Every organisation has to deal with numerous digital identities that represent their many users and personas. How organisations manage those identities can be a strategic differentiator with clear business benefits
Every organisation has to deal with numerous digital identities that represent their many users and personas. How organisations manage those identities can be a strategic differentiator with clear business benefits. Therefore, it should be at the centre of the data-driven business model of an organisation. Part 3 of this series covers managing the digital identity of your devices and applications.
In our Executive Summary on the Future of Digital Identities, digital identities are becoming the foundation of our rapidly evolving technology-based and data-driven economy and society, where every organisation has to deal with not only their own digital identity, but also with those of their employees and co-workers, their customers and other stakeholders, as well as the digital identities of their devices and applications.
If an organisation approaches digital identity correctly, they can achieve better efficiency and control, more revenue, transformational benefits with an enhanced user experience for colleagues and an improved digital journey for customers or citizens, all whilst protecting stakeholder privacy.
In this article, we focus on the digital identity approach for devices and applications, and the associated business benefits and actionable insights. A ‘device’ refers to any piece of equipment connected to your organisational network, whilst an ‘application’ refers to any computer programme designed to perform a task in one of your organisational processes.
Please note, within this paper, we focus on private sector organisations, however, the underlying principles of device and application identity management also apply for government bodies.
Read the Executive Summary
Chief Data Officers (CDOs), data scientists, and Chief Information Officers (CIOs) recognise that traditional ways of organising and accessing data will not be sufficient as we move towards artificial intelligence (AI)–based decision-making. This means machine learning (ML) will augment and in some cases replace human decision-making.
Most organisations still gather and structure their data from a human perspective, meaning humans must be able to access the data and use it for decision making. This approach does have limitations relating to scale, efficiency and control. AI will help organisations create and adopt automated processes across industries, thus replacing low-level or non-scalable human decision making with machine-made decisions. It is expected that costs to organisations in the future will be a fraction of what they are today, thanks to the capability, speed and scale of machine-based decision-making. To fully leverage such automated decision-making, organisations must analyse which operational processes require human access, which data is involved and where privileged access is needed.
Some companies have already automated decision making as part of larger AI initiatives. In Deloitte’s third annual State of AI in the Enterprise survey , most respondents selected ‘modernising our data infrastructure for AI’ as the top initiative for increasing competitive advantage from AI. Examples of modernising infrastructure include conditional access, which is defining policies and configurations that control which devices have access to various services and data sources. Integrating AI and machine-to-machine activity as part of your business model will bring increased benefits, including enhanced control, privacy and security.
How far along the digital identity transition journey are you?
Facilitating and protecting your data-driven business processes with device and application-based identities provides clear business benefits. These depend on your type of organisation and chosen strategy, but can include:
See how digital identity impacts your line of business with these real life examples
In our previous report in this series , we emphasised the importance of incorporating digital identity into your data-driven business model. Strategy development and execution cannot be siloed. To generate effective results, organisations need foundational elements in place.
Firstly, organisations need an empowered strategy function. Whether it’s the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Security Officer (CSO), or any other executive, an empowered executive strategy leader is critical to effective strategy development and execution. In collaboration with the CIO, the strategy leader can help influence and educate executive leaders and board members. This should lead to tech-savvy senior leaders working alongside business-savvy leaders across operations and technology.
With this executive structure in place, senior leadership can ensure that strategy assumptions are properly challenged and that the organisation’s security risk appetite is defined. Once defined, this allows the organisation to communicate a consistent message about business priorities, including guidance on digital identity.
Do you want to know more about how your organisation can become more efficient, improve user experience and increase control? Contact your regional Deloitte Digital Identity lead
1Source: Deloitte Insights Tech Trend 2021:
https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/insights/articles/6730_TT-Landing-page/DI_2021-Tech-Trends.pdf