For Affiliated Computer Services, a Dallas-based IT and business-process outsourcing firm that does business in 100 countries, identity management had become not only a compliance concern by 2008—it was a business risk and productivity drain as well.
Many of ACS’s 74,000 employees work in jobs known for high turnover, such as handling calls for major cellular carriers or doing document imaging and processing. Provisioning a new employee with proper system access took a full seven days, during which time the new arrivals were largely unproductive. And when new workers did finally get system access, they generally received broader rights than they needed.
