Wednesday’s third Identity Management session in the Burton Group Catalyst Conference featured George Sherman – Managing Director, Morgan Stanley. His presentation was entitled, “Discovering the Iceberg of Identity Management in a Large Integrated Financial Services Firm” Key points include:

• Beware of the hidden cost and complexity of Identity Management.
• Morgan Stanley background:
• In business since 1935.
• 46,000+ employees in 600 offices around the world.
• Conducts business in 33 countries and over 70 regulatory jurisdictions.
• They have a complex technology stack in a highly changing environment.
• In identity management and regulatory compliance, Morgan Stanley must frequently seek a common denominator, which may be the most stringent requirement.
• Historical reference to Identities is essential, even after employees leave the company. A unique identifier is used. Once a person touches the firm, he or she is assigned a unique identifier that is never deleted.
• They have a complex technology stack in a highly changing environment.
• Main drivers for Identity Management were regulatory compliance and security
• A company should not focus on outside challenges until internal challenges are well in hand.
• Identity management needs to be foundational – people must trust it.
• Referential data integrity is needed.
• Two critical success factors include:
• Program Sponsorship Committed sponsors will “Pave the Road” through corporate baloney.
• Program manager needs to be good program manager, but highly technical
• Funding and cost justification takes more than spreadsheets an calculators it requires the trust and confidence of program champions
• Break overall plan into point releases.
• Be realistic about timeframes and the evolutionary nature of the process.
• Areas where the industry needs to imrove include:
• More maturity in security of provisioning engine
• More expert developers
• Integration of certification and provisioning tools
• Rules management
• Better understanding of roles and consequences

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