I’m here at the Kuppingercole EIC17 conference and it’s Day 1. As always there’s that mix of first day of school after summer holidays and “new kids on the block” for those who attend the conference for the very first time.

 

This year our very own marketing team decided to challenge attendees with a white board and a simple question:

What advice would you offer others to help them GET IAM RIGHT?

If you put a white board in front of anyone who is in the computer industry is like to show honey to a bear. Since many of you are not here I want to take the opportunity to tell you about my reaction to the whiteboard thing and to the “final result”.

First of all what is right or wrong? We all have a different perception of things, events, emotions there’s not a black or white truth and neither a plain right or wrong decision.

Identity projects are not immune to this, you cannot define a right way or a wrong way to do it but you may try to achieve your “right way” to approach it and solve it.

So, I was there, early morning, well okay you know I’m Italy so it was not that early and I was looking at the white board where there was one “lonely” single comment , the comment was:

It is much about organizational change as it is O’s & I’s

No offense to whoever wrote this but I really had trouble to get it…nonetheless while I was trying to get the meaning of this phrase I found myself starting to mumble…

What is that may help our customer get the IAM right…than I thought about the phrase… change, organizational, is much (more) about change…

Well if you know me, than you also know that I often talk about frictionless IT and of the rules of frictionless IT. They do not come from me but from a brilliant mind that goes under the name of Alessandro Perilli (@giano), GM Management Strategy at Red Hat and a former GTP Research Director at Gartner.

The rules of frictionless IT that basically explain what we mean with the term itself are:

  • Speed
  • Ease of Use
  • Integration

Now think about how to #getIAMRight.

You need to be efficient to have a good ROI and maintain your overall TCO low and this is speed. How do you speed? With products that are easy to install, that do not require too much professional services, that may be quickly learn and manage by your IT department.

Second step to #getIAMRight is: a product or a solution should be easy to use, easy to understand even if it is a complex technology as it is Identity Access Management and Governance, easy to get for the entire LoB in the company and not understandable only by IT department.

Third Step is to be integratable, it’s not about one product but about one solution. A solution that allows you, the customer, to start from any point of your ideal project and connect the One Identity products but not only, like in one of those kids game where you will draw something at the end simply connecting the dots one after another.

So I wrote this: Speed, Ease of User, Intergration: Frictionless, One Identity

I left the booth. I then came back after a couple of hours that I found other messages like:

  • Don’t focus on IT (only), Spend time with the business
  • Just get started be agile
  • Keep it Simple
  • Reduce Friction
  • Consider the customer, Make it easy!

I stood up there looking at the wall… I was connecting the dots and I wonder if you’re doing too.

First step: Be agile and don’t go down a complex detailed architectural design but, take one step at time. If you’re agile, you’re going to be fast. To be agile you need a modular solution that allows you to be agile, like One Identity Manager for example.

Second step: Don’t focus on IT only, it’s a company project, it requires all the LoB to be involved, keep them in the loop. Make it ease for them to understand and use it. If your product is too complex even for you, IT department, you will not be able to explain them to the other LoB and consequently your project will fail.

Third step: Consider the customer (needs), Reduce the friction. A company is like an onion, is made of many layers and each layer is tightly connected to the one above as well the one below. Legacy applications, internal processes, cloud solutions are all part of the same need and project and you have to integrate them. Without a solution or a set of products that are made to be integrated you cannot expect to be successful in your IAM project and so you will not #getIAMRight.

I left again, this time with a big smile on my face. We are small community in the IAM industry, we come from different part of the world and we have different background but somehow we look at the problems we have from the very same angle and we all want to #getIAMRight.

While I thank all the visitors and I’m thrilled what we will be on the white board tomorrow, to speak with more people here to learn more things and share again my thoughts.

Anonymous
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