Okta Study Reveals High Customer Identity & Access Management (CIAM) Adoption, Low CIAM Maturity in APAC Businesses

Okta, Inc., the leading independent identity provider, announced the results of IDC’s Asia/Pacific Customer Identity and Access Management 2022 Survey commissioned by Okta. The study explores the dynamics of managing customer identity and access in a digital world, including the challenges that these organisations face, and how digital-first organisations fare against their peers. IDC surveyed senior and mid-level management personnel in IT and lines of business across 750 organisations in Asia Pacific (APAC) in April 2022 for this study.
 
The study revealed that the pandemic has either accelerated or highlighted the need for digital-first strategies, with 72% of APAC organisations realizing the need for digital-first strategies, and another 21% having already anticipated the need for such strategies prior to the pandemic. This awareness has led to widespread adoption of customer identity & access management (CIAM) solutions, with 56% of digital-first leaders having already deployed CIAM, and another 32% planning deployment in the next 12-24 months.
 
However, the study also revealed a low level of CIAM maturity among organisations, where only 34% of digital-first leaders and 14% of digital-first followers have adopted an advanced approach towards CIAM. An advanced CIAM approach is defined in the study as an approach where customer identities are managed via a CIAM platform with full integration to enable 360-degree customer overviews in order to deliver a highly personalized experience. Digital-first leaders with a high level of CIAM maturity show better business outcomes such as customer acquisition, customer loyalty, digital talent attraction and retention, and time to market for new products 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.
 
“Organisations 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.
 
“Organisations 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
 
IDC predicts in a separate report that by 2022, more than half the global economy will be based on or influenced by digital technologies. To compete and succeed in this increasingly digital world, enterprises must adopt a digital-first strategy. The study revealed that digital-first leaders are more likely to prioritise customer satisfaction, business agility, and innovation beyond traditional metrics such as revenues. Such priorities naturally put customer experience (CX) at the forefront of a digital-first strategy.
 
Digital-first leaders are more likely to report an improvement versus their peers in customer satisfaction and retention, beyond traffic and support volume. According to the IDC study, digital-first organisations reported 8-12% higher performance across all customer metrics, compared to their peers.
 
Challenges of managing identity and access
 
Digital-first organisations are re-imagining ways to improve productivity and digital experiences across the whole ecosystem involving vendors, partners, customers and suppliers. However, these transformations brought up a number of challenges, especially around customer identity verification and access security. The top three challenges highlighted in the study include difficulty defending against malicious attacks (9%), combining customer access through multiple channels (9%), and managing customer privacy content (9%).
 
Securing the digital identities of customers as well as the larger ecosystem participants is considered table stakes in ensuring the success of a digital-first strategy. Hence, investments in CIAM technologies have become a necessity to enable a secure and personalised digital experience. CIAM solutions provide organisations with better visibility to ward off cyber threats across systems, allowing for better defence from malicious cyberattacks.
 
Digitally mature countries are more focused on security and CIAM investments
 
Countries across the Asia/Pacific region fare differently in terms of digital maturity. Australia (67%), Singapore (66%) and New Zealand (60%) were the top three regions with a strong digital-first strategy in place. In addition, regions with higher percentages of digital-first organisations are also more likely to consider CIAM as a top priority investment for their organisation. New Zealand (90%), Australia (87%) and Singapore (72%) were among the top regions that considered CIAM as a top priority.
 
CIAM solutions often result in a range of tangible benefits for organisations that choose to invest in them. According to the survey, the top three business benefits that these organisations have achieved by investing in CIAM solutions are operational efficiency (22%), improved security posture (19%), and enhanced customer experience (17%).

• Okta’s The Role of Customer Identity Management in a Digital-First World white paper can be downloaded at this link.