Ines Guerra
6 min read
The term user provisioning is being heard more and more. Many companies are already using this method, which creates interest in many other companies that are beginning to see the real benefits that user provisioning provides.
Before we start and put ourselves in context, let's answer the question
It is a process through which user accounts, their identities, and accesses are managed and granting specific and appropriate rights and permissions to access an organization's resources.
Basically, with user provisioning, we ensure that the user accounts created in our company are provided with the necessary permissions, appropriate privileges, are managed and monitored during the user's lifecycle in the company.
User provisioning starts with recruiting new users to whom a new account has to be created and given specific access permissions.
In addition, user provisioning brings user de-provisioning, and when this account is no longer used or users are promoted or transferred, the account is deactivated and securely deleted.
Once we are clear on the concept of user provisioning, we state that it is essential to regulate access permissions to information assets to maintain security and meet compliance requirements.
One of the big problems that many companies encounter and that user provisioning provides a solution to come every time an access request is made to the IT administrator. Verifying the authorizations to be granted for access manually is time-consuming. In addition to the risk to the company's internal security, the IT administrator provided access credentials personally to each user.
To reduce the risk of wasting time and jeopardizing your company's security, at the click of a button, your company can use user provisioning tools to create, manage and monitor user access permissions. With the automation provided by these tools, user account creation is streamlined, and rights are more easily governed, making it easier for the IT administrator to manage your organization's identities and access, saving time and increasing security.
But not only does it save time and money, but it also helps management have a clearer view of the identity and access permissions granted to users from onboarding to offboarding.
The ultimate goal of user provisioning can be seen if we know and identify the stages of a user's lifecycle:
1º New Incorporation into the Company: When a new employee becomes part of the team of a company, they need their user to operate within the company's programs to be configured with specific permissions according to their position within the company. So they can perform their tasks, get up to date with the processes they will have to carry out. Incorporation implies the creation of the new user account, the configuration of an e-mail, the permissions to obtain access to the applications, the repository of data, etc.
2º Need to create temporary access: Within a company, there are situations where teams incorporate users who need temporary access to data and files. It must ensure that the provisioning of specific users is managed quickly. When the event ends, de-provisioning must be applied immediately not to jeopardize the company's internal security and not give access to more sensitive data.
3º New role performance: User permissions and rights can change when users are promoted. User provisioning gives your company the option to make a smooth transition by granting the necessary access rights. So when an employee is promoted to a higher role, such as team manager, he will need access to a new set of tools and functions, which helps him gain visibility over the team and access to information he did not have access to before.
4º Deapprovisioning: When the employee leaves the company, you must quickly disable their user account and remove them from the system. Having former employees have access to all company information and accounts can put your security construct at risk. Doing this manual will waste time, and the risk of leaving something enabled by mistake can cause significant problems in the long run.
Having analyzed the steps that summarize the ultimate purpose of user provisioning, we can state that user provisioning plays a crucial role in managing user accounts and their permissions.
Within an enterprise, they facilitate compliance with regulations such as HIPAA and even make it easier to obtain certifications such as SOC2.
The purpose of user provisioning is to provide an organization that offers among its capabilities;
Efficiency: An essential purpose of user provisioning is to improve security, and therefore the efficiency of security management. With the use of this system, the time to configure and update access controls to the system will be reduced, facilitating the ability to update access permissions or temporarily suspend a user. Most importantly, and most importantly, user provisioning will increase your company's efficiency by helping your security administration staff save a lot of time and work on tasks to improve the security administration function.
Roles: User provisioning ensures that access permissions are granted based on the employee's job title or position in the company. With this, the problem of having people checking that the access given to the user is the right one is solved.
Easy audits: Every day, more and more companies, especially those in the technology field, try to ensure that their companies meet all the security requirements to qualify for certifications that help their companies to grow and win customers. Compliant user provisioning is the easy way to pass an audit in the shortest time. User provisioning has a centralized repository of all user access data and information about active and inactive users, allowing auditors to perform audits efficiently.
Protection: The ultimate need that user provisioning satisfies is to ensure the security of information assets. Exposing your company's assets openly to all your employees is a risk that today's companies cannot afford and are unwilling to take. This would put a question mark on your security and compliance standards. On any excellent identification and access management program, it is essential to have systematic protection over the information and applications that work with its data.
After analyzing the capabilities that user provisioning offers, and all the advantages that you will obtain if your company starts working with such a system, we would like to invite you to try our user provisioning software MyLenio.
We work every day to be the best user provisioning of the market and offer you the best features so that your company can perform its tasks safely.
