SailPoint’s Jerod Brennan talks about embracing the digital transformation and how identity can help with the process.

Learn more about how SailPoint can help you start your identity journey.

Video Transcript

Jerod Brennan: I’ve worked in identity and security for a long time. And what I know about identity programs is that they don’t just provide the value of security risk reduction but they enable the business to do things they may not even realize they’re capable of doing today to truly embrace this idea of digital transformation.

If you want to be successful in building out your own program. Start by taking time to understand where all of your accounts reside. You can look in a configuration management database or you could just ask people what websites do you log into in order to do your jobs. When you start to put this information together, you’re going to have a better view of your identity universe.

The landscape that you’re trying to improve performance identity maturity assessment using the Capability Maturity Model to determine where you are today and where you’d like to be as an organization. Take that maturity assessment to a security steering committee or an identity committee or a digital transformation committee. Talk to these people, these stakeholders about how your identity improvements can have a positive impact on the same business initiatives that they’re chasing down and once you get an idea of what’s important to them, where you’re going to have support, you want to document a plan of action.

You want to write down owners and tasks and due dates and make those deliverables crystal clear. If people don’t know what’s expected of them they’re not going to be able to execute. And it may sound crazy, but you should focus on demonstrating quick wins 30, 60, 90 days. You want to be able to go to the business and say, look, I changed things for the better and that’s not impossible, that’s a very tangible realistic goal.

You can automate password resets, basic birthright provisioning terminations. You can also automate just letting managers, see what everybody has access to so that they can certify whether or not the organization is following your access management policy.Once you put this plan into effect you want to recognize, not just the metrics and the the positives that the stakeholders going to care about.Very important, but take time to recognize the people who worked on this stuff, you’re going to have a lot of people putting in time and effort into making things better. Give them some pizza and beer and a pat on the back maybe on a Friday afternoon off. Anything to say thank you to show them to you appreciate their effort.

And finally recognize that identity isn’t just a one time project, it’s cyclical. Just like technology changes and your business needs change, the needs of your identity program are going to change as well. Look at the Identiverse conference. See if you can get engaged with that group to stay on top of trends that are coming down the line. And don’t hesitate to reach out to the folks here at SailPoint. We have a lot of people, not me, not just the company but individuals within the company that bring years of experience of doing this to the table.

We’d love to help you be successful. Just reach out and we’ll do what we can to help.

Find out how to build your Identity program.

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