In 2018, the IT research company Gartner recognized Avatier as one of the world’s leading identity management companies. Make sure that’s true for whichever companies you consider using.
