“Implementing an identity and access management solution.” This sentence scares many organizations and their CEOs because for many all they think of is dollar signs. Though it does cost money, the expense is probably not as much as many think and can most likely save an organization money in the short term. For example, every organization faces password and account management issues, but when it gets to a certain point where it is interfering with productivity and costing the organization unneeded time and money, this is when this can become a major issue. This is when an identity and access management (IAM) solution provides optimal benefits.
So how do you know when it gets to this point and when your organization needs an IAM solution? The following are five ways that
help determine when an IAM solution is needed to improve internal
organizational processes.
1. Abundance of Calls to the Helpdesk
Whether it be for password issues or access issues, when your helpdesk is receiving an overload of calls each day, it can have an effect on the productivity of the end user. Contacting the helpdesk, staring a new ticket and solving your account and password issue is time consuming and extremely annoying when an end user is in the middle of something; especially if they are with a customer.
2. Full-Time Employee for Account Management
Many organizations need to hire a full-time employee just to handle provisioning accounts and making account changes. If this is a
full-time position at your company it is because you are handling the account management process manually, which is time consuming and prone to error. Not to mention, it is very expensive to hire someone to do these tasks full time.
3. Employees Don't Have All Their Accounts Created on First Day of Employment
If you have employees who, on their first day of employment, cannot start working because of lack of access to the systems and
applications they need, this is shows an inefficient process. It usually takes up to a week for a new employee to have all the correct
access they need, which is a monumental loss of productivity, time and money.
4. Users Are Left Active after They Are No Longer with the Organization
Often, when employees leave an organization, disabling their accounts is overlooked and they are left active on the organizations network. Though this is an easy mistake to make it can create a security risk. Once an employee leaves, their access should automatically be disabled so they are no longer able to access anything in the organization’s network.
5. Each system or application has different employee information
If each of your organization’s systems and applications have different employee information, it can be a hassle or even impossible, to keep them all in sync. Each system needs to have the most current and correct employee information. When, though, for example, an employee gets married and changes their last name, changing this information in each system can be a hassle and easily gets overlooked.
Are any of these happening at your organization? If your organization deals with one or more of these issues, you are at the optimal time to benefit from an IAM solution. Solutions that allow the organization to automate their account management can allow account admins to easily provision accounts, make changes and updates, and automatically disabled employees who are no longer with the organization. So, though implementing an IAM can be scary, it is actually a lot easier than dealing with these issues that are already occurring on a daily basis.
—
Dean Wiech is managing director of Tools4ever, a provider of identity and access management solutions for small businesses.