Ease your identity management issues

Identity management is now top of mind for the various application development groups at The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. But when the strategy was first introduced in its nascent form several years ago, the benefits were obvious to the IT department before the rest of the organization caught on.

But CBC’s identity management strategy has not remained static.

The corporation has moved to tighter security and improved ease of use by synchronizing passwords that its 11,500 users need to access applications. “When you’re accessing different systems,” said Jeffrey, “people have different passwords or use the same password, or have to publish their passwords on various spots to keep track of them.”

Logging on to different applications each time with the same strong password is less taxing on user productivity, said Jeffrey. But IT support gets a break as well. “If you look at most statistics, on a Monday your calls go up because people come in after the weekend and have forgotten what their passwords were,” he said. The frequency of calls is now lower, and should users forget their one password, they are routed to a self-serve Web site to obtain it.

In the future, Jeffrey said CBC may implement a single sign-on identity management system.

Idan Shoham, chief technology officer with Calgary-based identity management technology vendor Hitachi ID Systems Inc., said that identity management strategies will differ depending on an organization’s priorities. Perhaps, said Shohan, a business might first want a single sign-on product, or a software to automate access termination for departed employees, or a password reset system to reduce headcount at the help desk. Whatever the current initiative may be, he continued, the fact that an identity management strategy comprises myriad moving parts makes “the approach of trying to implement everything in one go is really a non-starter.”

Productivity? That’s so last year

Different components of a strategy will be more strongly driven at certain times, said Shohan. When times are good, businesses tend to focus on the user and productivity; when corporate malfeasance is rampant, they focus on compliance with regulations; and, when times are rough the focus is on IT cost savings. “We see industry taking turns with which is the most important.”

And while user productivity was the “big motivator” behind identity management strategies several years ago, it has now assumed a back seat as the rough economy has brought to the fore the need to reduce help desk and security administrative staff by automating previously manual user access processes, said Shohan. “People at least pay lip service to the idea of regulatory compliance and improving security, although I suspect in many cases, they… are really more interested in ROI and access termination,” he said.

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