Why Identity Master Repositories should be Part of every IAM Strategy

IAM, CISO, and HR Directors know all too well that employees and the rapidly growing numbers of third-party workers have increasingly fluctuating relationships with organizations regarding their access, roles, and digital identities. Unfortunately, these changing relationships may result in duplicate, outdated, or false identities in an organization’s central and non-employee (vendor, contractor, supply chain, etc.) IAM and identity directories. Traditional methods of creating an Identity Master repository (or Client Master) have proven to be tremendously labor–intensive and error-prone. 

From identity sprawl caused by users’ identities being managed by multiple disconnected systems to trying to create order after a merger or acquisition, the need for an identity master repository has never been greater but has proved to be a herculean task due to several challenges. These challenges include: 

Multiple systems of record  

Many organizations store the data about individuals in multiple systems of record. For example, a single manufacturing worker may have their record managed an employee HR information system (HRIS), company record system, or even a vendor management system if they were originally from an outside vendor. When a worker’s record exists within these multiple systems, duplicate accounts are often created for the same person in other downstream systems. 

Identity sprawl 

A worker’s relationship with the organization can change over time. A person may start as a contractor then be hired full-time and then at some point revert back into a consultant. This happens in many industries, but oftentimes more frequently in manufacturing, higher-ed (student to full-time employee), high-technology, and healthcare (traveling nurse or MRI tech to a full-time employee).  

Mergers and acquisitions 

During a merger or acquisition, thousands of employees and third-party users may need to be added to the parent company’s digital identity management system. Without automation, it can take hundreds of hours to determine which of these employees, and third-party users are valid, if duplicates exist, and then to migrate the workforce records from the acquired organization systems. This creates inefficient onboarding processes for workers who need access to systems to perform critical job functions and creates risk due to workers being over-provisioned to systems based on their incorrect information.   

Our latest thought leadership whitepaper details the complexities organizations encounter as they manage digital identities. It also explains how to consolidate the data from multiple identity sources to create a single authoritative identity that can be added to an Identity Master Repository and used for downstream IAM and IGA systems. 

Download the informative whitepaper today to learn how to strengthen your IAM strategy and mitigate risk by creating an Identity Master Repository: Why an Identity Master Repository is Crucial to an Organization’s Security