How to Improve Customer Experience in Your Mixed Environment

Every Environment Is a Mixed Environment

Software implementations are often discussed in terms of “build vs. buy,” meaning that for each functionality desired in the tech stack, an organization needs to decide whether to develop the functionality in-house (build) or go with a third-party solution (buy). The latter essentially means entrusting the functionality, whether that’s team communications or identity and access management (IAM), to a dedicated expert.

But what if your environment comprises both built and bought solutions? For many companies, particularly at the enterprise level, the build vs. buy thinking doesn’t necessarily capture their experience. Instead, they’re working with legacy architecture that’s a highly customized combination of purchased and built-to-spec apps. Sometimes the reality is that, in the words of one CISO, “every environment is a mixed environment.”

IAM Alleviates Pain

In a mixed environment, ensuring a frictionless customer experience can be a challenge. Having more applications in your architecture creates more opportunities for friction to disrupt the user experience. And now that identity is disseminated across so many different platforms and devices, with users needing the flexibility to log in anywhere, from any device, it’s more important than ever to support federated identity. But how can you ensure that you’re prepared to solve the constantly-shifting identity challenges presented by distributed and mixed environments?

IAM lightens the burden on companies struggling to manage identity in mixed environments. Implementing IAM empowers companies to increase security, work more efficiently, and deliver a painless customer experience regardless of tomorrow’s fresh challenges and unforeseen pain points.

An identity-as-a-service provider like Auth0 manages authentication across all of your applications, so the login experience is both seamless and secure. A flexible IAM solution gives your team the access and insight they need to accelerate innovation, deliver more value to users, and strengthen your security posture — not just in response to the identity challenges you’re encountering now but those you’ll encounter in a year or five years.

Customization Is the Key

To address today’s rapidly evolving use cases, you need to add modern, greenfield functionality to your tech stack. Companies often add that functionality through third-party microservice providers: cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies like Salesforce, ZenDesk, or Trello. At the same time, your legacy environment is powering your business, so while you might see the benefits of moving completely to the cloud, you may not be ready for the disruption of a full-scale cloud migration.

Fortunately, customization is the middle ground that can alleviate much of the pain you feel without creating additional headaches by forcing you into a migration strategy that’s not right for your situation.

Auth0 powers customizations that integrate easily with your legacy system, driving revenue and allowing you time to adjust your strategy and reach consensus before moving forward with full-scale digital transformation. The right IAM solution helps you minimize disruption for users and customers during replatforming and other transitions, so you can minimize turnover and limit missed opportunities.

Use Identity to Bring Business Logic Into Focus

The process of implementing an identity strategy clarifies what your company needs to do. Put a different way, to make your identity strategy work; you need to understand the structure and needs of your business at a deep level. Implementing IAM creates opportunities for discussion that brings business logic into sharper focus and allows you to build innovation into your company’s DNA.

Building a product that is as flexible, extensible, customizable, and responsive to change as you need it to be also create the opportunity to take this same approach to higher-level conversations. When leadership sets lofty business goals, you can execute on these goals quickly, equipped with an identity solution that speeds time-to-market (TTM).

Real-World Example: Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG)

Let’s look at an example of an enterprise environment where a flexible IAM solution helped mitigate the pain of a mixed environment that encompassed multiple different apps — and presented multiple challenges.

Formed in 1998, the Bluetooth SIG is the not-for-profit trade association that oversees Bluetooth® technology. In support of more than 34,000 member companies, the Bluetooth SIG facilitates the collaboration of its members to create new and enhanced specifications that expand the technology, drives global interoperability via a world-class product qualification program, and grows the brand by increasing the awareness, understanding, and adoption of Bluetooth technology.

Bluetooth SIG needed a modern identity solution with single sign-on (SSO) to support all of the company’s homegrown and third-party SaaS apps. They had to be able to implement the solution while keeping the existing platform operating and mapping a path for full migration in the future. It was also essential to establish user roles and access to ensure proper protection for confidential information.

Auth0 fulfilled all of Bluetooth SIG’s requirements. Our solution was easy to implement and allowed the Bluetooth SIG team to add SSO and modern authentication. Without disrupting the legacy system, a migration plan was developed and carried out. Implementation of Auth0 took days, compared with the months it would have taken to implement an in-house platform.

Top-tier documentation with detailed code samples helped Bluetooth SIG engineers get up to speed quickly on their modern identity solution. Bluetooth SIG and Auth0’s developer success engineers worked together to develop a proof of concept showcasing the platform’s capabilities. Ultimately, Auth0’s full suite of technology, documentation, and expert support gave Bluetooth SIG the solution they were looking for.

Support Business Processes With Software, Not the Other Way Around

Software should support your core business functions — not the other way around. With an identity-as-a-service (IDaaS) provider like Auth0, you’ll have the functionality and extensibility to accomplish what you need to without wasting time and resources on a solved problem. IAM is a rapidly evolving specialty in which the only constant is the change. That’s why an out-of-the-box identity solution or an in-house authentication platform can only take you so far.

Auth0 believes in the business value of entrusting identity to an IDaaS provider, but we also understand the power of code. That’s why we feel an IDaaS+code approach gives you the best of both worlds: identity services managed by an easy-to-use service, plus the same customizability and control you’d have if you’d coded the entire solution from scratch.

To learn more about how the right identity solution can provide enhanced data protection and a seamless customer experience in your mixed environment, reach out to the team at Auth0.