We continue to talk about how to act at each stage of IdM implementation, so that the access rights management system works as efficiently as possible in your company. In previous articles, I paid more attention to what should be done by myself in my company (in the future I will also do this). But at some point it's time to “go out”, and today we will talk about it.
In the market I can distinguish
three types of companies -
consultants ,
integrators and
vendors . Each has its own area of responsibility and competence.
To which of them should you go?
Before choosing a road, let's consider who does what and can help.
Consultants
Who! Specialists and experts on a range of issues.
What are they doing? Helps to deal with a pressing issue in accordance with the goal. It can also help to determine the goal, if for some reason you did not manage to do it yourself.
How do they work? There is a fairly large pool of options, but one thing remains unchanged - they involve in any activity of the customer (!). If you meet the sentence “we will do everything for you,” then this is most likely either an outsourcing or fraud, rather than consulting.
The consultant will help determine the sequence of actions for obtaining the agreed result, accompany you on difficult “turns” of the project, help you correct the direction.
What will help in terms of access control and IdM implementation?Will help:
- understand the current state
- formulate goals and objectives (and at the same time - check the project for profitability and feasibility for business / management),
- draw up a plan for transition to the desired state (actions, processes, organizational measures and technical means).
Why not neglect them? The most important thing is to correctly identify the actual goal and objectives. Without this, it is possible to go very far and long, to accomplish a lot of “feats” when implementing a solution (not only IdM, but any solution or system) and eventually remain at the bottom of the trough.
In addition, a
competent consultant will tell you which steps to bring reality to the desired state are most critical, what to pay special attention to, help substantiate and protect the decision before a business, etc.
What is important to remember? If you hired a consultant, then you still have to work. It will just be easier, because you will not be asking the Omniscient Google, sorting through gigabytes of information, stumbling on the same article rewritten in the hundredth circle with primitive recommendations, but an expert who has the subtleties and nuances able to choose options taking into account your specifics. This will speed up and simplify the work, because the expert (if this is an expert expert) has a map which shows the location of the rake on the way to the goal and the route of their circumvention.
Integrators
Who! Companies whose specialists are competent to solve your problems mainly with the help of technical means, creating, adapting and implementing systems.
What are they doing? Select the technical means to solve your problems. Usually they have a certain profile of activity, but they can expand their horizons for their favorite customer.
How do they work? Most often the company has a number of specialists who can advise the customer on issues of interest and suggest which solution to choose. After that, "specially trained people" for some class of systems or a specific solution will tell in more detail and help to compile the TK for the system.
Then comes the implementation ... On absolutely any project you will collect a certain number of rakes. How much exactly - depends on the competence of the integrator, and if it is absolutely accurate - on the competence of the specialists of your chosen company.
What will help in terms of access control and IdM implementation?Can embed IdM. Probably. Maybe for sure.
But seriously, the integrator can help with automation (not necessarily via IdM). If you have specialists, you can design processes and perform other work that consultants perform. The essence remains the same - technical solutions, as a rule, go to integrators.
Why not neglect them? Everything, as always, depends on the purpose and level of maturity. Suppose you or your administrator automated some activity with scripts, which in itself is wonderful. Is that enough for you? And your company aka business?
Yes? Wonderful! You do not need an integrator, because you do not have tasks and jobs for him.
Not? At a minimum, you definitely need a consultant, but whether he is independent or from an integrator, this is not the point, if only a specialist would be a good one and it is for your question.
Often people ask me a question - “
Can I implement an IdM solution without an integrator? ". Theoretically, you can. It depends on the decision. But, most likely, it will be oh-very long, because There are very few imputed manuals and methodologies on these issues. You need a fair amount of technical expertise, and you also have to deal with the organizational part.
In general, there is no way out - you have to work yourself anyway.
Vendors
Who! Companies producing systems and solutions aka “products” under their brand.
What are they doing? In our case, they produce software, hardware, hardware and software, and then sell it directly to the consumer or through partners (integrators, retailers, distributors). But this is not limited to this: the “product” needs to provide advertising and promotion, training (how to implement, how to use it), manuals and much more.
How do they work? Unified scheme, perhaps not.
Someone produces software that does not require complicated installation and configuration. In this case, most likely, it is simply distributed with the instruction.
As for access control systems (IdM / IGA), then without a partner integrator or vendor’s own implementation service, which will implement the system, it’s not enough.
What will help in terms of access control and IdM implementation?Many vendors have their own experts who can tell firsthand about the decision, about the features of implementation and advise how this solution is suitable for your company.
Why not neglect them? Vendor knows his product better than the integrator. In addition, the vendor has a bigger picture of what customers are asking for, because before implementing a particular feature, research is being conducted on whether such functionality is needed, in what cases it will be used, and how to further support and develop it.
So WHAT TO GO?For consultants - for the action
plan .
To integrators - for the
technical implementation of the plan.
For vendors - for a
specific solution / product .
However, if you are sure that:
- themselves have correctly defined the goals and objectives
- deliberately and systematically planned steps
- figured out exactly which IdM / IGA solution suits you best,
- feel free to go to the vendor. He will also be able to suggest how to act and, if necessary, advise consultants and integrators who can solve exactly your problem.
And often it is the vendor who has his own high-class consulting and professional expertise.