Category: Identity and Access Management

Where Traditional IAMs Fall Short – And How Akku Brings Flexibility

Businesses in any industry face security and compliance issues. However, security requirements and priorities are not the same across the board. Identity and access management (IAM) represents an important part of the solution to these challenges, but again, a cookie-cutter approach to IAM does not address the unique needs of each business.

The Fatal Flaw of Traditional IAM Systems

The problem? Most IAM solutions out there lack the business flexibility you need. Your IT team has to compromise and use a rigid, all-in-one solution that may still leave security gaps because it can’t adjust to specific needs.

  • Just looking for a way to get a multi-factor authentication up and running? You’re stuck paying for a suite of other features that come with the package.
  • Struggling with a custom integration for an internal app? That’s a ‘you’ problem that your IAM provider doesn’t want to get their hands dirty with.
  • Need to create a customized approach to an IAM feature because you have a unique process? You’re out of luck – what’s available straight out of the box is what you need to work with.

One-Size-Fits-All Doesn’t Work for Security

Solutions from most top IAM vendors follow a one-size-fits-all approach. Their products are built to make them everything-for-everyone, rather than to be the optimal solution to your specific business requirements. 

Although these IAM providers have good reputations and excellent products, they don’t tailor their solutions to your needs. 

That’s fine for some, but not if your business requires specific security solutions, or if you are prioritizing certain aspects of your security posture based on budgets and lifecycle status. If that’s you, you’ll find that you end up paying for features you don’t need or fighting with tools that don’t fit your operations.

The downsides of this approach are clear:

  • Higher costs – Companies pay for multiple licenses or features they don’t need.
  • Rigid feature set – Your company processes have to adjust to suit the IAM, not the other way around.
  • Operational inefficiencies – Too many features can confuse users in their daily operations.

Why Flexibility Matters

In contrast to off-the-shelf IAM products, a flexible IAM platform enables businesses to establish access policies in accordance with their true needs. Your security policies and tools need to meet your business needs, and not be limited to the framework that your IAM vendor dictates.

With a flexible IAM solution:

  • You set the rules for your organization, not a third-party provider
  • You only pay for features you really need.
  • Your IAM fits your needs like a glove, driving operational efficiency and optimal security.

Akku – the Flexible IAM

Akku is designed to be highly flexible and customizable. In contrast to competitors, Akku enables your business to pick and choose only the features you require. Its modular design keeps you in complete control of access management without unnecessary overhead.

And taking this further, Akku even enables complete feature customization within each of our IAM modules, leaving you in complete control of your own security posture. If Akku’s features don’t meet your needs exactly, we’ll build you the customized functionality you need.

Customization extends to custom integrations too, with our team of experts on hand to help you integrate Akku with every one of your apps.

Most organizations pick from the most popular IAM brands, just because they are the biggest names. But the question remains – do they really fit your requirements? Should you be adjusting to suit the IAM, or should it be the other way around?

Don’t accept a rigid, pre-packaged solution. Adopt a flexible IAM solution like Akku.

Ready to streamline your IAM approach? Get in touch with our experts today for a demo.

Startups to Enterprises: How Akku Meets Different Business Needs

Small, mid-sized, and large enterprises face different challenges with access management. From limited resources to scaling complexities to sprawling organizational structures, the differing needs of businesses at each phase of growth call for a tailored solution. 

In this blog, let’s explore how Akku empowers businesses of every size.

For Startups: Easy Setup, Powerful Security

The Challenge

As a startup or small-scale business, you may not have a large IT team or the technical skills to manage a complicated security system. But just like larger enterprises, your business too faces cyber risks. That’s why you need a security solution that’s simple, effective, and helps keep you safe while you focus on growing your business – without the need for technical expertise.

How Akku Helps

  • Quick IAM Setup with Minimal Technical Complexity: Akku simplifies the onboarding process, ensuring startups can get started without advanced technical know-how. Akku’s 500+ pre-built app connectors, user-friendly interface, and ease of setup allow small businesses to implement a robust IAM faster.
  • High Value-for-Money IAM Solutions: Budget constraints are a fact of life for small businesses. Akku offers plans that offer tremendous value and help you keep data security strong without breaking the bank.
  • Strong Foundational Security Measures: Akku helps you streamline access management and implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) – these are vital tools to build a strong security foundation at your business.

