Tag: ibm

You mean people actually use this stuff?

Matt Kelly at Compliance Week threw out a line recently:

Compliance Week is researching a story about compliance with identity management and user access policies. We’d like to hear about what policies you have in place for those needs, and what problems you’ve encountered (and solved) along the way. Send us your thoughts, and expect an article on the topic in upcoming weeks.

Needless to say, I am very curious what people will share on this subject. I’m always fascinated to hear how people apply user provisioning tools.

Back in the day there were two major selling points for user provisioning: compliance and reduced help desk call volume. Customers were quick(er) to recognize the reduced help desk call volume but the compliance aspect lagged, mostly dueto the fact that no one knew what compliance meant. (These were the pre-SOX days mind you.)

Times have certainly changed as has the messaging. Recently provisioning for compliance has morphed into compliant provisioning. User provisioning systems have matured to a point that organizations can use them as service platforms. Organizations are realizing that their provisioning infrastructures are great vehicles for other services: password management, role lifecycle management, and so on. Compliant provisioning is one of the best examples of this.

If our recent webinar with KPMG and IBM was any indication, then the market is desperate for compliant provisioning solutions. We had hundreds of attendees asking some very tough questions about implementation, architecture, and resources needed. I can’t wait to see if Matt’s research reaffirms what we are seeing in the ever maturing provisioning market.

Why I suck

As you may or may not know, Access360 has been acquired by IBM. I am at IBM training. In Chicago.

I am treating my time here at Big Blue like Jane Goodall among the apes. It is a social experiment. I am mezmerized by this whole affair, like a car wreck which involes my paycheck. Needless to say I have been preoccupied lately.

I have a serial number. 9A0919. Not an employee number. A serial number. It’s in hexidecimal. Not base 10, but base 16.

I have been reduced to a hex number, a cog, in a machine that is larger and more stable than most African nations.

I have just completed my first day of training. I find myself a) partially excited for the future and b) hankering for a fight.