You have to invest in Identity and Access Management - in return, administrative burdens, costs and IT risks are significantly reduced. We give you three reasons why you can't afford to sit on an Identity and Access Management solution.
New IT procurements can often be crucial to develop and optimize the organization. On the surface, however, they can quickly seem like an expensive affair. Especially if you don't manage to make visible exactly what the organization gets out of the investment.
Identity and Access Management is an essential tool for managing IT environments that are becoming more complex by the day. It is an indispensable shortcut to reducing administrative burdens and reducing both IT risks and costs. Making ROI visible is crucial - also when it comes to your Identity and Access Management project. Exactly how you calculate that ROI, however, is for another post. But how do you make the value of the discipline visible?
You do this by looking at what you risk by not implementing an Identity and Access Management solution.
You need to invest to save money
One of the key benefits of an Identity and Access Management platform is the optimization of work processes, making the organization more efficient overall. However, according to Forrester, 60-70 percent of organizations rely on manual user management processes. This includes, for example, employees calling the help desk to reset passwords or to access new applications. Evaluating who has access to which systems becomes hugely time-consuming, and when employees leave the organization, it takes a lot of resources to decommission their digital access again.
The only thing the organization saves by using manual processes is the investment in an Identity and Access Management platform - and that saving becomes costly in the long run. Forrester estimates that manual processes result in twice as high security and documentation costs as automated user management solutions. The more users you add, the more challenging and time-consuming it becomes to manage. The more time IT has to spend on manual user management tasks, the more time it takes away from business development work. The longer employees have to wait for access to the right systems and data, the longer it takes for them to become cost-effective assets in the organization.
Time wastage and inefficiency sooner or later show up directly on the bottom line.
Not investing in security is dangerously expensive
Cybercriminals are becoming more skilled and innovative all the time. They can easily outsmart even the best IT and security professionals. And it's not just prominent global corporations that catch the attention of hackers. According to a study by Forbes, it's mid-sized organizations with 500-999 employees that have the most to fear when it comes to cybercrime. They are exposed to just as many attacks as larger companies, but have fewer resources to deal with the associated costs.
According to the Ponemon Institute's 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Study, the average global cost of a data breach is as high as $3.86 million.
That's why it's crucial to map out where your potential security gaps are and what you can do to close them. Identity and Access Management solutions optimize the security associated with user and access management, so you can be sure that only the right users have access to the right data - and that you can easily shut down access if you suspect a user has been compromised by cybercriminals.
IT security is very much about investing to prevent damage. There is no single magic tool that can solve all challenges. However, Identity and Access Management is an indispensable part of the overall package - and a highly profitable investment when compared to the crippling financial risks associated with cyber-attacks.
Lack of compliance costs a lot of money
The EU General Data Protection Regulation came into force on May 25, 2018. Since then, companies and organizations - upon request - have been required to document that they have taken appropriate organizational and technical measures to protect the sensitive personal data they store. At the same time, any security breaches must be reported to the Danish Data Protection Agency within 72 hours of the organization becoming aware of it.
Otherwise, you could face heavy fines. As much as 4% of annual group turnover can be imposed if you fail to meet compliance requirements.
But without a clear overview of who has access to what and without a record of personal incidents in your IT systems (in short: an Identity and Access Management solution), how will you demonstrate compliance with the Regulation?
Identity and Access Management makes it possible to document who has access to data, when they were granted access, why they were granted access and what they use it for. And not least: It is possible to restrict access to data so that only users with a real need to access it have the opportunity.
SIVIS Group
