Customer Identity Health Check

Optimize Your Customer Identity Strategy

Gain a deep understanding of how to connect business objectives to your customer experience and security.
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The issue
Directors of engineering face increasing pressure to deliver secure, scalable, and customer-centric digital experiences. Developing a robust CIAM strategy requires industry expertise and can be time and resource intensive.
Next Reason's Customer Identity Health Check provides a focused and actionable plan to enhance your organization's customer identity capabilities.

Using our assessment framework, we develop a roadmap to guide your initiatives.
Key Components
Assessment
  • A focused evaluation of your CIAM capabilities within a 30-day timeframe.
  • Identification of key CIAM strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT).
  • Benchmarked comparison against industry standards.
Report
  • A prioritized outline of initial CIAM objectives.
  • Identification of quick wins for immediate impact.
  • Recommendations for technology, processes, and organizational changes.

Benefits

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Target Audience

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Companies wanting to see real value from their customer engagements.
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Companies seeking to increase and protect customer data.
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Organizations with limited CIAM expertise and resources.
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Businesses looking to right-size CIAM investments.

Deliverables

01

Report

Executive summary of CIAM assessment findings.

02

Roadmap

Prioritized CIAM roadmap with recommended actions.

03

Recommendations

Initial recommendations for technology and process improvements.

CIAM Health Meter: Self-Assessment
This guide is meant to help you ensure that the systems you have set up for your customers, partners, and vendors are healthy and working for your business rather than against it.

Instructions: Please rate each question on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest.

1. How well are you meeting customer experience needs? (1-5)

The key indicators:
Friction in Authentication: Your system lacks support for advanced, frictionless authentication methods such as Single Sign-On (SSO), passwordless login, or biometric-based authentication, frustrating users with cumbersome login processes.
Cumbersome Registration: The registration or onboarding process is overly complicated or frequently broken, resulting in user drop-off, lower customer acquisition rate and/or high number of support requests.
Tension Between IT and Marketing: IT teams are concerned about weak security measures, while marketing teams struggle with overly rigid security protocols that negatively impact customer experience and lead generation.
0
2. How well have your optimized app lifecycle management? (1-5)

The key indicators:
No Annual Re-Attestation: Integrations across the CIAM ecosystem are not reviewed or re-verified annually, increasing security and compliance risks.
Lack of Governance: Application governance relating to data access, feature enablement, and legal acceptances is not consistently enforced.
Onboarding and Offboarding is not Automated: The onboarding process is manual and costly, and the offboarding process for retired or inactive users and systems is not automated, creating security gaps.
Fragmented Support for Vendors: Vendor management lacks unity resulting in bottlenecks and non-standard implementations.
0
3. How flexibility is your current identity solution? (1-5)

The key indicators:
Reliance on Custom Code: A dependence on custom code to support necessary features, rather than leveraging configurable marketplace-like solutions.
Inability to Leverage Existing Software:
Inability to integrate existing business tools like SMS, email, or threat detection services into your CIAM platform, limiting innovation and efficiency.
Locked into a Monolithic Provider:
Your CIAM platform is restricted by a single identity provider and/or datastore, offering little flexibility for custom configurations or modularity.
0
4. How well can you quantify security and compliance risk plus regularly report on them? (1-5)

The key indicators:
No Visibility on Security Metrics:
Security risks and vulnerabilities are not readily surfaced through metrics/reporting.
Compliance Fines Not Reported: Compliance with industry standards is not adequately tracked or reported, leaving room for potential violations and fines that impact consumer trust.
0
5. How well are you enabling and supporting varying integration types? (1-5)

The key indicators:
Integrations Not Tied to Revenue:
Your organization does not count revenue growth or business metrics to the success of integrations with external systems and services.
No Internal Charge-Back Model:
There's no internal financial structure to allocate costs and benefits to different parts of the business based on their use of CIAM services.
No ARPUT/ARPA Insights:
Your CIAM platform lacks insights that could inform Annual Revenue Per User Type (ARPUT) or Annual Revenue Per App (ARPA), making it hard to quantify the financial impact of user and app integrations.
0
Results
Score

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It's time to take immediate action
Modern CIAM platforms should provide frictionless user experiences, secure integrations, flexibility with identity providers, clear security reporting, and measurable business impact through integrations. Addressing these will lead to a more secure, efficient, and growth-oriented identity management system that meets the evolving needs of both your customers and your business.

Here are some impacts based on your answers:

Customer Dissatisfaction

Security Vulnerabilities
Operational Inefficiency
Costly Customizations
Increased Compliance Risk
Missed Revenue Opportunities

Submitting your email below will send us your score and we'll follow-up to schedule a 15 minute chat.