For Mid-Size Businesses: Security balanced with Efficiency

The Challenge

As businesses grow bigger, operations become more complex. In addition to the concerns of smaller businesses, your mid-sized business needs to balance the need for stronger security with the importance of maintaining operational efficiency. The right IAM will support your growth while keeping operations secure and efficient.

How Akku Helps

  • Robust Authentication Security: Akku helps you enforce MFA as well as strong employee password policies, keeping the login process secure across the board for your growing time. And the option of passwordless authentication goes even further towards eliminating the risk of password misuse/abuse.
  • Efficient Application Access: As your business scales, the number of applications your teams use tends to rise exponentially. The result is significant friction in the user access process. With Akku’s robust single sign-on (SSO), access to applications is a matter of a single click, enabling increased productivity for users and administrators.
  • Improved Flexibility through Modular IAM Solutions: With evolving business priorities, Akku’s modular IAM solutions give you the flexibility to invest in the tools you need now, and add on functionalities as the business grows.

    For Enterprises: Streamlining Access & Reducing IT Admin Workloads

    The Challenge

    Thousands of employees across multiple departments, and numerous roles and designations are key characteristics of large enterprises that give rise to unique IAM challenges. These dynamics place a heavy load on your IT admin team, and make managing access time-consuming and prone to error. At the same time, the business also needs to comply with strict security policies and regulations.

    How Akku Helps

     

  • Automated Provisioning and Deprovisioning: By automating provisioning and deprovisioning, Akku massively reduces the workload for IT administrators and ensures no risk of human error. Employees are granted access to the systems and data they require promptly, improving productivity, while former employees lose access with a single stroke, securing systems.
  • Increased Productivity with Self-Service Password Management: Password recovery requests can overwhelm the IT function as your team sizes increase. Akku’s self-service password management system allows users to generate and update their own passwords, in compliance with custom policies. This improves productivity by cutting out wait time, while IT administrators save a significant amount of time.
  • Streamlined Data and Analytics for Audit: Akku offers a centralized platform to manage access across the organization, which also means it is a centralized point of data collection. Akku’s advanced reporting and analytics tools use this data to provide single-window visibility into access patterns, enabling informed decision-making. This also provides verifiable proof of compliance with security and data privacy regulations.

Improve security and streamline operations as you focus on growth – regardless of the size of your business. Ask for a demo today!

3 Challenges of hybrid work, and how identity & access management solves them

Even as an increasing percentage of the workforce works remotely, cyberattacks on organizations continue to surge. 73% of executives viewing remote workers as a heightened security risk. A 2024 report revealed a 104% increase in attempted cyberattacks over the previous year, highlighting the critical need for strong cybersecurity measures.

While the increased adoption of remote and hybrid work models has reshaped the workplace, the bottomline is that it also poses security challenges. Therefore ensuring secure collaboration – whether on-site or remote – requires solutions that protect data, authenticate access and mitigate risks in various environments. 

That’s where Identity & Access Management (IAM) comes in with its toolkit designed to safeguard your workspace – whether it’s at the office or remote.

Security Challenges of Hybrid Operations

1. Increased attack surface

With employees accessing resources from various networks and devices, the risk of unauthorised access grows, expanding the attack surface.

2. Access control and data security

Hybrid setups require strict control over access to sensitive data to prevent breaches and regulatory issues.

3. Device and network security

The mix of personal and corporate devices on different networks raises the risk of malware and cyber threats.

Key IAM features for Secure Collaboration

1. Single Sign-On (SSO)

SSO streamlines access to multiple applications with a single, secure login and reduces the need to manage multiple passwords. Akku’s Single Sign-On feature offers one-click access across applications, a single dashboard for quick provisioning, permissions management, and easy revocation of access across all applications.

2. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

MFA strengthens security by requiring a second form of verification beyond just a password. However, implementing MFA can be complex and costly, especially when multiple applications from different providers need a unified platform. Akku offers MFA functionality that’s quick and cost-effective to deploy, with authentication factors including biometrics, SMS, and push notifications.

3. Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

RBAC restricts access to specific data and applications based on an employee’s role. This approach limits data exposure to only those who need it, safeguarding sensitive information and preventing accidental leaks or security breaches.

What does IAM ensure?

