Consumer identities are at the heart of brand engagements today. Digital interactions are a routine part of our lives and touchpoints for consumers have reached astounding heights. Nearly 60 percent of the world is digitally connected and more than half of the world’s population will be using social media by the middle of 2020, according to We Are Social.

Consumer expectations have shifted dramatically over the last several years. Individuals can instantly connect with brands and with each other, and they expect that brands provide them with interactions on their terms. They demand convenience, customization and control over frictionless experiences where security is always assumed.

To meet these expectations, brands must maintain privacy and transparency while delivering seamless experiences. This multi-pronged approach is required in today’s rapidly changing digital economy, but can present numerous challenges as a brands scale to handle millions of consumer identities.

Digital Transformation Across the Enterprise

Almost every industry is experiencing changing customer demands, accelerated disruption and competition at hyperscale. In a recent IDC report, more than 80 percent of CEOs said they were under pressure to execute successful digital transformation initiatives for their organization. It’s at the top of their agenda for good reason, since going digital helps the enterprise to drive impactful changes across customers, operations and markets.

As a result of these forces, consumers expect ease of use and greater control over their data. Fortunately, consumer identity and access management (CIAM) can help organizations address these areas for better personalization and user experiences and improved data control for the consumer.

Data Governance and Compliance

Customer data centricity is essential to high-performing brands. Organizations that can securely collect, manage, analyze and protect their consumer data can create compelling personalized experiences that help them stand out from the competition.

But the process of collecting and securely storing consumer data can be challenging. Many organizations hold hundreds of disparate silos of customer data. CIAM platforms can help break down these silos by bringing data into a unified database that offers a single view of the customer across the business ecosystem.

At the same time, consumers want more control over their data. They want the final say in how brands use their data, and they want to know exactly what they are consenting to in using the product or service. Managing consumer data is all about trust and transparency. Fortunately, a CIAM solution can assist organizations with building trust through consent management and helping to ensure compliance with regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

The Concept of Marketing to One

Companies like Amazon and Target are leaders in using the strategy of one-to-one marketing. In today’s digitally driven world, marketers need to be able to synthesize large sets of consumer data so they can make informed, one-to-one decisions more quickly and effectively. One-to-one marketing relies on understanding the interactions made by an individual consumer and using it to create personalized recommendations that resonate with them. Consumer identity management tools can help aggregate and connect individual consumer data across multiple channels and leverage it for more personalized one-to-one transactions.

CIAM opens the door to personalization, giving the organization a higher probability to convert unknowns to customers. Engagements with consumers become more impactful and relevant to individuals as the availability of information paints a broader picture of who customers are and what drives them to act. CIAM brings a unified view of the customer across all devices, channels and marketing campaigns.

Adaptive Identity Security

According to Forrester survey data, 71 percent of global enterprise security decision-makers rate improving the security of customer-facing apps and services as a high or critical priority. New, digitally driven environments have magnified organizational exposure to risk. Cybercrime resulting in massive data breaches can also have long-lasting impacts on a business and its customers. Yet organizations have to preserve trust by ensuring that data isn’t breached.

Identity security controls are a key component to protecting an organization’s consumer data and preserving trust. To optimize access and experience, consumer authentication methods must be adaptive. Adaptive authentication with CIAM can help organizations secure applications using behavioral, contextual and risk-profiling insights while still providing a frictionless experience. These insights offer a view of the risk associated with access requests, such as a customer’s location, malware detection, device data and an overall risk evaluation. Sites and services can challenge high-risk users with multifactor authentication (MFA) or deny them access while granting low-risk users a passwordless login experience.

Building the Right Consumer Identity Model

Digital business requires relentless advancement and development to drive operational excellence and seamless customer experiences. Organizations need to keep up with evolving customer expectations, accelerate innovation and rethink technology investments that help them gain a competitive advantage.

Prosperity in the digital era requires enterprisewide organizational shifts. The complexity of managing consumer identities and aligning with security and compliance standards while implementing a seamless user experience leads many organizations to partner on non-strategic services.

An on-demand and turnkey CIAM program can help enable a secure, personalized, omnichannel interaction between consumers and brands. Organizations should use a programmatic approach to CIAM to capture requirements, implement solutions and execute against business, marketing and security goals. Lastly, by utilizing best-in-class CIAM technology platforms along with well-designed business and marketing campaigns, organizations can benefit from a faster time to market (TTM), higher conversion rates and an operational model that supports future business demands.

Your organization can capture and connect with your consumers through personalized and secured engagements by:

• Understanding the needs of your stakeholders and consumers using Enterprise Design Thinking
• Deploying an on-demand CIAM platform that scales for your business and its consumers
• Designing frictionless, omnichannel experiences using a blend of digital design expertise, identity strategy and best-of-breed CIAM technology
• Leveraging a CIAM services model to build alignment, get to market faster and become adaptive to market trends

Start building consumer trust, protecting privacy and delivering great customer experiences today with an identity management solution. Your users and business stakeholders will thank you for it.