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How Identity Management Improves Workflows for Businesses

Machine Identity: The New Challenge in Cybersecurity

How Identity Management Improves Workflows for Businesses

Identity Management improves workflows for enterprises of all sizes. But how? What can you do to benefit the most from its security capabilities as you apply them to your processes? 

We tend to think of cybersecurity and workflows as a binary, that enterprises must select one or the other. In fact, the choice is often depicted as choosing one at the expense of the other. Often, cybersecurity experts and observers compare the former to analog security like checkpoints or airport security (neither of which are associated with concepts of speed or efficiency). 

The necessity of cybersecurity and authentication should be obvious at this point in the business discourse; customers routinely reject brands and companies that suffer from data breaches or other cybersecurity issues. However, the demands for speed and efficiency in capitalism wait for no one. So businesses tend to choose workflows at the expense of their cybersecurity, with predictably disastrous results. 

However, because identity management improves workflows, your enterprise no longer needs to choose between the two. Here’s why. 

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How Identity Management Improves Workflows

1. Onboarding and Offboarding

So you just hired a new employee. Great! They seem very qualified! You’re positive you can get them up and running in a few days. 

Then a few weeks later, you’re still facing problems. Why? You didn’t onboard your new employee properly. As such, they didn’t receive the permissions they needed to actually start their workflows and contribute to the business. Instead, they were left to cool their heels while you tried to get everything in order. 

This wastes time and puts everyone on the backfoot, which of course wastes more time. The old maxim “time is money” isn’t repeated as conversation filler. So what can you do? 

Identity management, specifically identity governance and administration IGA, can help speed this workflow through automated onboarding. Every role in your enterprise can come premade with set permissions necessary to the job; this allows employees to jump into the role without delay, speeding up your workflows in the long-term and short-term. 

Additionally, IGA helps with offboarding as well. The security implications are obvious, but it also helps to coordinate which employees need what permissions. Thus, it allows for faster permissions adjustments on the fly, and thus better processes. 

2. Temporary Permissions Made Easy

Every business faces special, one-time-only moments in its operations. Maybe you are hosting an industry event. Perhaps your business wants to release a new product or service and beat out the competition. Or perhaps you’ve decided to do a complete brand overhaul. 

In other words, you need all hands on deck, and for folks to step outside their job descriptions to get everything under control. Yet managing which employees should get what temporary permissions – necessary to operating during these special projects – when and for how long can prove a significant challenge. 

For example, while not removing temporary privileges can become an immediate cybersecurity threat, not granting those permissions in the first place can stymie progress. Identity Management improves workflows by automating the granting and revoking of temporary permissions, both speeding up the projects but also freeing your IT security team for other tasks. 

3. Multifactor Authentication Can Speed Up Authentication

Yes, you read that correctly. Multifactor Authentication (MFA) might actually increase the speed by which users log in. This statement comes in spite of the persistent belief that more factors during the authentication stage slow down the login process and thus workflows. 

Let’s think about passwords, the traditional authentication method so often used on its own. Do you, offhand, know all of your passwords for every account you might need to access during the workday? How many times a week or month do you need to go through the slog of password retrieval? 

Now imagine that across the enterprise and every employee therein. It doesn’t bode well for workflows. 

Multifactor Authentication often works in the background, evaluating factors like time of access and geographic location to ensure that the right person logs in. When tied into biometric authentication or device authentication, logins can become a snap for all involved. It’s just another way that Identity Management improves workflows. 

You can learn more in our Identity Management Buyer’s Guide or via the new Identity Management Solutions Suggestion Engine


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