Not bad, 3000ft view, approach to getting IdM initiatives off the ground posted over on cio.com.
Four steps to self-funding identity management
Plagiarising Chris with my own 2c, here are the major steps:
1. Education: Identify the key business problems you need to solve.
[AB] In large organisations, there are always people feeling the pain from poor identity life-cycle management practices. You should go and find them – they might even have money. At least you then have ‘real evidence’ of the problem which is good for the business case.
2. Discovery: Identify the business and technical context where labor is being expended and where automation will yield significant returns. For example, are you divesting or growing your staff? Are you retiring infrastructure?
[AB] This is interesting as many organisations don’t seem to worry too much about soft costs such as efficiency if your help desks and access processes are fulfilled internally. However, you might be able to get some big wins if there is a ‘hard cost’ such as where your help desk is managed by a 3rd party and there is a cost per call.
3. Planning: Outline the following:
a. Financial Policies and Constraints: What does it mean when the CFO says “no new projects”? Does he mean no improvements, or no incremental expense or cash funding is available? What are the policies for capitalization? When do you need to attain efficiencies to offset expense without impacting different types of budget cycles?
Read the full article at http://advice.cio.com/chris_sullivan/four_steps_to_self_funding_identity_management