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How Much Could PIAM Save Your Organization?

In a recent blog, we took a deep dive to answer this loaded question: what is PIAM and why do I need it if I have PACS? In short, physical identity and access management (PIAM) secures organizations in extended ways that are not possible with traditional physical access control systems (PACS), giving organizations visibility into the who, what, why, when, and where of every access point across their business.

A PIAM solution acts as an orchestration layer between existing PACS, HR databases and IT systems standardizing and centralizing identity and access workflows and policies. Without this solution in place, organizations can experience issues and delays in onboarding and offboarding any number of identities, are more vulnerable to internal and external security threats, and must find ways to tackle the overwhelming burden of evolving compliance and audit requirements.

It is important to understand that a value can be ascribed to the usage of a PIAM solution like HID SAFE™. In fact, with significant savings and many security benefits, it is easy to see why diverse organizations across the world have deployed SAFE.

To illustrate, below is a high-level example of the potential savings to be made. The numbers are averages derived from numerous workshops we have run to help customers understand how much a PIAM solution could save their organization using a detailed return on investment calculation tool.

Watch the video below for a more descriptive illustration.

As shown in the video, you will need to evaluate some data points based on your own organization. Here are some assumptions of a large organization to give you an example:

Data Point What is the average number of identities in your organization? What is the churn rate of people leaving and joining your organization? How many systems are in use, including HR, PACS, etc.? How many physical locations does your organization span across? How long does it take to onboard an identity/process a new card? What is the typical loaded rate for administration? How many change requests for a single identity occur per year? How many audits occur per year? Example 10,0008%4515 minutes$50/hour34

Using these, we calculated that each year this example organization will process 1300 new access cards and 800 people will leave the organization. When taking into consideration locations, systems, and audits, this is scaled by 24. That means:

  • The annualized system administration costs without a PIAM solution are $2,154,000
  • The annualized system administration costs with a PIAM solution are $1,591,000
  • The deployment of a PIAM solution like SAFE would save the organization $563,500 of administration costs each year

As you can see, this is a simplified calculation, but we would be delighted to deep dive into your specific processes, systems, and structure to help you see the potential returns of using SAFE in your own organization.

Learn more about PIAM or contact iamsales@hidglobal.com to speak with an expert.

Matthew Lewis is the Director of Product Marketing for HID Global helping drive the go to market for the Workforce business unit within the Identity and Access Management Solutions business area. He has led product marketing organizations for five years with experience in both vertical and horizontal global markets. Prior to joining HID, he spent time at a global software provider in the energy sector, in the collaboration and communication software space, and marketing cybersecurity products at Entrust.