Identity is central to the digital transactions that drive life and work.
Today, there are more applications, more devices, and more users than ever before, which means more attack surfaces for hackers to exploit. To support this reality, companies must implement the cybersecurity they need and deliver the experiences their customers and employees want.
Identity comprises any user’s first impression of an organization. Be they customers or employees, users will continue to access applications from anywhere, from any device, at any time, and will expect to do so with minimum friction. Implementing a modern identity solution enables frictionless experiences, and by adopting a zero-trust security framework, companies can address ever-changing threats in a way that inspires confidence.
Many companies are just starting to increase their efforts around Identity management. It is being driven by these factors:
- They need to grow their business, stay competitive and remain agile by providing frictionless sign-on and registration experiences. For example, organizations were faced with unexpectedly transitioning their knowledge workers to remote work this year. Providing a better remote work experience attracts and retains talent.
- Security is critical. Organizational resources must be protected and customer access to data must be secured with minimal friction. Modern IAM utilizes the latest cybersecurity framework to minimize costly data breaches.
- Remote work is here to stay. Identity Management is key for companies to secure their data and safeguard remote workers in vulnerable home offices.
- Customers will continue to complete transactions online. Seamlessly managing Customer Identity — from registration to sign on and access — is table stakes, and may win or lose customers.
- The demand for third-party service integrations is growing. They need to be accessed securely with the proper level of authorization and consent that is auditable.
Case Studies
The journey toward an Identity solution is different for each company, but there are lessons in common.
- A healthcare service provider needed to deliver good health outcomes by keeping its patient community digitally connected. To achieve that, it was necessary to modernize patient onboarding and authentication experiences. This provided anywhere/anytime access to healthcare records and resources, all of which were protected by stronger security. This gave the organization the means to better support the health of their patients.
- A retail company wanted to generate more digital sales and as a result, prioritized customer experience. With a customer-facing identity solution, the company was able to deliver seamless omnichannel registration, authentication, and profile management to help them better attract, retain, and engage with customers.
- A mail delivery service requires real-time authentication for users through web, mobile, and kiosk. The solution enables identity to be managed across channels and allows customers to use their identity verification with participating business partners. This is supported by a framework that mitigates fraud and application risk.
What’s Next
The next wave of Identity will be to remove passwords from the equation. Users are fatigued by endless password management and this must change. We are already starting to see this happening with biometric authentication.
To succeed in the future, businesses must deal with an ever-increasing number of devices and users and protect ever-shifting attack surfaces. This can be accomplished by implementing a modern identity solution.
