Developing a Customer IAM (CIAM) Strategy and Roadmap

Authors

Gary Rowe, CEO and Principal Consulting Analyst

Doug Simmons, Principal Consulting Analyst

Abstract

This is the third report TechVision has released on the topic of Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM). In our report three years ago, we characterized CIAM as an “emerging” category.  Eighteen months ago we declared that CIAM had “emerged”, but now we see CIAM as maturing. We find that most large enterprises are leveraging CIAM in some way, major vendors (such as Akamai and SAP) have acquired early CIAM leaders (Janrain and Gigya) and other vendors (Okta and Ping) achieving successful IPOs. 

CIAM is important and highly visible as it provides organizations with a public gateway to secure external engagement and is a critical element of any Digital Enterprise program. CIAM is often an organization’s first “touch point” with a prospect and an on-going reflection of a brand. The CIAM stakes are high; get it right and you’ll attract customers, drive revenue and positively represent your organization; get it wrong and your business/image will suffer.

This report offers recommended customer-centric IAM strategies, architectural approaches and pragmatic, experience-based advice. CIAM differs from traditional (internal enterprise-focused) IAM with a greater emphasis on user experience, privacy and consent management, increased scale, integration with CRM/marketing systems and a business/sales focus.

This report provides strategic and tactical recommendations for enterprises building an IAM foundation for customer/prospective customer engagement and external stakeholders in the context of business goals.  This report covers:

• The enterprise CIAM value proposition, core requirements and business rationale
• Developing a CIAM strategy and action plan
• The CIAM market and vendor short list
• Recommendations and next steps