👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼aimee 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼aimee 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼aimee 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼aimee 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼aimee Good evening ladies and gentlemen and AI agents who are probably watching us from the comfort of their overheated server rooms. Welcome to AIC Awards 2026. How are you all doing tonight? I'm wonderful, how are you?
Well, I'm delighted to hear you're wonderful. I was actually asking them though. But anyway, actually do not answer that question because we do not really have time to go through all of your answers because we're kind of on a schedule here. But of course, if you really want to tell us how you're feeling, feel free to come down at the Coupang Aircon booth and just tell us about, I don't know, what you have for lunch or that cool buddy that you made at EAC. We will always be happy to hear about it. Love it. Always up for a good chat.
So, for those of you familiar, we always like to celebrate our community and tonight's no different. Tonight we recognize some organizations that have really driven some innovation, a word you'll hear a lot tonight, and digital excellence.
Yes, my name is Raphael Lofano and I am delighted to be here today with my lovely co-host, Christy Pugh. Now, without further ado, let's dive into our first category of the evening. As you can see, it's digital identity.
Now, you're all attending EAC, so I'm assuming you already know what digital identity is and what it stands for. Now, sorry, I am blanking out and this is a great proof for you guys that we are not AI agents.
Yes, indeed. We are sometimes prone to error and distress is more than I was expecting.
So, anyway, moving on. As I was saying, digital identity. Digital identity in this category, we want to distinguish organizations that deliver innovative, we said that word twice already, innovative and secure digital identity experiences to their customers, users, and citizens.
So, our nominees are... Starting off strong, and I practice this pronunciation, UEFA. For those of you who are familiar with football, or if you're from my neck of the woods, soccer, this is great news because they really put the fan experience first and they've been recognized for doing so.
Now, we'll show you a short clip about how they did it. Football brings the world together. But behind every match, every stream, every fantasy team, and every fan interaction, there has to be trust. UEFA set out to modernize that trust at global scale. As part of a broader MarTech transformation, it replaced a legacy identity system with a cloud-native CIAM platform built to serve a connected fan ecosystem.
Powered by Ping Identity, the new platform went live in August 2025 and now supports UEFA.tv, Fantasy Football, the UEFA Champions League official app, competition apps, and campaign experiences across web, iOS, and Android. This was built for the moments that matter most. Single sign-on across 10-plus applications. Risk-based protection with Ping One Protect. Identity orchestration with DaVinci. And a centralized directory unifying more than 50 million identities. The result was more than a successful migration.
UEFA moved roughly 50 million accounts from its legacy system with no disruption to the fan experience. Improved performance under live Champions League matchday traffic.
For UEFA, identity is no longer a back-end system. It is now the foundation for the future of fan engagement. With Ping Identity, UEFA now has an identity foundation built for scale, built for trust, and built for what comes next. This is what modern digital identity looks like when Ping Identity helps power the moments the world is watching. Thank you. Our second nominee in this category is none other than Kongstar. In this day and age, it's becoming increasingly important to put people at the center.
And Kongstar has done just that with an innovative passwordless authentication initiative focused on improving both customer identity and user experience. So let's take a look at how they did that. I'm telling you, this is going to be our time. One moment and one fear. We're here, we're going in, and the sky is wide.
No, I'm not alone here. Come, let's make it two of us. Surround us, around us, never.
Head out, eyes out, and everything else becomes small. Gray colors pass me by. For a moment I forget the time. Neon lights and spotlights fall on the shadows of the past. The sky on the outskirts is designer. I scratch at the clouds of my Skyline. The rain tastes like euphoria. Dance in a circle with the devil vis-a-vis. And everything adds up. Do something right for the first time in your life. And the rest is history. Take it high, take it high. Last but not least in this category, we have another sports organization putting their fans first. With United Rugby Championship.
Now they were able to implement a modernized customer identity platform. That really enabled a seamless and secure fan experience throughout multiple channels and regions.
In sport, every second matters. Every match, every interaction, every fan experience. For the United Rugby Championship, digital engagement extends far beyond the stadium. With a global audience of 173 million and millions of fan interactions across mobile, web, and streaming platforms. Identity became critical to delivering a seamless modern experience. But the existing identity infrastructure was fragmented, creating friction across platforms and limiting the ability to scale securely. Provonix partnered with URC to transform that experience from the ground up.
A modern customer identity and access management platform was implemented to unify authentication across the URC app, URC TV, web platforms, and fan engagement ecosystems. The solution introduced passwordless authentication through passkeys and biometrics, delivering faster, more secure access for fans worldwide. Existing customer identities were seamlessly migrated from legacy systems, ensuring continuity without disruption. But this transformation went beyond authentication.
