A little context before I dive into the topic. I’ve been doing software marketing since the 1990s and have interviewed hundreds, if not thousands, of organizations regarding IT challenges, why they chose a particular solution, and what benefit(s) or result(s) they enjoyed because of it.
I recently interviewed three organizations regarding their customer identity and access management (CIAM) challenges and thought I’d share the commonality between them …
Executive Summary
CIAM is a double-edged sword - on one hand, it’s critical to privacy, security, and efficiency but if you do it wrong or keep customers waiting, they simply leave for an alternative. Patience levels are razor-thin, so solutions need to be quick and effective. Here are the four reasons to seek a new CIAM solution I found when interviewing customers:
- Overcoming outdated and complex systems
- Poor developer experience and little control for customizations
- Improved user experience and security
- Operational efficiency and focus on innovation
I surface these issues because you likely will find a couple true for your organization. Ory Corp and our suite of modern CIAM solutions addressed each of the themes above.
Diving a little deeper into why traditional CIAM solutions fall short
Overcoming Outdated and Complex Systems
All three companies were struggling with antiquated, homegrown, or disparate authentication systems. These systems were difficult to maintain, required significant engineering effort to update, and created a poor user experience.
For example, if we wanted to go 'passwordless,' we would have to go around and manually update 20-30 different authentication systems. Users were often required to remember multiple sets of credentials for different systems. The experience was not optimal for our millions of staff, clients, and panelists.
Victor Huang, Product Manager at Macromill (view customer story)
Developer Experience and Customization
A key driver for all three companies was the desire for a better developer experience. They sought a solution that was developer-friendly, highly customizable, and allowed them to implement their own security measures. This was a crucial factor in their decision to choose Ory over other vendors.
We’ve found Ory to be a flexible platform that provides the scale and customization we need to take ownership of the authentication layer and allows us to put more focus on building our products.
Tamer Shlash, software engineer at Hemnet. (view customer story)
Improved User Experience and Security
A central goal for each company was to improve the end-user experience. This included creating a unified login process, reducing friction, and ensuring a secure environment. The move to Ory allowed them to consolidate systems and provide a more reliable and secure platform for their users.
We would highly recommend Ory to organizations seeking to modernize their identity and access management systems. Ory gave us the freedom to customize and control how we deliver log-ins to our different audiences. Other commercial alternatives were simply too limiting and expensive.
Victor Huang, Product Manager at Macromill (view customer story)
Operational Efficiency and Focus on Innovation
By migrating to Ory, all three companies were able to free up their engineering teams from the burden of maintaining legacy authentication systems. This allowed them to reallocate resources towards more strategic initiatives, such as product development, feature innovation, and improving their core business offerings.
Ory gives us a modern path away from legacy approaches. New innovations and features bring better ways to service customers. More security, more availability, more control.
Chris Morris, Staff Engineer at North One (view customer story)
Conclusion
Modern identity requires a modern approach. Easily customizable, flexibility to evolve, scale without a poor login experience, and simply allowing organizations to focus on growing their business not building and maintaining a homegrown solution or dealing with expensive and rigid legacy commercial solutions. Read more about Ory’s ecosystem of solutions.
In full transparency, you can read each public customer story below:
- North One - provides business banking services, including business checking accounts and a suite of digital tools, to small business owners, freelancers, and startups.
- Hemnet - Sweden's largest property platform, serves as a central hub where real estate agents, property sellers, and buyers can connect to facilitate housing transactions.
- Macromill - provides marketing research services and data analysis to help companies understand consumer behavior, solve marketing issues, and make data-driven decisions.
View all Ory customer stories