1. Real-time monitoring and auditing

IAM systems offer real-time visibility into user activities, allowing IT teams to monitor logins, device usage, and detect potential security incidents as they occur. Regular auditing ensures that user access aligns with each person’s current role, preventing privilege creep and enhancing accountability within the organization. In other words, real time monitoring and auditing ensure better decision-making, operational efficiency, breach detection and prevention, and customer satisfaction.

2. Data protection in multi-cloud and hybrid environments

A recent study reported a 75% rise in cloud incidents last year, which explains why IAM is highlighted as a key cloud security trend for 2025, with zero-trust architecture adoption projected to reach 60%, along with advanced access control measures to secure critical systems. IAMs secure collaboration across various cloud services by enforcing consistent access control policies across environments.

3. Improved compliance and data privacy

Compliance with data privacy regulations such as GDPR and HIPAA is essential for organizations handling sensitive information. By employing IAM, organizations can ensure they maintain the highest standards of data privacy and regulatory compliance.

 

The hybrid work model brings new security challenges, but your organization can stay not just a step but leaps and bounds ahead of every threat simply by adopting an IAM solution. Protect your data, improve your productivity with Akku. Talk to us today to find out more.

The future of safe hybrid collaboration with Akku


In case you’re still wondering how important it is to focus on security during remote operations and collaboration, there are 10.5 trillion reasons to sit up and take note. According to the 2023 World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report, the cost of cybercrime is projected to hit an annual $10.5 trillion by 2025. 

A single data leak can have catastrophic consequences for a business, leading to financial losses, reputational damage, and regulatory penalties. As of February, the global average data breach cost was 4.88 million U.S. dollars.

As organizations transition to cloud-based collaboration, this opens the door to risks of remote ops that didn’t really exist before or were far easier to manage in an office-based working context. 

Additionally, misconfigured security settings and improper assignment of access rights, which can result in “privilege creep”, or employees gaining more access rights than necessary. This is a major risk factor since insiders are responsible for 20% of data breaches, often due to such excessive access.

 

Here are three ways to address these challenges related to security during collaboration.

1. Implement Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

This ensures team members only have access to the information necessary for their specific tasks. RBAC needs to be reviewed regularly and updated.

2. Regularly audit collaboration tools

This helps identify potential security gaps, misconfigurations, and outdated permissions. 

3. Utilize secure collaboration platforms

Invest in collaboration tools that prioritize security features, such as encryption, multi-factor authentication, and robust compliance measures. Akku offers secure collaboration solutions tailored to meet your organization’s needs.

Akku has a suite of features designed to secure team collaboration in hybrid work environments. 

Here are some of the ways Akku enables secure collaboration.

Granular access control

Akku ensures secure application and data access for hybrid teams, even beyond office firewalls. It allows administrators to enforce strict control over user access by utilizing IP-based, device-based, location-based, and time-based restrictions. Administrators can whitelist or blacklist specific IP addresses, ensuring access only from authorized locations. Also, device-based restrictions tie access to registered devices, while location- and time-based controls further limit access to designated areas and specific time frames. 

Centralized policy management

As teams and projects evolve, so do access needs. Akku’s User Lifecycle Manager provides centralized control over access policies. Integrated with Adaptive Multi-Factor Authentication (AMFA), the platform provides real-time adjustments to security policies, enhancing overall control and ensuring secure access across various environments.

Compliance and auditing

Akku’s detailed audit trails and activity logs help organizations track every interaction within their collaboration tools. This ensures compliance with industry regulations like GDPR and HIPAA. 

For one of its clients, Akku helped ensure HIPAA compliance by securing access to sensitive medical data through its internal office networks, minimizing the risk of data breaches. By implementing a unified identity and access management solution, Akku provided visibility into user access, addressing the challenge of shared computers and reducing the manual effort involved in password management. This streamlined solution enhanced data security, improved compliance with HIPAA regulations, and protected the privacy of sensitive medical information for their 8,000+ distributed workforce. 

500+ Pre-Built App Connectors

Akku integrates with over 500 cloud-based collaboration platforms, including Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 allowing businesses to enjoy collaboration across their favorite tools without sacrificing ease of use.

 

Securing hybrid collaboration is no longer optional—it’s essential. Businesses need tools to protect sensitive data, ensure compliance, and streamline collaboration across cloud-based platforms. If you’re looking to safeguard your team’s collaboration, explore how Akku’s IAM solutions can help you.

