The results of the Okta-commissioned IDC’s Asia/Pacific Customer Identity and Access Management 2022 Survey were released by the industry’s top independent identity supplier, Okta, Inc. The study examines the dynamics of managing customer identity and access in a digital world, as well as the difficulties these organizations encounter and how well-performing digital-first organizations compare to their competitors. For this report, IDC polled senior and middle management staff in IT and lines of business from 750 organizations around Asia Pacific (APAC) in April 2022.
The study found that 72% of APAC organizations recognized the need for digital-first initiatives, and another 21% had previously anticipated such tactics prior to the pandemic. The study also found that the pandemic either hastened or highlighted the need for such strategies. Customer identity and access management (CIAM) systems have been widely adopted as a result of this awareness, with 56% of digital-first leaders having already implemented CIAM and another 32% planning to do so in the next 12 to 24 months.
Although just 34% of digital-first leaders and 14% of digital-first followers have chosen an advanced approach to CIAM, the study also found a low level of CIAM maturity among organizations. According to the survey, an advanced CIAM solution is one in which client identities are handled through a CIAM platform with complete integration to enable 360-degree customer overviews and provide highly tailored experiences. With a high level of CIAM maturity, digital-first leaders demonstrate improved business outcomes in terms of customer acquisition, customer loyalty, attracting and retaining digital talent, and speed to market for new goods and services.
“Enterprises are leaning more into digital-first strategies as evidenced by this study, and one of the most important strategies that CEOs in this region have identified is to leverage pent up demand from customers and consumers by improving on digital product and services experiences. CIAM is fundamental to delivering a seamless experience whilst keeping customers’ service experiences around assurance intact.” said Linus Lai, Vice President, Software and Services APEJ at IDC.
“Organizations today need to embrace digital-first strategies to succeed in the hyper-competitive digital economy. A well-integrated, secure and seamless CIAM solution is the key to ensuring the most optimal digital user experience for customers and end-users,” said Philip Goldie, Vice President and Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand at Okta.
“Organizations need to level up their CIAM deployments in order to reap the full benefits that it brings, such as better customer satisfaction, business agility and resilience against an ever-evolving cyber threat landscape.” said Ben Goodman, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Asia Pacific Japan at Okta.
From digital transformation (DX) to digital-first
In a separate report, IDC forecasts that by 2022, digital technologies will underpin or have an impact on more than half of the world economy. Enterprises must embrace a digital-first approach if they want to compete and flourish in this increasingly digital world. According to the survey, leaders that prioritize using technology first are more likely to put customer happiness, business agility, and innovation above conventional criteria like sales. Customer experience (CX) is logically prioritized in a digital-first strategy given these considerations.
Beyond traffic and support volume, digital-first leaders are more likely than their rivals to claim an improvement in customer satisfaction and retention. The IDC survey found that, when compared to their peers, digital-first organizations performed 8–12% better across all customer metrics.
Challenges of managing identity and access
Digital-first organizations are rethinking how to enhance customer and supplier engagement, as well as productivity, across the entire ecosystem. However, these changes raised a number of issues, particularly with regard to access security and customer identity verification. Managing customer privacy content (9%), combining customer access through multiple channels (9%), and difficulty defending against malicious attacks (9%), are the top three challenges mentioned in the study.
Securing customer and broader ecosystem participants’ digital identities is considered essential to the success of a digital-first strategy. Investments in CIAM technology are therefore now required in order to provide a secure and customized digital experience. Through improved insight into cyber threats across systems, CIAM solutions give organizations better protection against malicious cyberattacks.
Digitally mature countries are more focused on security and CIAM investments
When it comes to digital maturity, different countries in the Asia/Pacific region perform differently. The top three regions with a solid digital-first strategy in place were Australia (67%) Singapore (66%) and New Zealand (60%) respectively. Additionally, areas with higher percentages of digital-first organizations are also more likely to view CIAM as a top priority investment for their organization. Among the top regions that gave CIAM top priority were New Zealand (90%), Australia (87%) and Singapore (72%).
For organizations that decide to invest in CIAM solutions, a variety of real benefits frequently arise. Operational efficiency (22%), improved security posture (19%), and enhanced customer experience (17%) are the top three business benefits that these organizations have attained as a result of investing in CIAM solutions, according to the survey conducted.