Identity became the foundation for personalized fan engagement, scalable digital experiences, and stronger security at championship scale. Today, fans experience a faster, simpler, and more connected digital journey across every touchpoint.
For URC, identity is no longer just about access. It is engagement, it is trust, it is the future of digital sport.
Provonix, reimagining identity for the modern fan experience. So, while all three nominees definitely demonstrated innovation, execution, and business value, we could only pick one winner. And the decision wasn't easy. It wasn't. At all. But we were able to narrow it down so someone could get a prize. Yeah. Do you already know who won? I do. Okay. Let us know. The winner in this category is United Rugby Champions. Championship. I'd like to go ahead and, yeah. Okay. Ooh.
Oh, that's nice. We have the mayor to accept the award. Okay. Welcome.
Now, would you like to say a quick word? Yeah, sure. Yeah. Okay. The microphone. This might be on. Yeah.
So, I've done some work with Provonix. Very happy to help represent them here. They've just excitingly launched a new brand to match their innovative way of working. Okay. And I'm so excited that they made it to the top of the heap because they really deserve it.
Well, excellent. Thank you. And if you'd like, Eve, you can head off to the right stage and take a quick picture with them. Yeah. Okay. Or the award. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you for the award.
Yeah, that is even better. Never mind. I'm getting new direction. New direction. Okay. We move at a fast pace here, guys. Everything's always changing. I'm fighting the urge to photobomb the picture right now. That's okay. All right.
Well, in the meantime, shall we move to our second category of this evening? So our second category is Enterprise IAM. So this category I was extremely excited to present tonight.
Well, that was before someone told me that it has nothing to do with Star Trek. So I was a little bit disappointed, but then I looked into it, and I mean, it's still interesting. So let's take a look. So the projects we have selected in this category show how IAM has become a pillar in zero trust, operational resilience, and digital transformation. Now let's take a look at who are our nominees in this category. First we have... I am allowed to take a little bit of time to build some, you know, some suspense, because I have the clicker and I have the power. The first is Deveshankar.
Yes, as you can see, they were on time to give us their nomination... Unlike their trains, which I'm sure Martin would have something to tell us about, Deveshankar was nominated for its innovative Identity of Things initiative, supporting secure digital transport execution and large scale logistic operations. And that was a mouthful to say, and I am so proud that I have notes, and I didn't have to read it from my mind. Now let's take a look at what they sent us as a video. Hi. At Schenker, many of our identity challenges involve frontline workers.
This year we worked with the Land Transport Department to find a better way for drivers to access our IT ecosystem. Many of our drivers will only ever drive for us once and work for subcontractors. They don't want to therefore register for a profile, and we see a lot of sharing of profiles or people not wanting to use our IT systems at all. At Schenker, we then have very limited telemetry and information about these trips.
When we sat with the business, we identified it wasn't the driver we needed to track, but rather we needed to make sure that only authorized people were getting access to trip information. So we changed the identity paradigm and made the shipment the identity. Now we create a trip, we assign a credential. These two pieces of information are sent to the driver via the subcontractor using two independent channels. The driver logs in, and we therefore have visibility about what they're doing, while they don't have to create a profile, enter a password, or any personal information.
This has been great for us because we have now got 100,000 more trips into our digital platforms than we used to have. It allows us to have better tracking information and more accurate expected time of arrival, which we can then provide to our customers. Our traditional identity and access management platform modeled the identity around a person. In logistics, that's not always the relationship you need, and now we have a platform where the shipment is one of our identity types, so we can support the business into the future. Thank you.
Up next, we have Daimler Truck, and as the daughter of a truck driver and my family's designated IT manager, maybe we can meet up and share notes later. Y'all were recognized for successfully executing on a very major IAM transformation following one of your industry's biggest, most significant corporate spinoffs.
Also, this video is really cool. The video? Yeah. With the spinoff of Daimler Truck from Daimler AG, we in IT from Daimler Truck got the huge opportunity to design something new, and the identity and access management platform was one of the biggest transformational moves we decided to do. So me and my team, we had the chance to create a modern cloud-based IGA central IAM landscape over the last four years.
It was a privilege, but it was a lot of challenges, moving thousands of applications, millions of Active Directory objects, figuring out how to move things, how to set up trust, how to make applications move to something that was also completely new to them. And all of that while the whole company was moving, introducing new HR systems, new finance systems. So it was quite a journey, and today I can be very proud telling all of you that we made it. Our key to success, partnerships. We had great partners on our side, and we were working with over 100 supporters for the project.