Save Costs and Boost Security with Automated User Provisioning and Deprovisioning

 

Provisioning and de-provisioning are critical processes in managing access to data and systems within an organization. Proper provisioning ensures new employees receive the access rights they need to perform their jobs effectively. Conversely, de-provisioning ensures access is promptly revoked when an employee leaves the organization, preventing unauthorized access to sensitive information.

Failing to provision or de-provision users correctly results in several issues.

  • Delays in provisioning mean users don’t have the access they need, and that’s productive time lost
  • Users with inappropriate access may inadvertently modify or delete important data, leading to inaccuracies
  • Former employees with lingering access, after they exit the organization, can pose significant security threats, leading to data breaches
  • Organizations may face regulatory fines and reputational damage if they fail to manage access controls

Most of these problems are caused by a manual process for provisioning and de-provisioning – here’s why.

  • Time-Consuming Processes: IT teams spend a significant amount of time creating, managing, and disabling user accounts, which can delay access for new hires and leave security gaps when employees depart. A manual process involves multiple steps and approvals, such as filling out forms, sending emails, waiting for responses, and logging into different systems, which can be tedious, repetitive, and prone to delays or failures, especially when dealing with many users or frequent changes. Automated provisioning reduces this process from days to just minutes.
  • Human Errors: Manual processes are susceptible to mistakes, such as granting incorrect access rights or failing to revoke access promptly. For example, a user may be granted access to a resource they should not have, or a user may be left with access to a resource that they no longer need. These errors can cause security breaches, compliance issues, operational problems, or data leaks.
  • Lack of Consistency: Ensuring consistent application of access policies is difficult, leading to potential security vulnerabilities. Provisioning done poorly creates problems with employee onboarding and offboarding, thus straining relationships between departments and adding unnecessary stress across an organization. Governance, risk, security, and compliance teams are frustrated when employees have too much access or access they don’t need or, worse when poor offboarding doesn’t remove access for someone who has left the organization.
  • Lack of auditability: A manual process may not provide a clear and comprehensive record of who has access to what, when, why, and how. This can make it difficult to monitor, review, and report on user activity and access rights, as well as to detect and respond to any anomalies or incidents. Manual processes may fail to meet regulatory requirements for user provisioning and de-provisioning, such as separation of duties, role-based access control, and identity verification.

A manual provisioning and de-provisioning process brings with it certain direct and indirect costs.

  • Direct Costs: The time and resources required to manage user accounts manually can add up, diverting IT staff from more strategic tasks.
  • Indirect Costs: Inconsistent access management can lead to security breaches, regulatory fines, and damage to the organization’s reputation.

That’s why it’s time to make the move to automated user provisioning and de-provisioning.

1. Access control in real-time

Automated systems ensure that new employees have instant access to the necessary resources, enhancing productivity from day one. Automated provisioning sets up access and privileges for each resource in the organization based on the employee’s role and company rules. When an admin adds, edits, or removes a user, the system automatically adjusts the access—turning it on, changing it, or turning it off. Similarly, access can be promptly revoked for departing employees, mitigating security risks.

2. Consistent application of policies

Automation enforces consistent access policies across the organization, reducing the likelihood of errors and ensuring compliance with industry regulations. By automatically giving and taking away access based on set rules, it reduces the chance of unauthorized access. This automatic system eliminates human error, lowering the risk of security breaches.

3. Reduction in administrative overhead

By automating repetitive tasks, IT teams can focus on more strategic initiatives, reducing the overall administrative burden and operational costs.

A study by Aberdeen Group found that effective onboarding can improve new hire productivity by 60% and reduce turnover by 50%. Using automation software and remote support, companies can speed up the onboarding process and help new employees get up to speed faster.

4. Minimizing the Risk of Data Breaches

Automated deprovisioning ensures that former employees no longer have access to sensitive data, significantly lowering the risk of data breaches and unauthorized access. According to a Thales report, human actions can compromise security, with 44% of their survey respondents saying they’ve experienced one. In the past year alone, 14% reported a breach.

So how do you choose the right tool to automate user provisioning and deprovisioning?

  • Integration capabilities: Ensure the tool integrates with your existing systems and applications. This will reduce the time required to set up infrastructure components, such as virtual machines, databases, and networking resources, accelerating time-to-market for applications and services.
  • Scalability: As your organization grows, the number of access requests will also increase. So, choose a solution that can grow with your organization and adapt to changing needs.
  • Ease of Use: Look for tools with intuitive interfaces that simplify the setup and management of user provisioning and de-provisioning. Use automated provisioning software that can handle tasks like assigning IP addresses, configuring DNS, and setting permissions for employees and clients. This helps integrate the entire work infrastructure of an organization with just a click.

