Choosing the right identity and access management solution can be difficult. There are many points to take into account, depending on your priorities and budget.
So what if there are also pitfalls to avoid? Yes, unfortunately, I've listed 7 points that could cause difficulties in the implementation and day-to-day use of your Identity & Access Management solution.
1. The tool is too technical
The IAM solutions on the market are often very cumbersome, and access management is not their core business. The products are designed for international companies. They're like building blocks to be added on, but you can quickly get lost. The interface isn't UX-optimized (or a nice way of saying indigestible), the settings are extremely technical and require a major investment from several people who become indispensable to the smooth running of the project. The downside is that a loss of motivation, a lack of knowledge or the departure of one person can jeopardize the whole project. When an identity and access management project takes several months to set up, the enthusiasm of the early days fades.
2. The solution is on-premise
The solution does not exist in SaaS mode, and must therefore be installed on customer servers. This means a number of things: implementation takes time, costs are high, hosting has to be managed by the customer, and so does server maintenance. There are also other consequences, such as more complex upgrading of the solution. An on-premise system can be accessed remotely, but requires assistance to connect to it. This increases the risk of failure, security and communication.
3. A tailor-made solution
When you want a customized solution, what you really want is a solution that best suits your needs.
Sometimes a bespoke solution is not the right way to meet this requirement, and may even be counterproductive.
Let me explain: a customized solution entails several constraints:
- start in project mode
- go on premise
- having an on-site consultant who will monopolize the teams every time. The consultant won't be there every day, so the project is spread out over time. What's more, the cost of a day's consulting is usually €1,500.
- have a project that doesn't meet your expectations.
- have a final rendering that is heavy and difficult to use
Let's expand on a few points. When you start out in project mode, you define your needs at a given point in time. The service provider you choose will work on your specific requirements (the more you have, the longer it takes and the more you pay). The project is therefore spread out over time.
You receive your project 6 or 8 months later, but your needs have changed!
You did try to raise a few requests during the development phase, but these were not taken into account, as the service provider relies on your initial request.
Your project has already cost you a lot of money and you haven't even started working on it, so you have no guarantee that your teams will take ownership of the IAM solution.
On the contrary, when you start out with a flexible SaaS solution like Youzer, you can test the application immediately, even before you've paid for it - that's a game-changer!
Many of our customers appreciate the opportunity to co-build their identity and access management solution with us. So put an end to preconceived ideas: a SaaS solution is flexible!
SaaS allows you to receive upgrades without any action on your part, and without any impact on your data. This allows the solution to evolve constantly, and to meet current customer needs.
At Youzer, we take into account the needs of one or more customers to develop the solution, so that these developments benefit all our customers! Clever 😉
4. Few connectors
The solution you're looking at is very interesting, but it has very few connectors. We're talking about future development or even connecting only your main connectors, but this won't work in the long term.
Take a look at their catalog of connectors in the application. Ask questions about the feasibility of developing connectors specific to your business.
Dedicated connectors are always more powerful, but it is possible to have other connectors that support applications that don't have an API.
Find out how long it takes to create a connector.
At Youzer, we have 3 types of connectors:
- dedicated connectors
- the universal connector
- the self-service connector
This enables us to support all our customers' applications, and we develop connectors when the need arises. Depending on the architecture of the application to be connected, this can take from 1/2 day to several months, depending on the availability of information from the application's contact.
5. The solution only supports SaaS or on-premise connectors
Your solution can't integrate SaaS and on-premise formats. Make sure that all your applications and solutions can be managed by the identity and access management platform.
You're going to be stuck if only half of your software can be automated. That's not the way to easily carry out audits, or even to combat shadow IT.
6. Few changes to the solution
Every year, your identity and access management platform finds itself outdated in terms of technological advances. As your technical environment evolves, it's crucial that your Identity and Access Management solution keeps pace with this evolution, with new features added on a regular basis. It's also very important that these new features correlate with your needs and those of your other customers ^^.
But above all, it's important that you have access to these new developments. If each update takes you several days to complete and creates bugs in every direction, it's quite likely that you won't want to do them regularly.
If your service provider charges you for product upgrades, you're reduced to using a version that will quickly become obsolete.
Be sure to check with your future service provider how often updates are required, and whether their application is feasible. Of course, SaaS avoids this kind of inconvenience, since version upgrades take place naturally, without any intervention on the part of users.
7. IAM as infrastructure management
See IAM as a solution to help you manage your infrastructure. IAM is used to manage your end-users and their accounts. Of course, it helps you clean up your Active Directory, but you shouldn't see it as a tool for managing accounts.
- It's a crucial aid to onboarding and offboarding.
- Identity and access management also serves to simplify life for end-users, with greater satisfaction due to quicker account creation and password self-reset...
- Audits are greatly facilitated, and compliance is easy to achieve.
- IAM will ensure the security of your IS by updating phantom accounts, orphan accounts and other account anomalies.
An IAM solution represents a major challenge not only in terms of security, but also in terms of simplifying internal processes.
It would be a real shame to take a product that isn't really suitable, because that would break the momentum (the implementation of processes and the improvement of safety).
For these reasons, we strongly encourage you to demo our solutions and try them out for free wherever possible.
