Remote offices. On-the-go employees. Contractors. Partners. Fast-moving teams and projects. That’s the way modern business works. The days of employees sitting in an office down the hall from IT are long gone, and IT security policies established many years ago aren’t designed to work with today’s modern workforce.

Password management, like any other modern technology, should empower your business. A successful password management solution improves your business by making access to mission critical applications faster and easier, while also adhering to each organization’s security policies. To be effective, your password management solution must also keep up with where your business is today as well as where it will be tomorrow.

Whether you are starting a new password management project or replacing a legacy system, there are three key areas to consider to ensure success:

  1. Does it advance your security and compliance initiatives?
  2. Does it improve efficiency?
  3. Does it address the needs – and risks – of all your users?

Comprehensive Visibility is the Key to Security and Compliance

Improving security and achieving compliance are the primary reasons most organizations purchase an identity governance solution. Yet, many current password management utilities lack crucial identity governance controls that are pivotal to those initiatives. Visibility is a great example of where organizations are falling short.

While much of today’s business is done online and through cloud applications, many enterprises still rely on mainframes, ERP systems and other on-premises tools for critical business functions. In order to advance the security posture of the organization, you need to create and enforce consistent password policies across each of these systems.

A comprehensive, cloud-based password management solution not only works in conjunction with your identity governance solution but also connects to all an organization’s applications and systems. For IT and security teams, this not only provides the visibility essential for compliance and security, it also offers consistent policy across each application, as well as a level of “future proofing” that fits within the long-term strategic objectives of today’s organizations

Improve IT Efficiency for Cost Savings and Increase Productivity

Gartner estimates 40% of all IT service desks requests are still tied to password change requests. Spending this much time on a single task not only results in higher IT costs, it also lowers productivity for the entire business.

Many early password management products focused on the technical aspects of coordinating password changes across different systems (not including mobile devices or cloudbased apps), rather than the strategic needs of the business. For that reason, some IT teams who have implemented a password solution may still end up spending a significant portion of their amount of time resetting accounts.

A good password management solution should improve efficiency of your IT staff – and in turn – your entire organization. Fully automated, self-service capabilities decrease the amount of time IT spends on routine tasks, giving them time to spend on more complex projects or user issues. Additionally, users get their issues resolved and get back to work faster.

Save Time and Money with Self-Service Password Management

As one software development organization recently discovered, relying on the helpdesk to assist remote users reset passwords can get very expensive, very quickly. Users would be on the phone with the helpdesk for 30 minutes or more to get their accounts unlocked and password issues resolved. This is after waiting for staff to be available to even take the call. This meant that users might be unable to access critical applications to do their jobs for several hours. IT was overwhelmed. Users were frustrated. Productivity suffered.

Secure, self-service password reset from IdentityNow empowered the IT operations team at this software organization to alleviate many of the calls to the helpdesk almost immediately. In addition, for calls that did require human intervention, staff could address issues faster and more effectively, improving the user experience. This resulted in savings of nearly $250,000 per year.


Interested in how IdentityIQ and IdentityNow work together?

See the benefits customers have achieved by integrating IdentityNow password management with their IdentityIQ deployment.

Address the Needs of All Your Users

So much of business today happens outside the office and on smart mobile devices. Is your password management solution built to keep up? A cloud-based solution empowers your users to get their jobs done, regardless of their location or which device they use. Users can reset passwords anytime, anywhere – without needing IT intervention or access to the corporate network. Users in your branch offices, retail stores and global warehouses can keep business going without having to contact IT during off hours. In turn, your business becomes safer, more efficient and better protected.

Empower Everyone with SailPoint

As more business applications and systems move to the cloud and user populations get more diverse, organizations need to adjust their processes and technology to maintain compliance and security policies. The SailPoint Password Management service empowers all your users – including employees, partners, contractors and vendors – with a secure self-service platform for unlocking accounts and resetting passwords. This serves a dual purpose in that it actively engages business users in their own protection by making work easier, faster and more productive, and also alleviates the burden and expense of password reset requests to the IT helpdesk. Finally, the Password Management service leverages the identity governance efforts you may already have in place with a centralized governance framework and consistent enforcement of strong password and access policies.

To learn how the IdentityNow Password Management service can help you cut costs, improve security and increase productivitiy across your business, contact us for a free initial consultation at [email protected].

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