5 Things To Look For In An Identity Management System

Managing the identity and credentials of staff for any organisation can mean a considerable amount of administration work. For businesses looking to cut down on costs and valuable time used for data entry, choosing the right system to help with your credential management will make a huge difference. Consideration about the processes and attributes essential to safeguard and manage sensitive data, and the production and delivery methods used to deploy staff credentials / photo ID is where IDentiTech can provide valuable insights via our tried and tested systems and solutions.

Why should you have a credential management system at all? What requirements might a modern company have of a such a system?

Here are 5 things you need to consider:

SECURITY

Likely the most obvious talking point, security is a bigger issue in data management than ever before. Recent data breaches that have been in the public eye have many businesses concerned about their own frameworks and tools they use to function day-to-day.

When it comes to credential and identity management, your employees’ information and access rights must be secure. Using an online system developed to rigorous industry standards will mean a lowered risk of fraud and inappropriate use of your staff’s credentials. It is important to keep this data within the constrains of the system and use a password manager to make access to this data both safe and easy.

CONVENIENCE

Not all methods that a business employs are as convenient or effective as they could be. We are aware that some organisations are still using email to transfer their identity information to the relevant third parties they work with. This method is restrictive, inefficient and not very secure either. What some organisations don’t realise is that credential management can be handled securely without breaking the bank, and it doesn’t have to be complicated. You can have complete control over your data and at the same time, with the added confidence in how it is being handled.

Some identity management systems allow you to implement automatic actions so that your usual processes involving the data can be compressed from multiple steps to just one. For example using IDentiTech’s ‘SOMS’ (Secure Online Management System) to provide customers with easy ID card ordering so that when you update your staff’s credentials using the ‘SOMS’ system, you barely even have to think about getting their new Photo ID items ready.

SAVINGS

Apart from the initial price or subscription of an identity management system, think about how you can save time and money for day-to-day operations. Digitising your processes and introducing automations to help you manage your data will, in the long run, require far less time and manpower spent on everyday tasks. For many, it’s only after introducing a new digital system that they realise how much time was spent organising, transferring and updating staff identity data and managing staff credentials.

SUSTAINABILITY

In an increasingly eco-conscious world, most organisations are looking for sustainable solutions that can easily be implemented. If your organisation is doing what it can to lower its carbon footprint then it should look to electronically managing as much of its data as possible. For example records kept by companies such as law firms in some circumstances are required to be kept for some time as hard-copy documents, but staff credentials can and should be managed digitally. Choosing a paperless system will help you reach your targets as well as reduce the likelihood of human error.

ADAPTABILITY

Applying an existing system to your business will only work if that system has the ability to be adapted specifically to your organisation, as each workplace will have different demands and processes. Whatever system you use to manage your credential data also needs to be adaptable to the life cycle of your data. As employees move through an organisation it is important that their access to premises and company assets can be easily adjusted or revoked if necessary.

OUR SYSTEM

At IDentiTech, we provide software called SOMS (Secure Online Management System) to deliver our customers easy access to our services and help them manage their identity data.

SOMS features all the traits we recommended in an identity management system, and you can read more about it or submit an enquiry on our Photo ID page.

PHOTO ID WITH SOMS

Of course, introducing an identity management system isn’t the only part of managing your credentials and identity data. A credential management system should exist within a framework implemented by authorised individuals within any organisation.