4 Reasons Why Identity Governance and Administration Native to the Now Platform Maximizes Your Existing ServiceNow Investment

written by
Paul Walker
Identity Governance
ServiceNow
November 11, 2020

Many enterprises adopt ServiceNow because of its ability to improve the way people work, enabling better decision-making and productivity gains through the use of workflows. By providing a central connection point between the business and IT, employees work smarter, focusing more time and attention on tasks that drive the business forward.

However, many ServiceNow customers may not realize that they’re missing out on ways to enhance the ServiceNow Platform. After all, the Now Platform is extensible and provides ServiceNow technology partners with a ready-made development platform to add further value to a customer’s investment in ServiceNow. Whether it’s further automation, mobile interfaces, embedded analytics, or the growing ecosystem of independently made ‘Built on Now’ solutions, there are many opportunities to get more out of an existing ServiceNow investment.

Clear Skye is a ServiceNow Ventures-backed technology partner delivering Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) capabilities natively on the Now Platform. Managing identity information and workloads on the Now Platform makes a range of ServiceNow applications more effective since Clear Skye puts identity at the center of an enterprise’s security efforts. Processes like ITSM, HR, Operations Management, Security Operations, and Risk Management are greatly improved when they have access to — and can inform — traditional Identity Management data and best practices. Putting IGA on the same playing field as these core business functions greatly enhances an organization’s Digital Transformation and IT Modernization efforts.

Transformational Benefits of IGA on the ServiceNow Platform

If you’re a ServiceNow customer that’s currently not managing Identity Governance from the Now Platform, then you may be missing out on a number of key benefits:

1. Further Workforce Empowerment. Identity Governance processes strive to increase employee productivity by ensuring that people have access to the applications and information they need in order to do their job. Productivity through employee empowerment is also likely a key reason you started your ServiceNow journey as well. Clear Skye chose to power our Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) solution with the Now Platform so that organizations can make this dream a reality. Clear Skye uses the same user experiences, digital workflows, and platform capabilities that your team uses today. The result is an Identity Governance and Administration solution that is a part of your ServiceNow investment – not apart from it. By being a native ServiceNow application, Clear Skye provides the same Service Portal experience that your users have already learned to use. Our approach ensures that there is no need for new user training and promotes participation by everyone, which helps lead to a successful IGA program. Your approval workflows can be as fine-grained as you like because we are taking advantage of the most widely-used enterprise workflow platform in the world — the one that your organization is already successfully using.

2. The Advantage of Speed. Speed is a differentiator for any company — especially in matters relating and responding to information security threats and risks. Clear Skye IGA embeds Identity Governance into the workflows you are already using to transform your business allowing you to quickly roll out and modify identity governance at the speed of your business. Additionally, having Identity data embedded with the other critical data stored on the platform, will enable you to make security decisions faster. No longer will decision-makers need to check another set of systems before granting access or closing an incident — all the information needed will be on the platform being used to drive the completion of tasks. Clear Skye assists your first line of defense, namely IT operations, so that an analyst working a security ticket can view the person’s IT access permissions. In this way their decision-making options are enhanced with the ability to — in real-time — disable a person’s access and send their access for a business level review. The ServiceNow platform is the repository for all infrastructure, software, applications, and assets within an organization. ServiceNow’s key to success is a common data model, and a platform that enables key stakeholders’ access to the data they need, quickly and securely. This enables real-time visibility for monitoring security, compliance, and risk across an enterprise. Clear Skye’s IGA solution uses extends this with the ability to include identity information, which is critical to timely security and compliance efforts.

3. Securely Automate Everything. Clear Skye utilizes the Now Platform to directly integrate with ServiceNow solutions and products. This means workflows such as Human Resource Service Delivery, IT Service Management, Integrated Risk Management, and Customer Service Management workflows now have the benefit of embedded Identity Governance controls to make them more secure. For the many diverse apps, platforms, and data that exists in an enterprise, Clear Skye comes with its own bi-directional connectors. Over 100 additional integrations native to the Now Platform are possible if you have licensed the premium ServiceNow IntegrationHub. These integrations, commonly called spokes, are used to govern and administer identities and their access. Clear Skye has unprecedented ability to integrate with hundreds of applications, platforms, and data repositories all using the same tools and capabilities of the ServiceNow platform.

4. Reduce Complexity. Today’s IT landscape is filled with a mix of custom home-grown tools integrated with commercial off-the-shelf products. Many of these products are nearing the end of their usefulness in today’s cloud-first environments and don’t provide the roadmap that modern digital businesses require. Removing this complexity and putting identity at the center of your workplace experience on the Now Platform has proven benefits to Clear Skye customers. There’s no need to accept complexity when the Now Platform and Clear Skye together deliver the modernization that gives people the access to IT resources that they need while providing the necessary auditing and evidence to ensure your risk management processes are effective.

Identity Governance on the Now Platform Drives Value

The value driven by the Now Platform is real: Organizations see impactful increases in efficiencies, risk reduction through automation, and better decision-making. ServiceNow clients all share common facets of their transformation stories — unified user experiences, common data models, and workflows that align with internal business processes not external software vendors.

Clear Skye customers successfully report that it makes sense to extend this value to Identity Governance — a solution space that has long been mired in complexity and disappointing value realization. Adding IGA to your Now Platform raises platform value and the long-term effectiveness of your security and risk strategy.

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