Automating user provisioning and de-provisioning is a smart investment for organizations looking to enhance security, reduce costs, and improve efficiency. But you need to implement the right automation tools so your organization can ensure immediate access control, consistent policy application, reduced administrative overhead, and minimized risk of data breaches. Our experts at Akku can help you with that. Reach out to us today.

Boost security, streamline operations: Here’s how IAM can help your ITeS/BPO business

In the ITeS and BPO industry, striking the right balance between productivity and security can mean the difference between success and failure. Security breaches can have serious financial and reputational consequences, but at the same time an excessive tilt to security at the cost of efficiency can hurt competitiveness.

Let’s dive a little deeper into the key challenges that most ITeS and BPO businesses face, which find solutions in identity an access management.

High employee turnover

The BPO industry is known for its high employee turnover (some reports peg it as high as 40%). This means a continuous cycle of provisioning, de-provisioning, and updating access for constantly changing staff – a logistical nightmare for your IT admin team, and a high risk for unauthorized access.

Remote work

The pandemic may be behind us, but remote work remains 3-4x as prevalent as it was in 2019. Ensuring secure access is a major challenge this presents because the office firewall just doesn’t cut it anymore. At the same time, applying excessive restrictions across the board often stifles productivity.

Data sensitivity

At most ITeS and BPO companies, there are significant volumes of sensitive client data to be managed. Unauthorized access to this data is a major can result in major erosion of client trust and loss of business.

Complex access needs

Employees often need access to multiple systems and applications, each with different access requirements. Improper manual management of these access rights can lead to errors and security gaps.

Here’s how IAM solves each of these problems.

Automated provisioning and deprovisioning

Advanced IAM systems such as Akku help you automate the process of provisioning, de-provisioning, and updation of user access permissions. When employees join or leave, their access rights are automatically updated, reducing the risk of unauthorized access and ensuring compliance. 

This means significant amounts of time saved when new employees join your organization or change roles, with the required access permissions assigned with a single click. And when an employee leaves the company, your administrators no longer need to delete the user from each of your applications separately. With one-click deprovisioning, you save time and ensure no access permissions are accidentally left active which could leave the door open to security risks.

Single Sign-On (SSO)

SSO allows employees to access multiple applications with a single set of credentials. This improves their user experience and efficiency, and also enhances security by reducing the number of credentials that your users need to manage, which could potentially become compromised.

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

MFA adds an extra layer of security on top of your password. This is even more important in remote or hybrid operations where you have no way of verifying that the person logging in with a set of credentials is actually a genuine user. MFA goes a long way toward securing your organization’s sensitive data from fraudulent login attempts with stolen user credentials. 

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

A comprehensive IAM solution like Akku enables you to enforce role-based access control, ensuring that employees only have access to the information necessary for their roles. RBAC allows you to control what end-users can access by assigning them to roles such as administrator, team lead, executive, or business analyst, for example. Permissions can then be aligned with these roles ensuring job functions can be performed without providing excessive or universal access which opens up security risks.

Secure remote access

When it comes to remote operations, ensuring secure access practices is vital to protect sensitive data and applications. An IAM solution like Akku addresses this in multiple ways. 

For example, you can set up an IP-based access restriction to allow access to certain sensitive data only from the office to prevent misuse and ensure security. All other functions can be performed remotely to promote productivity and convenience.

Or access to certain resources can be limited to only whitelisted devices using device-based restriction. 

Each user can be limited to access resources relevant to them only during their defined work shift and access can be prevented at other times through time-based restrictions. 

And access can even be disabled from other countries to prevent malicious activity originating outside your area of operations through location-based restriction.

Partnering with a service provider such as Akku, which has tailored IAM solutions for the BPO and ITeS industry can help you protect sensitive data and maintain compliance with industry regulations besides enabling streamlined operations and collaboration across departments. Contact Akku today to learn more!

The urgent need for Identity & Access Management at Universities and Educational Institutions

Cyber threats can affect any educational setting, from elementary schools to universities, whether online or brick-and-mortar. Limited resources, budget constraints, outdated software, and inadequate security systems, cause some of the biggest risks. 

