If I were to ask you to describe a car you would probably say that it is a vehicle that has four wheels, two or four doors, windows, seats for passengers and space in the trunk for carrying things. An IdentityGovernance and Administration solution also has key components. They all must have an access request portal which is also used for governance, a workflow approval management system, the ability to provision or create accounts and the ability to report on the status of system access. Both cars and IGA systems have other components, but those could be considered the key ones that help define what a car and an IGA system is.
The car’s components are what allow it to transport us from point A to point B and an IGA systems components are what allows companies to automate the processes that grant and review access to corporate systems.
IGA is but one of thousands of processes that companies desire to optimize and then automate. Optimizing and automating business processes removes friction from business and makes “work better” for the employees and for the company’s bottom line. The 800 lb. gorilla in the business automation space is ServiceNow. It is conquering that space because it gives users the power to automate processes easily and with a great deal of flexibility. Conversely, the IGA community has always insisted that “identity is hard” and that It requires its own platform in order to automate its processes.
Clear Skye is going to disrupt that narrative and going to make evident to everyone interested in removing friction from business that there is no need for a second platform. Clear Skye makes the NOW Platform the requirements of a modern IGA solution. No longer will access request approval processes have to be simplified in order to accommodate clunky software. No longer will companies have to hire specialized, expensive resources to manage IGA programs. ServiceNow configuration capabilities will make it easy for you to digitize IGA processes and keep them current as the business adapts. Users will rejoice because you are allowing them to carry out IGA functions using the portal they have grown accustomed to accessing when communicating with IT. Your users will know that when they need something from IT there is one place that they go to and when they go there they will have positive experience.
The industry and its analysts have been saying for years that integration with ITSM is key to a successful IGA implementation. Legacy vendors have built integrations from their platforms into ITSM in order to create the illusion of there being only one platform and one place to make requests. Unfortunately, these integrations are very limited when compared to moving IGA and all of its components into the NOW Platform. All identity information and processes can be configured so that everyone that needs the information can access it.
Taking information and embedding it in the NOW platform also creates incredible opportunities to leverage the information contained in other products built in the NOW Platform. Access requests are actually ITSM tickets, help desk administrators have access to all the information they need to resolve identity related issues. Indirect fulfillment, the process of granting access via ITSM as opposed through a direct integration, becomes much easier and simpler since all of the identity activities are managed inside the NOW platform. If you are a user of ServiceNow GRC you will benefit from extending GRC into application access in a seamless way. Also, identity processes can benefit from information contained in the ServiceNow CMDB. Consider the possibility of making change management processes a part of the user access fulfillment or provisioning process. The opportunities are endless. The huge value is that work processes can be automated easily and flexibly using the platform that your company invested in to do just that. It is almost impossible for us to think of the use cases that you and your teams will define and develop on your own.
Clear Skye is to legacy IGA platforms as electric vehicles are to gas guzzlers. Clear Skye has all the components of IGA platform. It delivers all of the key IGA capabilities but it delivers them more efficiently because its components are powered by the best in class workflow automation platform. The value to you will be that Identity work will become better and more widely adopted and your organization will become more secure and more efficient for it.
