Customer Identity and Access Management: Key Features of CIAM

Well, the one that integrates advanced information access management features while considering the current, as well as future business requirements, is known to be a perfect CIAM solution.

9 Key Components of CIAM

Customer identity and access management solutions have moved beyond the basic components that include security and customer experience. Certainly, these two components are universally applicable. However, it is vital to keep in mind the business-specific requirements while deploying the access management solution.

Today’s CIAM solutions developers keep in mind the core aspects of digital data security that every business demand.

Regardless of the business, the main motive is to engage the customers and protect their information throughout the journey. Companies need to deploy customer IAM solution that manages and secure the people as well as the devices. Probably, if you would be able to serve that successfully, your business will experience a higher conversion ratio.

The digital identity management solution must enable real-time digital identity management, security, and activation. It must ensure a safe and seamless customer experience while offering the business a thorough insight into customer data. Let’s take a brief tour of key components that a perfect CIAM platform must integrate.  

• End-to-End Security
• Data Access Control and Accumulation
• Robust Information Privacy Management
• Easy API Integration
• Privacy & Security Compliance
• Customer Journey Analytics
• Seamless Customer Experience
• Effective Preference Management
• Enhanced Scalability & Functionality

1. End-to-End Security

CIAM solutions are developed to handle millions of users in a B2C environment. Therefore, the tool should be focused on managing access, identity, and security of digital applications. Well, these are the core requirements that every identity platform must incorporate; however, they also serve as a base for the evolution of other features.

CIAM tools are designed to support millions and billions of customers who create their personalized accounts and sometimes multiple accounts. Therefore, frictionless security becomes an essential element. It must support complex applications across the open, robust, yet public network called the Internet.  

2. Data Access Control and Accumulation

Though businesses need to protect customer data, it is equally important that this data is available to those who need it for further processing. A perfect customer IAM platform allows you to develop flexible schemas to retrieve the most out of it. An effective data access control strategy leads to efficient data governance.

A good customer identity and access management solution should maintain privacy and security compliance. Simply put, an efficient customer IAM is one that ensures access to the right customer data at a right time. The identity framework should let you store, retrieve, and modify information seamlessly without interrupting the functionality.

3. Robust Information Privacy Management

Undeniably, your businesses need to stay in compliance with the information privacy laws, and so does the CIAM solutions. A good identity management tool allows companies to keep up with national laws while serving customers anywhere around the globe. Knowing how personal data is stored, managed, and used will lead to a smooth customer journey and a delightful user experience.

The overall cost to keep up with the legal requirements of the protection of customer data can be higher. However, the cost of not meeting these requirements can be unbearable. Demonstrating well-established privacy policies to the customers helps earn loyalty. In addition, when the customers know that their data is safe, they will engage confidently with your brand.

4. Easy API Integration

A good CIAM platform is one that integrates well with people, systems, business applications, and processes. All the businesses around the world are going digital, so the number of applications and digital business processes seems to grow in the future.

An ideal identity management tool need not require installing third-party applications for handling other processes of the organization. Indeed, a well-designed and structured CIAM serves as a resource that links local and third-party customer data handling applications seamlessly.  

What do APIs do? APIs make business operations easier as they integrate systems that work in collaboration across providers. Moreover, it allows different applications to communicate effectively with each other. Therefore, the API integrated into your CIAM must be compatible with all the systems that your business has on-premises.

CIAM solution must integrate seamlessly with the CRM platform, content management, business intelligence, marketing automation, and analytics systems.

CIAM providers must ensure future extensibility. The vendor must be able to incorporate new APIs to help your business stay updated with the new technology.

5. Privacy & Security Compliance

To make the most out of the customer identity management platform, make sure that it meets some of the basic, yet essential security features. It should store and retain customer data securely while allowing and managing access in the best possible way. The CIAM framework should follow redundancy practices to protect customer data in transit as well as at rest.

The solution must be HIPPA, SOC 2, and ISO certified. It should be compliant with the industry security standards as well as your location-specific privacy. Moreover, it must be compliant with data security standards so that your business should keep up well with customer security.

Businesses need to build unified and data-rich user profiles. These profiles must be secure and meet compliance requirements effectively while delivering bespoke customer experience. Go for a cloud-based CIAM solution. It should offer multi-factor authentication once a user account is created.

6. Customer Journey Analytics

Customer IAM solution that provides a comprehensive customer journey analytics, customer insights, market intelligence, and reporting is certainly the most ideal for businesses. All these analytics can indeed be utilized to create an unparalleled and excellent user experience. An advanced CIAM solution will certainly give you a deeper insight into customer data.

Advanced analytics, in a way or other, results in delivering excellent user experience. Therefore, a CIAM solution integrated with better analytics will allow frictionless access. Account manageability becomes easier for employees when analytics information such as browsing history, data, and preferences, exists in one place.

7. Seamless Customer Experience

Seamless user experience is the key to customer engagement. If a customer creates multiple user accounts, the software must link the multiple accounts and digital identities to one entity.

In the current digital landscape, a perfect CIAM platform is a potential resource that can save organizations from falling into a state of disruption.  Your business needs to keep a knowing eye to-

• what is happening
• what is coming next; and
• how to meet future challenges

8. Effective Preference Management

Your CIAM vendor should allow efficient and on-going administration of user preferences. It must organize data that is distributed across digital channels such as account records, user profiles, marketing systems, databases, etc.

To be able to access multiple web apps, the CIAM solution should ask for a single sign-on. The users must not require creating more than one account while dealing with numerous web-based applications.

9. Enhanced Scalability & Functionality

Digitalization has taken over the manual business processes. Consequently, customers expect round the clock access to the resources and services that your business offers. A perfect CIAM solution possesses the capability to scale to user demands while ensuring ‘zero-downtime.’

The service providers constantly monitor cloud-based customer identity platform to deliver frictionless and risk-free accessibility. Probably, the aim is to allow maximum security and higher accessibility without fail- even in the events of high demand.

Conclusion

Deploying the CIAM system in the business demands a balanced need for easy and secure access along with frictionless experience. The system should eliminate data silos to provide the business with a single, accurate, and consistent view of customer data.

Some of the renowned companies provide a comprehensive, feature-packed CIAM platform that meets the ever-rising expectations of businesses. In the current digital transformation scenario, companies demand an extensive identity and access management platform. PRobably, a platform that helps to access additional customer data while allowing self-service data management for an improved customer journey.

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