Education ranks as the fifth most targeted industry for security breaches in the United States, with more than 1600 publicly disclosed cyberattacks on schools between 2016 and 2022. Just last year, a security lapse in India’s Education Ministry app, Diksha, exposed millions of students’ and teachers’ personally identifying information due to an unprotected cloud server storing the data.

With the increasing adoption of technology in education, and even more so after the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for Identity & Access Management (IAM) systems is now vital for security and productivity at educational institutions.

But first, what are the unique challenges in IAM for educational institutions?

Diverse user base

Educational institutions cater to a diverse range of users including students, faculty, staff, administrators, and sometimes even external collaborators. Managing identities and access rights for such a diverse user base can be complex.

Outdated IT systems

Limited IT budgets result in legacy systems that are challenging to maintain, costly to fix, and may lack effective customer service. They also pose security risks due to outdated infrastructure. Users with multiple roles face challenges as each role is treated as a separate ID, leading to multiple credentials and fragmented access.

Remote learning

The rise of remote learning and the prevalence of BYOD or Bring Your Own Device policies have introduced additional difficulties in managing identities and securing access to resources. Educational institutions must ensure secure access to resources from any location and on any device while maintaining data privacy and security.

Data breach risks

Educational institutions handle large amounts of personal and sensitive information, including academic records, personal information, and research data making them prime targets for data breaches. Maintaining data security is essential for building trust and preventing breaches or leaks.

Changing user roles

Colleges and universities frequently onboard and offboard thousands of new users or new students each semester, each of whom require access to university resources before arriving on campus. Also, access for graduating students needs to be disabled promptly. Also, colleges handle transient users on a massive scale, including students taking semesters off and contingent faculty.

Manual provisioning and de-provisioning

Manual provisioning and de-provisioning of user access leads to high costs, security threats, and help desk overload. Manual authorization workflows for user access are prone to delays, mistakes, and compliance/security concerns. IT staff are responsible for frequently authorizing access requests, leading to inefficiencies. Also, there is a lack of auditing.

No integration with cloud-based platforms

Educational institutions face challenges integrating IAM systems with cloud-based platforms. The absence of dedicated IT help desk teams results in an increased workload for IT staff to resolve password and account unlock requests.

How can IAM address these challenges?

Centralized management and access

IAM solutions provide a centralized platform for managing user identities, authentication, and authorization. This helps to streamline user provisioning, de-provisioning, and access management across the institution, reducing administrative overhead. 

For users too, with a single sign-on provided by an IAM platform, all applications are brought onto a single platform. This eliminates the hassle of multiple passwords and logins and makes the login process fast and effortless.

Automated provisioning and de-provisioning

A comprehensive IAM solution like Akku automates the process of provisioning and de-provisioning user accounts based on predefined rules and policies. 

This ensures users have timely access to resources they need and access is revoked promptly upon role changes or departure from an institution, reducing the risk of unauthorized access. Also, IAM solutions implement role-based access. This granular control ensures users have access only to resources necessary for their job functions.

Learn-from-anywhere security

IAM solutions often go beyond user permissions to access applications. For example, Akku offers extensive access management features that let you permit access to your institution’s resources only from specific whitelisted network IP addresses, or only from whitelisted devices.

Suspicious login attempts can also be identified and flagged when a user attempts to log in from an unfamiliar location or at an unexpected time.

Multi-factor authentication (MFA)

Many IAM solutions offer MFA capabilities, adding an extra layer of security beyond passwords. By requiring users to authenticate using multiple factors such as passwords, biometrics, or one-time codes, MFA helps prevent unauthorized access even if credentials are compromised.

Akku makes implementation of MFA effortless and cost-effective with a range of authentication factors to choose from, including passwordless authentication.

Integration with LMS and other education-specific platforms

IAM solutions integrate with LMS platforms and other applications used in educational settings, which allows for single sign-on (SSO) capabilities, enabling users to access multiple resources with a single set of credentials, thereby enhancing user experience and productivity.

With Akku, the process of integration is effortless with plug-and-play connectors to over 500 popular applications.

Auditing and compliance reporting

An end-to-end IAM solution like Akku provides robust auditing and reporting capabilities, allowing institutions to monitor user activity, track access privileges, and generate compliance reports. Akku’s Smart Analytics dashboard provides clear visibility across the institution’s users as well as intelligent insights on unused application licenses, provisioned user access, and more.

