ForgeRock Identity Live 2020: What Our Customers Are Saying

by Fran Roschn on July 2, 2020

CEO Perspective

ForgeRock Identity Live 2020 went virtual last week! It was exciting to connect with everyone, share what is happening at ForgeRock, and learn from each other. While I would have preferred to meet in person, the conversations with customers and partners were just as meaningful. We heard from leading brands around the globe about how identity is shaping the future of their organizations and saw some amazing product demos from our ForgeRock team.

Top of mind for everyone was how we’ve all experienced the way we live change overnight. The pandemic has put greater emphasis on the need for digital identity solutions that can keep employees productive and consumers connected while still protecting the security of the enterprise and the privacy of the user.

In the last nine weeks, we’ve all been grappling with similar questions.

How do you provide secure and frictionless access to apps and information for a remote workforce? How do we reduce the enormous strain and complexity an increasingly remote workforce puts on IT teams? How can businesses keep the costs of things like password resets down when more people are creating new online accounts daily? And how can we help consumers, citizens and students get to the things they need easier and from any device?

We heard our panelists ask and answer these very questions. We believe artificial intelligence (AI) is the way forward when it comes to access and enabling smooth and secure experiences.

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We were also reminded that digital transformation is a journey – no two organizations are the same. Aside from delivering amazing solutions that are simple to use, provide superior security and intelligence, and are delivered as a cloud service – we must also create a path that can either help you leapfrog from where you are today or build on what you have at your own pace.

With the advancements in the ForgeRock Identity Platform, we’ve made orchestrating identity journeys even simpler and more secure, and that includes solutions like ForgeRock Go, aimed at making usernames and passwords a thing of the past. It was gratifying to hear Sean Carrick, vice president, identity operations and engineering, LPL Financial, echo our belief that it’s a strong addition to the platform.

Balancing user experience with security is critical. Verizon IT Executive Director Manah Khalil pointed out that the power of artificial intelligence (AI) will help determine what makes one of their millions of customers distinct while also protecting their privacy.

The cloud is a great opportunity for organizations to deploy their infrastructure faster and at less expense. Understanding that everyone’s cloud journey is at a different stage, we’ve made it simple to manage identities across all use cases and with any cloud option – your cloud, our cloud, or a public cloud.

Rich Kneeley, managing director of cybersecurity and privacy at PwC, shared that companies that have already moved to the cloud were in a much better position to respond to the pandemic than others: “Employees, consumers, and business partners are expecting greater collaboration, increased security, deeper personalization, and unique experiences as they interact with their trusted brands. Identity should be a business enabler for increased cloud adoption.”

When the reality of the pandemic hit, our customers had to act fast. Scalability and simplicity of deployment really matters. For example, the New South Wales Department of Education in Australia manages more than one million student and employee identities, making it the second largest school district in the Southern Hemisphere. Shane Gandy, director of identity management for the district, successfully navigated the pandemic and points to AI as a tool that will make similar challenges easier to overcome in the future: “With COVID-19, we had two weeks to mobilize all these identities for online learning with the understanding that some students don’t have access to devices or even the Internet. We had to quickly and securely get people access to these services.”

Creating delightful user experiences is a passion at ForgeRock and essential in a digital world. That came into play at the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) when the pandemic struck. “With COVID-19, we had to adjust to the volatility. In April and May, we had historic volumes of trading – 150,000 people joined or re-joined their accounts – and we went from $1.6 billion to $33.3 billion a day in revenue. Tools like multi-factor authentication (MFA) were very helpful in providing one front door for customers to enter and offer a better user experience, ” said Tristan Geering, Chief Information Security Officer, ASX.

Final Thoughts

The pandemic won’t be the last disruption for your organization. Customer expectations will continue to push your business to evolve. Accordingly, you need an identity platform that can flex with you and help you grow your business no matter the circumstance.

We are committed to building on the strength of our AI-driven platform and enabling your workforce to be productive from anywhere, putting consumers on a happy path, and, most importantly, continuing to deliver innovation that does the heavy lifting for you.

This is how we see the future of identity and the role it plays for our customers. We launched a wave of new innovation last week designed to help you achieve this new reality.

I’d like to thank all our customers and partners who helped make Identity Live 2020 a success. Catch highlights from all three shows and hear from BMW, Accenture, Deloitte, and others here.

Fran

CEO ForgeRock