Partner Insight: Why grabbing the opportunity of IAM is about more than just identity

Authenticating remote staff and ensuring only they can access appropriate data and applications is an overriding concern for every business and IT leader.

The urgent need to do so has been brought into focus by the pandemic, especially for professional and services organisations that may hold reams of privileged, private data about their customers, as well as their own staff.

Trust is central to customers' and users' attitudes towards an organisation, and fostering it breeds loyalty and productive relationships: an opportunity to differentiate.

But achieving world-class management of identity and authentication is not just about building trust, confidence, and security, critical though those factors are.

It is also about providing a seamless experience to users and customers, who crave low-friction experiences from their software tools. Most find unnecessary complexity and ‘hoop jumping' off-putting.

One industry in particular springs to mind when one thinks about trust, security, and loyalty: financial services.

Our survey of 150 IT leaders in medium-sized professional enterprises reveals that banks, insurers, and other finance companies place more emphasis on Identity & Access Management (IAM) technology than their peers. That's hardly surprising, given the rush towards mobile, digital, and Open Banking services.

This is the case both internally and externally: 44 percent of IT leaders in Financial Services rate internal IAM as extremely important, and 38 percent see customer IAM in the same way.

The slightly greater internal focus might be explained by the penalties for internal security and compliance failings arguably being worse in terms of reputational damage and financial recompense.

Among all respondents, system integration, privileged user management, overall identity management, acceptance by staff, compliance, data protection, and cost are the key challenges for IT teams to overcome when it comes to managing IAM.

This makes choosing the right vendor or technology particularly important.

When it comes to that choice, IT teams must consider integration, policy options, employee lifecycle management, a seamless user experience, multi-platform access, support for multiple security standards, certification, and the levels of automation available.

With increased automation in the cloud, IAM can help streamline the process of securing your IT ecosystem.

Meanwhile, choosing the right vendor is not just about reading up on their current portfolios. Technical support, licensing, recurring costs, the product roadmap, compliance, sector expertise, and a focus on the complex UK and EU context are all significant considerations.

For Financial Services companies included in our survey, access to technical support is most important when choosing an IAM vendor, cited by 56 percent of respondents. Compared with other professional sectors, legal and fiscal compliance are also more highly rated.

In terms of the technology, the sector also values the ability to integrate with a current or future IT environment, along with a seamless user experience. Compared with other professions, suitability for hybrid environments and employee lifecycle management are not ranked quite so highly.

While IAM deployment is partially in response to rigorous industry rules, such as the recently introduced Strong Customer Authentication regulations, this is not the only driver of adoption. IAM is also an opportunity for innovation and differentiation in professional markets.

From Computing's research, financial and other services companies see IAM as a means of improving trust, reducing risk, and enhancing their customer experiences.

In an uncertain business environment, with greater flexible, remote, and mobile working, all organisations should bolster their cyber defences; passwords alone are not enough. Data security is a particular concern, and it demands a strategy that has identity management and authentication at its core

Find out more Reducing complexity in Identity & Access Management

This post is funded by Okta