Sadrick Widmann, Chief Product Officer at Cidaas is to deliver a presentation entitled Give Me 10 Minutes, I'll Give You The Truth About Identity on Monday, September 13 starting at 20:00 pm at EIC 2021.
To give you sneak preview of what to expect, we asked Sadrick some questions about his planned presentation.
What do we miss when talking about identity management?
When we talk about identity management, it is mainly about digital identities, for example, a user logging in to an e-commerce shop. But there are different qualities of users – we at cidaas like to call these qualities - Trust Levels. To make this more clear – a user with a newsletter might be a weak Identity, but a user who performed a digital identity verification, for example with a bank account, is a strong identity. A user can move easily between trust levels, especially when using features like progressive profiling with which the user can enrich the user data successively and contextually. As an example a user who is interested in a product and signs up to a newsletter is initially a weak identity – but then becomes a stronger identity when purchasing the product.
What we also completely lose sight of is the real-world identity. Let’s take a theme park; a user registers in the online shop and buys a ticket. We consider this the digital identity. The real-world identity comes into play when the user visits the park. The user authenticates with the personalized ticket at the entrance or might get a discount in the park, during breakfast, so then he [the user] becomes a real-world identity. Considering membership cards or personalized tickets, these are authentication options in the real world. Basically, we need to achieve a linking of the digital and the real-world identity in the future.
Why is Identity Management important for businesses in Europe?
In general, the topic of sovereignty is a big issue in Europe, especially solutions from Europe are very important, considering identity management or other features, or other solutions, which are key to digitalization in the future. The General Data Protection Regulation has changed the game in the last years. It is not only about the legal implications, but also about transparency and trust towards users. Businesses need a so-called Real-GDPR to establish a trustful relationship. In this context the question of make vs. buy arises. Basically, the question must be: "What competitive advantage do I have if I, as a company, develop an Identity and Access Management (IAM) solution myself?
The next question is then: What advantage do I have if I run the IAM solution in-house? The answer is simple, I do not create any benefit by developing or hosting an identity management solution myself. Especially with the solutions available today, such as cidaas and others, which are available as a cloud service, the decision is clearly with ‘buy’.
What changes Identity Management?
Many factors have an impact on Identity Management, first and foremost the user convenience drives the development in the identity management sector. Thereby, in particular new authentication methods arose in the last years, making the user experience not only more convenient but also more secure. In addition, many new touchpoints arose, both on digital channels and in the real world, such as access points in a theme park, a stadium, or smart factories. With all these changes, we must not lose sight of security – in particular since the challenges in the context of security have evolved in the same way. One can say - Identity Management is more than the sum of its parts.
Could you comment on the evolution of Identity?
A key development in the evolution of identity management was the cloud. With modern cloud solutions such as cidaas, the topic of identity management has arrived in all companies, regardless of size, industry or sector. Thus, in the age of the cloud, high costs for software licenses and the operation [of solutions] are a thing of the past. So, considering the way companies are interacting with customers changed. Digital Channels and Services play an important role in the acquisition of prospects and engagement with customers. Thereby identity management became a crucial part to offer those services, provide new benefits, create unique selling points, having new touchpoints in place and recognizing user potential.
Could you give us a sneak peek into your Keynote: “Give Me 10 Minutes, I'll Give You the Truth About Identity”?
In my Keynote “Give me 10 Minutes, I’ll give you the truth about identity” we will see what can be achieved within 10 minutes in the context of Identity & Access Management. We’ll jointly rethink the identity management and why user convenience has become so incredible and so important for both employees as well as partners and customers, be it in B2C or B2B and what the changing factors in the near future will be.