How Your Organization Can Benefit from Access Management Systems

Access management systems were once used by human resources and administrative personnel to manage employees. Today, access management systems have become much more advanced and can be used by various teams in the company to manage partners, customers, suppliers, and even devices. These modern systems allow users to obtain sensitive information while ensuring that all data is fully secured.

A report published by Enterprise Strategy Group found that 87% of enterprise organizations that use access management systems have stated that their cybersecurity teams are now more involved with the company’s policies, processes, and technological decisions.

In 2018 alone, there were more than 6,500 data breaches reported from organizations in the US—the majority of which were caused by external hackers. As a response, major corporations have started investing heavily in access management systems and access control systems. Since most business transactions happen online, organizations need to take steps to protect their applications, devices, and identities of people.

Here’s how your organization can benefit by incorporating an access management system in your business:

Allow Easy Access Anywhere

It has become common for people to use social IDs to access resources and web services. It’s become crucial for companies to reach users via any platform and provide easy access to their services using digital identities that already exist.

Advanced access management systems use “Bring Your Own Identity” (BYOID) features to grant access to users using just their digital identities. This feature removes all barriers to entry and enables customers, partners, and employees to securely access business platforms from anywhere in the world, at any time they want.

Your Employees Are Always Connected

A major requirement of the digital transformation is increased connectivity between people, devices and applications. But to be able to rely on digital platforms to carry out important transactions, organizations require heightened security features.

Advanced access management systems are compatible with popular digital identity provides like Google, Twitter, and Salesforce. These enforce stringent security policies and incorporate multi-factor authentication in their verification process.

Access management systems release regular updates so they can connect with new identity providers that may come into the market.

They Improve Employee Productivity

New employees will need to go through an orientation where they are introduced to the access management system. They will have access to parts of the access management system and given a device.

Previously, giving access to specific parts of the system to new employees used to take time because it had to be done manually. Through access management systems, the process can be completed at a much faster rate so that new employees can start working sooner.

Also, self-service provisioning gives existing employees access to various parts of the system without them needing to get in touch with the IT team.

They Enhance User Experience

Research suggests that the average business user has 191 passwords. Remembering this many usernames and passwords can get very difficult. Access management systems let business professionals log on to different systems using a single identity, which is much more convenient than trying to remember multiple usernames and passwords.

Depending on the complexity of the access management system, it can consist of numerous internal and external applications. Instead of having a different username and password for each application, access management systems streamline the process and use a single sign-on (SSO) and unified identity. This works for employees, customers and partners too.

They Secure All Aspects Of Your Brand

When you connect with multiple identity providers, your application becomes more susceptible to breaches. Major corporations must cover their bases and prioritize security systems.

Multi-factor and strong authentication ensures that all the identities that access your applications are verified. Access control for each identity will need to be managed through grant types.

Access management systems are monitored by running fraud detection, alert functions that notify personnel of possible security breaches, and through analytics. Alerts are sent in real-time so businesses can take quick action if a security breach does occur.

Increase Business Agility

In a hypercompetitive business environment, businesses must invest in software that streamlines their operations such as Concur, Salesforce, GoToMeeting and Google Apps; these offer features that allow businesses to carry out operations more efficiently.

By incorporating centralized authorization management and SSO, businesses allow safe access to their systems without compromising their security.

They Simplify Auditing and Reporting

Granting users access to multiple platforms using SSO makes it significantly easier for IT departments to audit when, where and how credentials are being used. In case a user’s credentials are compromised, access management systems can easily identify the user and the applications and information that was accessed in the breach.

Some systems let IT personnel to monitor sign-on performance metrics, compliance and user-traffic centrally. Audit trails can be used to track user provisioning and de-provisioning as they sign-in and log out.

They Reduce IT Costs

The main benefit of SSO for IT departments was to reduce the reliance on help desks when employees were locked out of their accounts. With SSO, employers aren’t locked out of their accounts unnecessarily. Also, cloud-based and mobile-based access management systems allow users to access applications from anywhere, at any time, while providing detailed analytics and audit trails.

In the long-run, access management systems reduce the need to hire more IT personnel as they make it simpler for users to access the organization’s online platforms and help save costs.

The author is an IT security professional who specializes in creating customized security solutions for big and small companies across all industries. He is an expert in access control systems, key management systems and industrial networking systems.