The usual suspects of poor connectivity and even worse skills are thwarting efforts to maximise the efficiencies that can be gained from identity management (IDM), says Microsoft platform strategy manager Albie Bester.
He cites a retailer with 1 000 branches that cannot afford a central ID repository because it can never know when the lines will be up or down. In addition, the bandwidth to some of its branches in outlying areas is as low as 64k. "That's a serious problem, so they have to use a distributed model and buy more servers, so their total IT cost just shoots up," Bester says.
Another frustration encountered by field teams is the lack of skills in integrating systems, he adds. Customer want integrated solutions, but vendors are unable to provide them because their technicians are skilled only in their proprietary platforms - and then only up to a point.
"It is frustrating, when working with some ERP (enterprise resource planning) vendors to hear them say, 'I know how to connect this system to that, but I don't know how to connect to yours'," says Bester.
He admits, however, that "our guys then find out they need to do more to skill up and get to know about UNIX and the like."
Bester says the experience shows the need for industry to buy in and get their systems to integrate. "But then we need people who understand how this needs to happen," he says of the technicians.
He was speaking at a briefing on the company's identity and access solutions. "Microsoft has learned over the past few years that you can't solve everything with a single product. You need three or four products and some good strategy and maybe some good guidance and practices," says Bester.
"Our product range aims to enable business to be more productive and connect better internally, as well as externally, by providing a secure and simple solution for managing all the digital identities and privileges in the organisation or between organisations," Bester adds.
"We have the technology and the processes... but the tripod of people, process and technology needs to exist. The product is just the enabler, and if one of the legs is missing then the system will fall over.
"We can provide the technology, but if the business processes are not in place or enforced, then it will break. But this is something only the client can do. Microsoft cannot enforce business processes and policies around IDs and passwords because we are not in that business."
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