By Guest contributor |
Businesses across all sectors are being challenged to do more with less. Whether driven by tighter budgets, board-level cost reviews, or a need to increase operational efficiency, many organisations are taking a hard look at their technology spend – and digital identity is no exception.
The identity stack is often one of the most under-leveraged areas of investment. Many companies hold licences for powerful capabilities in platforms like Microsoft Entra or third-party identity access management providers but aren’t fully realising their value. Worse still, some are paying for overlapping solutions or running disjointed systems that create security gaps, duplicate admin tasks, and increased licensing costs.
It’s easy to see how organisations end up here. Identity platforms grow organically – acquisitions happen, new departments deploy new tools, or contractors implement point solutions to solve specific problems. Over time, this patchwork approach creates inefficiencies, spiralling costs, and reduced visibility into what your identity stack is actually doing for the business.
At some point, leadership sets a goal: reduce licensing or operational costs, or make better use of the tools we already own. But where do you start?
A gap analysis is a smart and strategic way to assess where you are today versus where you need to be. It maps out your current identity landscape – licenses, deployments, usage patterns – against your business goals and compliance requirements. This allows you to pinpoint unused features in your existing licences, overlaps between platforms and missing functionality.
The ideal outcome? A simplified, consolidated and streamlined identity environment that meets business needs while cutting cost and complexity.
A well-designed digital identity strategy doesn’t just reduce risk or improve compliance – it plays a direct role in managing operational costs and enabling secure business growth. From streamlining user onboarding, to optimising licence spend, to enabling secure multi-cloud access without complexity, identity is a critical lever in the cost-efficiency equation.
If your business is under pressure to reduce costs and improve efficiency, there are four areas where identity can make an immediate impact. The first is to cut manual admin, reduce human error and improve compliance by automating identity lifecycle processes – all while enhancing the end user experience. Second, companies should consolidate identity across Microsoft, and other clouds for unified access management and governance. Third, they should optimise their ID license by analysing actual usage vs. entitlements to identify cost-saving opportunities and streamline subscriptions. Finally, our top recommendation for many clients is to unlock Microsoft Entra’s native identity governance capabilities to simplify role management, automate access reviews and enforce least-privilege access.
Identity is more than an IT concern – it’s a business enabler. If you’re looking to drive down operational costs, reduce licence sprawl and improve efficiency across your digital estate, it’s time to take a closer look at your identity strategy.
At Condatis, we help organisations understand what they already have, what they actually need, and how to bridge the gap. Whether it’s through Entra ID Governance or a broader rationalisation programme, we can help you build a future-ready identity ecosystem that drives security and savings.
Alasdair Murray is chief technology product officer at Condatis