IAM Projects Stalling – Too Tools-centric

Hello. My name is Martin Kuppinger I'm principal Analyst at KuppingerCole. Let's talk about common pitfalls in identity management projects. I'm observing I'm involved in identity management projects for, I would say probably more than 20 years now. And I've seen a lot of projects, stalling, or even failing. And I've also thought about and observed a lot of reasons why that isn't, I'd like to talk about one of these reasons today, which is starting with a tool instead of starting with questioning yourself. What do I really want to achieve?

Because that is the point where I really should start, but I see so many projects which start with in first case, oh, I will implement that tool of that vendor or, oh, I need tool of category, a, B or C, which could be whatever H E identity governance and administration or British access management or whatever else. And yes, in many cases you might need that.

But very, very often there's a gap in what is my blueprint. So what is my overall plan? What are my overall requirements? What are my priorities? Which gaps should I close first? That is the first thing. Understand how your identity management must look in future to support your business, to support, for instance, the digital transformation, which changes a lot in the way we do identity management. That is the starting point. Where are the gaps? Where are the priorities and how to fill these, and then look at your requirements.

And when you look at each of the tools categories, we are doing our leadership composes. So our market comparisons for a lot of identity management market segments. If you look at these market segments, there are very different vendors, frequently serving the broader need, for instance, for IGA or for Pam.

So, but in very different ways. So you need to first understand what exactly do you need and go into the requirements to pick the right vendor. Don't start two technical start. What do you want to achieve? And even more, there's a, a challenge that the world of identity management is changing. It is with the digital transformation. You have to deal not only with employees, but with things with customers, consumers, etcetera, and the way we run identity management is changing, shifting to, as a service models, shifting to modern microservice based architecture.

Also that influences what you need to do. So a very common problem is that teams start Thinking about, oh, I have a problem. I need a tool tool will fix it. That is only the second step. Another point to add here is yes, the tool usually is required.

No doubt, but the tool without the right organization, the right policies, the right processes will not deliver on what you need. So don't start with the tool starters, your requirements, your organization, your policies, your processes, and yes, pay processes on paper or tool, but define them roughly. And this is one of the things of many things which will help you avoiding stalling IM portraits. Thank you.