What are the benefits of Identity & Access Management (IAM)?

Automated access management with IAM

With Identity & Access Management (IAM), the accounts and access rights for all organizational tools, per user are set up automatically. It broadly consists of 2 parts.

• IAM authentication: the identity of the user. This often consists of a username + password. A stronger method is two factor authentication (2FA). This requires the user to go through a second step to gain access and requires an additional device.
• IAM authorization: the user's access rights. This depends on things like the employee's job title, department or location. So it indicates what the user can and cannot do within the corporate network.

IAM software links the user accounts to the personnel data already present in the HRM system. This is called provisioning. Employee access rights are thus automatically generated or modified based on his/her personal data within the company. At Laméco, we see how valuable this is to an organization, so this software can be used within all of our Web applications.

The role of RBAC within the company

Automating access rights within an organization can also be done through a "role system. In this 'Role Bases Access Control' (RBAC), different roles are set up based on things like function, department and location. Access rights are attached to each role for each organizational tool. An RBAC role is then assigned to all users (often by provisioning). Thus, access rights no longer need to be set per user, but per role.

RBAC can be further extended so that rights are automatically distributed or taken at increasingly detailed levels. For example, role mining discovers that in a given role, the same authorization is often granted later. This can then be included in that role as a basic access right.

With proper maintenance, IAM comes to fruition

Monitoring and maintenance are very important within Identity & Access Management. After all, an organization is constantly evolving. For example, with a reorganization or implementation of a new software system. Also, authorizations that are not granted until later in the employment can cause ambiguity. It is therefore necessary to regularly check for each department which employees are employed and whether the associated access rights are still correct. If these checks are carried out consistently, IAM provides many benefits:

Time savings ICT department
The accounts for all organizational tools are managed almost fully automatically. The time that saves can be spent by the ICT department on real technical challenges.

Safer network
There is never a tool or "tick" forgotten when it comes to access rights because almost everything is automated. Also, thanks to SSO, there are no more weak passwords and as soon as someone leaves employment, all his/her accounts are blocked with one click.

Legislation
If a security audit requires proof that your company keeps privacy-sensitive information secure, IAM makes it easy to create a report for this purpose.

Overview
The various user accounts of all organizational tools form a spider's web of usernames and passwords. IAM cleans that up and makes all access rights clear again. For example, through provisioning or an RBAC model.

A new colleague without digital hassles?

So we can make it as easy for the IT department when a new employee arrives as we did at the time of that one e-mail address. And Identity & Access Management keeps evolving, so it will probably get easier and easier. Do you want to know how to manage the usage of your web application more efficiently? Schedule a consultation with Martin.