IAM (Identity & Access Management) in a nutshell attempts to answer the following critical questions:
Who currently has access to digital assets?
Who should have access?
How is the access being used?
Beyond answering these questions, IAM programs provide great opportunities for businesses – From protecting critical information assets to improving financial gains through increased productivity and enhancing the customer and employee experience.
In every business – small or large – increasing revenue and minimizing cost is at the top of mind and critical for its long-term survival. When Identity & Access Management is properly implemented, it provides an opportunity to minimize cost in several ways. Let’s take an example with a financial institution – say a bank. Assume a banking officer is hired at an hourly rate of $50/hr for a six-month project. If it takes the officer 2 weeks to get access to all the systems required to do her job, then the bank has lost about $4,000 ($50 * 40 hrs * 2 weeks) due to a lack of productivity. When you scale this up to 10 or more contractors, then you get a sense of how much cost the bank is incurring.
Proper IAM also helps eliminate unneeded manual and error-prone processes/controls. From requesting, approving, provisioning, and verifying access, to demonstrating compliance with regulatory requirements. Good IAM programs seek to eliminate manual access management processes through automation, freeing up time and resources for more productive work.
Companies that do IAM well know to have it on their radar and continually enhance it. They continually seek to optimize their investments in IAM by automating processes and controls that protect their information assets and improve the experience for their customers and employees.
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