Big thanks goes to our IGA vendor, Empower ID, and also our biggest consultant firm, CommaSoft. It was a pleasure being on the journey together with them, and we would not have made it without the great collaboration and support from them.
Today, I am really proud to say we made it. We made it because we wanted progress before perfection, one of the biggest slogans of all the project. We made it to MVP, and we are done with the carve-out. So thanks for the nomination, and thank you for giving us the opportunity to win this award today. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Wonderful. And now let's take a look at our last nominee of this category. Our last nominee is none other than BASF.
BASF was nominated for advancing enterprise identity security through a modern risk-based authentication and Zero Trust AM initiative. Let's hear it from them. Imagine unlocking a door. Either you have the key or you don't. That's how most enterprises still manage access to applications. It's a binary way, simple access or no access. But here's the problem. Not every application and not every piece of data carries the same risk.
At BASF, we changed this as part of our Zero Trust program. We moved from a static model to a risk-based identity and access management approach where trust is continuously evaluated. We introduced the authentication assurance levels inspired by the NIST 800.63 digital identity framework. Higher risk requires stronger phishing resistant authentication while lower risk allows more convenient access. This is enabled by Microsoft Intra ID acting as a central risk engine. It connects business-driven risk classification to enforceable authentication controls across the enterprise.
Today, this model protects 1,881 applications across BASF, including 134 high-risk applications containing crown jewel data. This is not just an MFA rollout. It is a fully repeatable governance to technology chain that got operationalized at scale, implementing a risk-based IAM model where business risk directly drives security enforcement. BASF turned identity into a central trust anchor for its Zero Trust architecture. And this is only the foundation for continuous evolution.
So, I was told that this category was a tight race. However, the winner did demonstrate and set themselves apart by the scale of their project, the innovativeness of their project, and its impact on enterprise IAM as a whole.
So, without further ado, because I know everyone is getting ready for drinks later, the winner is Dibyashenka. If you would like to come up on stage to say a few words. Congratulations. Great job. Thank you very much.
So, I think the major thing we set out to do is help the business deliver more success. It's always been a challenge, and I hope we get to continue doing that into the future.
So, huge thanks to the team, especially the business, for being patient with us and finding the right solutions. Thank you very much. Excellent. Thank you. But you thought this is over.
Actually, it isn't, because we have one special recognition. This year, we would like to recognize a special nomination that stood up for its unique contribution and innovative approach. Innovative, once again. Within the identity industry. And to introduce this special award, please give a warm welcome to the one and only Dr. Philippe Messerschmidt. Thank you.
So, good evening. Modern authorization has become one of the most important developments in today's IAM world. For many years, IAM was mainly about identities, roles, managing access rights.
But today, our environments are changing rapidly. Cloud platforms, APIs, zero trust, AI systems, and digital ecosystems create a world where static authorization is no longer enough. Access decisions increasingly depend on context, risk, real-time information. And this is why dynamic authorization has become such an important trend. Organizations need authorization models that are more flexible, more granular, and interoperable across modern architectures.
They need approaches that allow applications, APIs, and policy systems to work together consistently, instead of creating yet another proprietary silo. And this is exactly the kind of challenge that open standards can solve best. The group we are recognizing today has made an outstanding contribution in this area by creating a common interoperable approach for authorization decisions and modern policy services. Their work helps reduce complexity, enables interoperability, and makes modern authorization architectures far more practical to implement at scale.
For this important contribution to the future of identity and access management, Kupinger Coal is proud to present this special award to the OpenID Foundation's AuthNAN Working Group. Congratulations to the entire working group, and especially to the chairs of the group for this outstanding achievement. ♪♪ We pivoted. It's over here now.
No, it's there. Follow the guy with the lens. It's a good rule of thumb.
Well, listen. That brings us to the end of our night, but I do want to congratulate all of our nominees and our winners. I want to thank our judges, our sponsors, our partners, our incredibly amazing events team. Can we start? 19 years of EIC, guys. This is incredible.
But also, most importantly, you all, our community, for supporting us and our initiative for expanding IAM research, thought leadership, and continuing and growing our community. I would like to now invite all of you to join us outside, downstairs, for some drinks and some food brought to you by our sponsor, AWS. And if you want to learn more about how you can get more involved in our community, how you can join our membership, come visit us at any time during the week at the booth.
Find me, find Rafael, find Bertolt over there, and he will tell you all about it. Enjoy the week, everyone. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you.