 

IAM solutions can help educational institutions improve security, streamline administrative processes, and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements, enabling a safer learning environment for students and staff. Akku’s IAM solutions are tailored to meet these unique challenges, so reach out to us today so we can help you stay secure.

A Customized Device-Based Access Control Solution for an Automotive Ancillary Major using Akku

Data security is a critical business priority today – this is especially true for businesses in industries such as manufacturing, where intellectual property as well as customer data are involved. 

This was the case for our client too – a leading player in the automotive ancillary manufacturing space. In this blog, we explore their specific challenge in safeguarding their digital assets, and how Akku was able to deliver a customized solution to address the client’s needs.

The Challenge

The client runs regular audits to assess their security posture, and to identify areas where their existing Google Workspace could itself provide adequate security measures in terms of access control. 

In one such audit, they identified a critical gap. Employees at the company were increasingly needing to work remotely, but the existing endpoint security solution was only capable of restricting access to the company’s network and disabling all remote access.

Additionally, it was necessary to permit access for any user from any approved company laptop or desktop – a challenge given that the conventional device-based restriction approach generally maps one user to one device.

Akku’s Innovative Approach

Our team at Akku addressed this challenge with a customized device-based restriction strategy. 

To allow any user to access applications and data from any of the company’s laptops or desktops, we decided to implement a many-to-many mapping system. This unique solution involved the development of a custom application, the Akku Agent, installed on every whitelisted device.

The Implementation

Through the client’s inventory system, all machine serial numbers were captured and uploaded to Akku. The login process was then revamped to require all users to authenticate via Akku only. 

When a user logs in, the Akku Agent now verifies the device’s serial number against the whitelisted devices in Akku, and allows access from any location, including outside the client’s network, as long as the request is made from an approved device.

This solution seamlessly addressed the core challenge of permitting remote user access from approved devices.

Tackling Mobile Access

The next hurdle was controlling mobile access. Based on the Google Workspace plans assigned to the company’s users, the Google Workspace Advanced MDM functionality addressed mobile access control for only a subset of the company’s users. 

For all other users, access from any mobile device remained unchecked. Additionally, inventorying all personal devices of employees was impractical.

Akku’s solution was to restrict user mobile access to a controlled number of manually approved devices per user. By default, users were not permitted mobile access. Upon necessity, they could contact the admin to get a device approved, ensuring secure and controlled mobile access. And in case of a change of device, such as on purchase of a new phone, the admin would be able to deactivate access to the old device and enable access to the new device.

The Outcome

By integrating Akku, the client not only overcame the limitations of their existing security system, but also enabled secure remote access for their employees with seamless device-based access control measures.

The solution addressed the unique challenges faced by our client through Akku’s flexibility and our team’s custom development and deployment solution.

Akku’s flexible and innovative IAM solutions can transform your organization’s security landscape too. Talk to us to know more today.

Here’s why your apps built with no-code platforms need an external IAM

Have you heard of no-code application builders? They are ideal for minor applications without heavy technological requirements. These no-code apps can be taken to market much faster, are cheaper to develop and can deliver a great experience in many cases.

However, while they are easy to build and use, securing apps made with a no-code app builder requires an external IAM.

Access management for internal applications

Consider a desktop-based application such as MS Access, which is used for combining, processing and editing large groups of data from different sources. It’s largely being replaced by web-based equivalents. This kind of small internal application has a clear function, and is therefore easy to build using a no-code development tool.

Internal applications such as data management tools, onboarding tools and other HR applications are often considered lower priority as they are purely internal in use. Therefore, low-budget no-code app builder tools are used in these cases.

However, these applications process a great deal of valuable internal data, and it’s important to take their security seriously and guard access to them. That’s why it’s important to implement a strong IAM tool for all your internal-facing applications.

The risk of web-based applications

With web-based apps, whether or not it’s developed with a no-code tool, you have the freedom to deploy the application on cloud servers on flexible pricing models, and access them from anywhere. Since such apps are hosted on the cloud, it can be risky to access them directly without a VPN.

Tiny no-code app builders don’t invest the necessary time and effort into security and privacy, which is why it’s difficult to set up good protection for such apps. Additionally, the user working on a no-code app builder typically doesn’t have the necessary time and knowledge to do so.

