Governance (Process - IAM)

IAM TCO

IAM Total Cost of Ownership

1.1

Currency This indicator is expressed in the organization’s reference currency.

To improve their competitiveness, organizations must simultaneously minimize their costs and maximize their added value. Hence, the cost of IAM is a fundamental component of IAM performance measurement. The IAM TCO (Total Cost of Ownership measures ) is a measurement of the overall cost of the overall IAM processes, including core IAM, PAM, CIAM and Federation IAMan activity, from acquisition to maintenance. In consequence, the TCO of IAM is a natural measurement of IAM overall cost.

Since TCO is thought to be directly proportional to service levels, it is critical to interpret this indicator in conjunction with the indicators that reflect the service levels delivered by the IAM processes (see § Negative Effects).

Because IAM is composed of process clusters, it is interesting to allocate costs at both the global and cluster levels (providing that the organization does manage these clusters). The IAM TCO is composed of the following series:

• IAM TCO = The TCO of overall IAM.

• Core IAM TCO = The TCO of core IAM.

• PAM TCO = The TCO of PAM.

• Federation IAM TCO = The TCO of Federation IAM.

• CIAM TCO = The TCO of CIAM.

See Measuring the cost of IAM - Methodology for a discussion on how to measure IAM TCO.

Currency This indicator is expressed in the organization’s reference currency.

This indicator is not comparable between organizations. See Core Identity Average TCO (Indicator - IAM) for a distinct flavor of this indicator that is adequate for benchmarking purposes.

• CISO (Stakeholder - IAM)

• IAM Management (Stakeholder)

• Top Management (Stakeholder)

In large organizations where IAM is organized for example in regions, the indicator may be measured at both levels.

• TCO is thought as being directly proportional to service levels, hence organizations should strive to simultaneously reduce their TCO while maintaining or improving their service levels (David et al., 2002). This indicator may induce a focus on costs to the detriment of service levels.

• estimation

• (Francescini reference)

Same frequency than the organization’s financial reporting or yearlyYearly.

• Core Identity (Dictionary Entry) A General Inventory of Empirical Identities (Research Note - IAM)

• Measuring the cost of IAM - Methodology

• Measuring the cost of IAM - Activities & Costs

• Total Cost of Ownership (Dictionary Entry)