In relation to identity management, this means organisations knowing who their customers are, what their customers want, and making it easier for customers to obtain the products and services that they want from them. When doing business on the Internet the number of customers can be so large that manual security administration processes cannot provide the service required at a realistic cost. By automation, for example through customer self-registration, it is possible to offload the costs to the business units or the customers. The cost of getting new customers is higher than that of retaining existing ones. So technologies that recognise individuals and their preferences are important by making it easier for customers to do business with your organisation rather than with your competitors.

Financial discipline also means managing operations more effectively, making employees more efficient and reducing administrative overheads. In a typical organisation, password and account lockout problems can represent a large proportion (often over 50%) of the help desk load. The need to individually sign-on to multiple applications wastes time. The costs and delays involved in providing access for new employees can be a significant problem in industries with high staff turnover (call centres and retail are good examples).

3.3.1 Why Do Organisations Introduce EIdM?

EIdM projects are no ends in themselves, as they are introduced to obtain a specific goal. Amongst a variety of driving factors and reasons for introducing EIdM into an organisation,¹⁷⁹ the following primary and secondary reasons taken from the interviews seem to be the most prevalent reasons being named by the experts¹⁸⁰:

• Primary goals:

◦ Compliance goals (constraint for organisations)

◦ Business-related goals (e.g., efficiency, automation of processes, general cost reduction, accounting for IT costs)

• Secondary goals:

◦ Risk management/IT security goals

◦ Enabler for new business opportunities

The presented primary and secondary goals are not mutually exclusive.¹⁸¹ Overlaps and synergies can for example occur in cases where organisations seek to comply with relevant laws by introducing a EIdMS. In the course of the introduction and the proceeding re-organisation of the organisational IT and related processes, better efficiency can be gained due to clean-ups and streamlining of process once being fragmented. Also other overlaps in goals can be achieved; however, these depend on the individual setting being analysed.

(Royer, 2013, p. 46-47)

The key business drivers that make identity management important are financial discipline, operational risk and compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.

(Small, 2004, p. 7)