The New Nation - Internet Edition

Farhan Ibrahim

Organisations across the globe have begun to realise the importance of identify management (IDM) in doing business more efficiently. IDM is no longer just a technology issue; it has become a business issue. With the sharp growth that Bangladeshi companies, especially in industries like financial services, telecom, manufacturing, retail & distribution and IT enabled services are witnessing, they realised they had to open doors to the world while ensuring that the world doesn't walk through them.

It has become necessary for them to securely manage appropriate access to business resources for employees, customers, partners and suppliers. An information security framework or IDM allows them to reduce threats and improve compliance.

Some of the major factors that are driving the growth of identity management solutions in Bangladesh include; Regulatory compliance norms. Today, irrespective of where a company is based, if it does business on a global scale they need to understand the best practices and measures for compliance adopted by companies spread across various geographies. Whether they are component suppliers to the automobile giants, outsourced partners for retail chains or emerging manufacturers setting up projects overseas, knowledge of global compliance norms is becoming an integral part of their competitive DNA. Since a lot of multinational giants have invested in meeting compliance requirements, they would obviously want their business partners - suppliers, collaborators, also to meet with the same kinds of compliance rules, whether those partners are based in the same location or elsewhere across the globe.

Secondly, managing identities. With business growth and expansion/M&A's, companies have to induct/absorb more employees, customers, partners and suppliers into their business process system. This means more identities, roles and transactions, giving rise to security threats that can result from creating an extended network.

Thirdly, access control and compliance management. Nearly every organisation around the world is subject to multiple regulations that mandate different aspects of privacy or accountability. With the maturity of the online world, curbing identity theft and fraud in such an environment has become a big challenge. A growing number of firms are falling victims to information leakage and data theft in the online world. IDM solution has a vital role to play into this matter.

According to industry analysts, the IDM market is expected to increase by more than 4 times to reach approximately US$2.5billion. The public and finance sectors are expected to lead the adoption of IDM worldwide. In answering the major security threats that enterprises at present are facing, enterprises should increasingly take a closer look at their internal operations. Large numbers of security breaches happen from either an employee within the company or by outsiders entering the network to corrupt it. The challenge is to ensure that the right people have appropriate access to the right resources at the right time and to be able to prove it. Also, organizations today face the challenge of protecting confidential personal and business information from unauthorized users.

However, a holistic approach to security can save you money. Companies today are spending 10 times more on compliance projects because they adopt an ad-hoc approach rather than as part of a strategic, proactive compliance program. This approach is costly.

In addition to global regulatory requirements like Basel II, privacy legislation is forcing companies to look at ways to certify data that is held to be compliant to privacy laws. For example, a financial services company in United States managed to reduce their annual costs involved in supporting the identity administration needs of their 2,000 employees by half a million U.S dollars.

Organizations need to protect confidential personal and business information from unauthorized users and ensure that adherence to rules and regulations can always be substantiated. This is where compliance has got a role to play in the identity management sphere.

It is to mention that the IDM solutions have started to gain popularity among a certain section of Bangladeshi enterprises. Organizations from the financial services, telecom, IT enabled services and manufacturing, retail & distribution sectors in Bangladesh will benefit from identity management solutions.

Oracle's Identity Management (IDM) products and solutions are available to Organisations in Bangladesh. Serving as the security backbone for Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle Identity Management helps customers and partners decrease security threats across diverse IT environments while helping address governance, risk and compliance needs.

The family of the best-in-class software includes Oracle Identity Manager, Oracle Access Manager, Oracle Adaptive Access Manager, Oracle Enterprise Single Sign-On Suite, Oracle Identity Federation, Oracle Virtual Directory, Oracle Internet Directory, Oracle Management Pack for Identity Management and Oracle Web Services Manager; all of which can be used in its entirety or as individual components.

Writer is a Sales Leader of Technology Business, Oracle Corporation, South Asia Growth Economies (West).