Johannesburg, 02 Sep 2024
The customer identity and access management market (CIAM) will emerge as the bedrock of ICT system adoption and integration, a keystone in the technology foundation that underpins trade in the digital economy.
This is according to business leaders from iOCO, OKTA and Toyota South Africa who co-sponsored the ITWeb Executive Roundtable – Customer Identity, hosted at The Campus, Bryanston, on 28 August.
In an era of the digital business, digital products, and product-led growth, organisations will rely more heavily on seamless user experiences and user insights to increase customer engagement, targeting campaigns, sales, and prevent churn.
Customers must be able to engage with their applications or services conveniently and consistently at any time, from any device, in a secure and safe manner.
Organisations are turning to customer Identity as the optimal way to offer superior, personalised customer experience by resolving identity across multiple sources, and ensure their profile data is legitimate, current and consent-forward.
The roundtable provided high-level insight into how CIAM – with adaptive and scalable identity controls, delivers a trusted source of truth for data and identity events.
However, this is impacted by one of the main challenges with CIAM – that in their effort to address issues like cover fraud, deepfakes, user requirements and user experience expeditiously, companies try to go it alone and build their own identity platforms. However, more often than not, they do not have the requisite expertise (especially security) in-house to complete these projects successfully.
That is why a highly experienced OEM like OKTA, known for its leadership and sole focus on identity and the management of identities, makes all the difference.
With more than 6,500 pre-built integrations to applications and infrastructure providers, okta provides simple and secure access to people and organisations everywhere, giving them the confidence to reach their full potential.
Over 9,400 organisations, including Merz Pharma, Bertelsmann, Zurich Insurance, Siemens, Slack, Engie, JetBlue, Nordstrom, T-Mobile and Twilio, trust Okta to help protect the identities of their workforces and customers.
Mustapha Gaies, senior solutions engineer, OKTA, said not all businesses are cyber security experts. “Cyber resilience is not their core responsibility.”
Louw Pieters, sales director, iOCO, said the alliance it shares with OKTA has helped to transform the entire customer authentication process at Toyota South Africa.
Andre Welman, project manager, Toyota South Africa, explained that the automotive giant has replaced the traditional process based on emails and passwords, and entrenched Toyota’s passion for continuous improvement with a digital-first authentication platform, including two new apps.
“In addition to a strict set of criteria, our central objective was to ensure that we achieved a standardised guest journey, with profile enrichment, but with the absolute essential requirement to keep our data base and user data and establish this as the single source of truth,” said Welman.
iOCO and OKTA representatives added that any changes to the authentication system had to include- and adhere to biometric security application.
Strict compliance and adherence
Welman said there is a lot of technology in the customer identity space, and established customers like Toyota South Africa adhere to strictly controlled project tender specifications, regulations and compliance with standards that govern the automotive industry.
Toyota selected OKTA based on its knowledge of-and first-hand experience in legislation, availability of in-country support, understanding of third-party involvement and role, as well as comprehensive administration.
Welman added that the decision by OKTA, iOCO and Toyota South Africa to establish a central core team to manage the project, removed a great deal of stress and difficulty. The team tasked with building the core functions for Toyota, in consultation with OKTA and iOCO, proved pivotal to the ultimate success of the project.
The process to fully integrate web and mobile applications, develop and incorporate new applications, remains ongoing.
However, careful attention to process flows and changes identified upfront, along with the use of current software versions, has ensured an effective service delivery on project targets.
Welman said Toyota has identified a few new steps to be taken going forward, including a review of new upcoming functionality, inclusion of certain dealer functions, as well as full inclusion of Toyota staff and dealers.
A smiling Welman agreed with iOCO’s Chris Visagie that when the rubber hit the road on this project, Toyota and its partners were more than impressed with the performance.
Share