It's time to tie up loose ends
Improving the user experiences and creating secure integrations along with flexibility will lead to measurable business impact. Continued effort on secure, efficient, and growth-oriented identity management system will exceed the evolving needs of both your customers and your business.

Here are some impacts based on your answers:

Potential Customer Dissatisfaction

Potential Security Vulnerabilities
Operational Inefficiency
Increased Compliance Risk
Missed Revenue Opportunities

Submitting your email below will send us your score and we'll follow-up to schedule a 15 minute chat.

Excellent opportunity to maximize your benefit
Continued improvement on the user experiences and creating seamless integrations along with flexibility will lead to measurable revenue growth. Continued effort on your secure, efficient, and growth-oriented identity management system will exceed the evolving needs of both your customers and your business.

Next Reason can help optimize your platform and services. Submitting your email below will send us your score and we'll follow-up to schedule a 15 minute chat.
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- CASE STUDY -

Global Energy Company

Evaluates Customer Identity Strategy to Propel Future Growth

A global leader in the energy sector, with a diverse portfolio that includes oil and gas exploration, production, and marketing, as well as a growing focus on renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. Operating in over 70 countries and serving millions of customers worldwide.

Next Reason's CIAM Assessment and Roadmap focused on key data and compliance areas:

  • Data quality supporting revenue generation: The data architecture needed to improve the quality of the data and be available and accessible to the business partners to use in the analysis of potential new revenue streams. 
  • Customer experience: The data practices needed to be secure and compliant with global regulations such as GDPR, while supporting its transition to a more sustainable energy future. 
01

Data Inventory and Mapping

Data Sources Identified: Customer data was sourced from multiple systems, including CRM platforms (Salesforce), ERP (SAP), loyalty programs, online customer portals, and IoT devices in energy installations.
Third-Party Integrations: Identified several critical third-party integrations, including partnerships with fuel retail networks, electric vehicle charging providers, and smart home energy management solutions.

02

Technical Landscape Evaluation

Data Collection & Ingestion: Customer data was collected through channels, including fuel card transactions, loyalty programs, mobile apps, and online platforms. However, there were discrepancies in data capture methods across different regions and business units.
Data Storage & Management: Data was stored across a mix of on-premises and cloud-based systems, with varying degrees of integration and scalability.Data
Processing & Integration:
Data processing involved a combination of legacy systems and modern data platforms, with ETL processes that varied significantly across business units.
Data Security & Compliance: Basic security protocols were in place, including encryption and access controls, but there were concerns about the consistency of these measures across regions.

03

Revenue Alignment Analysis

Customer Data Utilization for Revenue: Customer data was used for basic segmentation and targeted marketing efforts, particularly in its loyalty programs. However, there was limited use of advanced analytics to drive personalized offers or predict customer behavior.
Data-Driven Revenue Opportunities: There was significant potential in using customer data to enhance renewable energy offerings, such as personalized solar power solutions, electric vehicle (EV) charging services, and energy management tools for smart homes.
Alignment with Business Goals: Customer data strategies were somewhat aligned with its broader business goals, particularly around customer loyalty and marketing. However, there was room for improvement in aligning data initiatives with sustainability and growth objectives.

04

Security & Compliance Risk Assessment

Risk Identification: Potential risks included data breaches due to inconsistent security practices across regions, non-compliance with GDPR and other regulations, and exposure to risks through third-party partnerships.
Gap Analysis: Inconsistencies in data security practices across regions, outdated compliance procedures, and lack of centralized oversight of third-party data access.
Risk Mitigation Strategies: Enhance data security measures by implementing advanced encryption, multi-factor authentication, and regular security audits. Tighten controls over third-party data access and develop a crisis response plan for potential data breaches.

05

Recommendations & Roadmap

Key Findings: The assessment identified fragmented data systems, underutilized customer data, security vulnerabilities, and compliance risks. However, significant opportunities were identified to leverage customer data for revenue growth and support sustainability goals.
Visualizations:
Provided detailed data flow diagrams, risk heatmaps, and potential revenue impact charts.
Technical Recommendations:
Standardize data collection and processing methods, migrate to a global cloud-based data warehouse, and implement automated ETL processes.
Revenue Recommendations:
Develop advanced customer segmentation models, predictive analytics, and personalized marketing strategies to drive revenue growth from both traditional and renewable energy customers.
Security and Compliance Recommendations:
Enhance data security protocols, standardize compliance practices across regions, and implement centralized monitoring and auditing tools.

Download the Full Report

Download the full report from the case study above.

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