Why is Identity and Access Management now a strategic imperative for any business?
14th December 2015Dynamic Content Meter
12th August 2016
10Duke’s Identity and Access Management solution utilizes the concept of identity-based licensing. This is a method of controlling access to a digital product based on the authenticated identity of an individual while also retaining flexibility in terms of licensing a product to him based on a number of constraints such as company, device, location and application type.
Identity-based licensing is enabled by three components:
An Identity Provider API which is responsible for authentication
An Entitlement API which is responsible for authorisation.
AÂ Reporting APIÂ which is responsible for storing all data related to a customer’s access to an application in order to generate business insight.
In a multi-app, multi-device world, identity-based licensing can offer you significant competitive advantages as compared with more traditional device-based licensing models. If you are an application developer, and particularly if you offer your customers more than one application, identity-based licensing offers more flexibility both in terms of the licensing terms under which you can make your products available and in terms of improving the ease with which your customer can access and interact with your products. In terms of supported licensing models, identity-based licensing can be used to underpin both B2C and B2B models. From trial SaaS subscriptions to site-based floating licenses, it can provide your business with the ability to choose the license model that is most suited to maximising your revenues, rather than forcing you to adapt to an inflexible model, ill-suited to your business. Check out this post for a selection of license models supported by 10Duke Entitlements.
In terms of improving the way in which customers can access and use your products, identity-based licensing can help in the following ways:
- It can be used across app types – if you sell multiple applications and they are a mix of desktop, mobile, mobile web and or browser-based applications, each type is supported by identity-based licensing and you can use the same licensing engine to provide licensed access to them, either individually or as a bundle.
- It can help to integrate your product suite – if you offer your customers more than one product, you can provide access to each one using the same set of authentication credentials. This makes your product set easier to access, maintains security and improves the customer experience. When each product is also controlled by the same licensing engine, the way in which your customer can access your products gets even better.
- Usage data – understanding how, when, from what device, dwell time and similar usage data can help you to better understand how your customers use your products. In turn, this can help you to see any product issues, make product improvements and ensure the relevance of your products to your customer base.
- Simplified license administration – buying, activating or renewing licensing, particularly in a B2B context is normally a bit of a hassle. With identity-based licensing, purchases or renewals can be done online either for individuals or for teams and activation is automatic. No more physical distribution of license keys, no more downtime.