Syncing your IAM

While some well-known no-code app builders offer plugins to integrate with external IAM through SAML and OAuth2, others do not. In cases where such plugins exist, you can use any external IAM system.

When the plugins do not exist, however, and especially in cases where you would rather reduce the coding footprint of your project, consider an IAM product like Akku. Since Akku is a customizable solution, you can use it as a gateway for any major or minor internal or external application, even when the app being used does not support SAML, OAuth2 or OIDC. 

Your minor internal applications often contain or process the most valuable data at your organization. Protect them with an external IAM that’s easy to set up, integrates with any setup, and restricts access to these key internal corporate resources. Protect them with Akku, the customizable IAM.



The simpler way to manage Remote Employee Onboarding

When onboarding new employees, it’s important to keep the process as simple as possible. When all new user activity occurs in a single system, onboarding, especially remote onboarding, becomes seamless and effortless.

If your onboarding system is integrated with Akku, or if you use Akku itself as the onboarding system, this system becomes the first point of engagement for the user with the organization. Every step of the onboarding process is guided by this tool. Since it collects all the user data requested at the very beginning of the interaction with the new employee, Akku becomes the single source of truth for the entire career journey of the employee.

The onboarding process

Once the employee has been recruited, they are instructed to create an Akku account using their personal email address. A website link is then sent to the employee’s personal email id. Upon clicking on this link, the employee is led to a portal where they can begin onboarding by requesting their new corporate credentials.

Once they receive their new credentials, users log on to the same system using their corporate email address and password. On the same landing page, they see the list of guidelines to be followed, documents to be submitted with deadlines, date and location of reporting, how and what to do upon joining the organization, and more. All details are shared in a single window, often including a downloadable offer letter.

A single source of truth

Since the onboarding process for all employees is undertaken through a common digitized system, Akku becomes a ‘single source of truth’ for all information related to each employee. 

This makes onboarding seamless from the documentation perspective, as the new employee has to upload documents to a single location, and all departments involved can access them directly, as and when needed.

Similarly, since provisioning happens through Akku, access to all relevant software and other digital assets is also granted effortlessly through a single application. Not only is provisioning seamless, but authorized managers across departments can also view details pertaining to the new employee via Akku’s dashboards, as it is the single source of information about the new team member.

Remote onboarding 

This kind of single-window onboarding is extremely valuable to employees working remote or hybrid, as most of their interaction with the organization will be virtual. An efficient onboarding process makes a great first impression. It shows that as an employer, you consider employee support to be a tech priority.

Much of the Know Your Employee (KYE) documentation can (or sometimes, should) be completed before the employee actually joins the organization. Since the portal is open at any time and can be accessed from anywhere, remote document collection (in the form of soft copies) is seamless. This is especially important and useful for employees working remotely, as they may not be located in the same area as your office and could need to travel to visit the office to submit hard copies.

Similarly, since employees are also offered virtual orientation, knowledge transfer and access provisioning, remote onboarding becomes easier.

Benefits to remote employees

  1. Seamless documentation: As discussed earlier, since Akku is a single source of truth, all documentation takes place virtually through the portal itself.
  2. Seamless provisioning: As an Akku-based onboarding system of this kind is a single source of truth in the organization, employees do not have to go outside the system to upload data and documentation about themselves, nor to access relevant information, knowledge, or relevant assets.
  3. Seamless knowledge transfer and training: Akku is integrated with a communication system to push messages and communiques to users. Using this tool, orientation, knowledge transfer and initial training can take place through the system itself.
  4. Seamless reporting: The same tool provides user activity monitoring as well, for the duration of onboarding and orientation, since it tracks the progress of the new employee through the predefined process. Akku can directly intimate HR, reporting manager and head of department regarding the progress of the employee through the KYE process via the system dashboards.
  5. Seamless identity management: Since Akku is a full-fledged IAM, the new employee can directly be provisioned with access to all required software and other assets through Akku itself. At the same time, account credentials for single sign-on (SSO) can also be directly generated.

Automated, single-window onboarding for remote employees makes the process significantly more efficient, especially for large enterprises with a huge number of employees joining per day. Single-window reporting is also a feature that smaller businesses find extremely useful, as it makes user management much more efficient for small HR teams. 

Wondering how to make your onboarding process more efficient? Take it digital with Akku. Contact our team today to discuss how to get started.