Meeting audit requirements are often required for many organizations, but the process is often cumbersome and requires a great deal of time and effort. There are ways, though, to make the audit process much easier, while also gaining the additional benefit of long-term growth and health of your organization.
One way this can be achieved is with an Identity and access management (IAM) solution. A main requirements of audits is showing, often, that secure data such as financial statements and customer information is kept safe. IAM solutions can help the organization daily in ensuring correct access, so that when audit time comes around, the organization has everything it needs, all in one place, to provide the information needed. An automated account management solution with role-based access control (RBAC) allows a manager to oversee and document exactly who has access to what, plus any changes they are making. This allows access rights and changes in secure applications to be continually documented for audits in a neat, organized manner. For example, managers can generate an overview of each user activity. The system automatically logs which employee performs a particular management activity, as well as the time it occurred. IAM solutions allow an organization to easily meet audit reporting requirements, but it can also benefit the organization allowing for long term health of the organization.
So what are some of the additional benefits?
Network Security — One of the main, most obvious benefits of implementing an IAM solution is ensuring security of the network. Automated account management solutions allow any change to a user account to be made easily and quickly, with the changes synced to all connected systems. So when an employee is no longer with the organization, their account can be disabled quickly, and the organization can ensure that no disgruntled former employees can do damage to the network.
No Pollution on the network — With an IAM solution the organization can see clearly how many accounts it manages without the pollution of inactive accounts or people who are no longer with the organization. An overview of the network that can be generated from an IAM solution allowing management to see how many people are using each application for licensing reasons.
Productivity — IAM solutions can also help ensure that your employees are the most productive they can be. Access rights are very important in the corporate world to ensure that employees can complete a job or project they are working on. With an IAM solution in place, employees can be granted access rights quickly, but securely, to the resources that they need.