ZertID from Sysintegra

Short Summary

Identity and Access Management (IAM), and specifically Identity Governance & Administration (IGA), focuses on managing the identity lifecycle, accounts, entitlements, and governance activities such as periodic access reviews. In parallel, IT Service Management (ITSM) has grown rapidly, propelled by cloud solutions and led by ServiceNow’s widely adopted platform. Because access requests and fulfillment often flow through IT processes, integrating IGA and ITSM is a recurring topic in almost every IAM initiative.

However, attempting to rebuild IGA “on top of” an ITSM tool (for example, implementing IGA logic as custom development within ServiceNow) is positioned as a predictable failure pattern. Such approaches create long-term maintenance burdens, become fragile once original developers leave, and quickly run into technical and governance complexity. Basic tasks like creating Active Directory accounts may be easy, but support for legacy platforms, advanced entitlement models, Segregation of Duties (SoD), and role management introduces steep complexity and cost.

Integration between IGA and ITSM remains strongly recommended, even mandatory in practice. Common patterns include linking ITSM portals to IGA request flows and using the ITSM service desk for manual fulfillment, which is common because most organizations do not have automated provisioning for the majority of applications—often more than 90%.

ZertID by Sysintegra (a ServiceNow Elite Partner) is presented as an IGA solution built natively on the ServiceNow (“Now”) platform as a certified app, providing out-of-the-box IGA–ITSM integration. It covers user lifecycle management, access provisioning, and identity governance, and also supports privileged access requests. It offers multiple provisioning methods, strong access governance (RBAC, ABAC-style policy changes, SoD, certifications, and closed-loop remediation), a persona-based UI aligned to ServiceNow/NowMobile, and flexible deployment options (cloud or on-prem). Strengths include scalability, rapid connector delivery, and strong governance features, while challenges include limited line-of-business connectivity depth and a smaller partner ecosystem.

Interesting Facts

• IGA focuses on identity lifecycle management, account management, entitlement management, and governance activities such as regular access reviews.
• ITSM adoption increased significantly, driven by cloud-based solutions that simplify deployment and usage.
• ServiceNow leads the ITSM segment and has a very significant number of customers on its platform.
• Many organizations have the vast majority of applications not provisioned automatically, frequently above 90%.
• Sysintegra is a ServiceNow Elite Partner headquartered in Australia.
• ZertID is delivered as a “Now certified app” and can be procured from the ServiceNow store.
• ZertID covers user lifecycle management, access provisioning, and identity governance.
• ZertID supports privileged access requests but is not a full-featured PAM solution.
• ZertID offers out-of-the-box HR/HCM integrations including SAP SuccessFactors and Workday.
• ZertID provides a certification library with six pre-defined certification types and supports additional types via “Tailored” certifications.

Notable Quotes

• “There is virtually no IAM project that does not include a discussion about whether and how to integrate ITSM and IGA.”
• “Such ‘build your own IGA on your ITSM tool’ approaches are made to fail.”
• “It leads to home-grown software that needs to be maintained for years.”
• “While initial steps such as creating Microsoft Active Directory (AD) accounts might be straightforward, complexity increases quickly, in various areas.”
• “Some of the logic within IGA (as for SoD policies or role management) is not simple.”
• “Integration is - as mentioned - strongly recommended, if not even mandatory.”
• “Manual fulfillment is the norm for many systems that are not connected to IGA for automated provisioning.”
• “ZertID provides six different approaches” (for identity provisioning).
• “Workflows can be customized easily, following a low-code approach.”
• “The UX is persona-based, adapting to the roles and responsibilities of the users.”