Why a modern Identity solution is the secret to closing the gap between government authorities and citizens

(And why Okta is a little bit like Batman for your citizens) 

A growing and ageing population is leading to a big rise in demand on government services. In fact, 57% of people believing that local councils have the biggest impact on quality of life in communities¹. 

But how can authorities get closer to this growing population and offer more, when faced with low funding and lack of resources? 

There is a solution. One that gives visibility of who is accessing which services, why and when. And delivering those services faster, more securely and with personalisation. And that solution is modern Identity management.

With a modern Identity solution, citizens get seamless access to the services they need without having to repeat steps. Enabling intuitive login and making digital services more accessible for less digital-savvy citizens. 

But common barriers to entry – combined with a lack of agility and low funding – are holding up IT modernisation projects. But modernisation is crucial to meeting citizen expectations, accelerating access to services and keeping personal data secure. The same goes for the government workforce, who have backlogs to get through and frustrating processes that could be slowing down productivity. 

Legacy Identity management systems are no longer fit for purpose. 

• They’re inflexible, unable to scale or meet the demands of innovation 
• They create data siloes that are hard to manage 
• They are insecure and can expose authorities to cyber-attacks and fraud 

Overcome the risk of fraud 

Fraud is also on the rise, putting a hole in budgets and jeopardising public confidence. COVID-19 is an example of this, with £7.3bn of the £21bn estimated fraud set out in the 2020-22 annual report and accounts relating to temporary COVID-19 schemes. Overall, the estimated extent of fraud and errors across all of government in 2020-21 is £33.2bn - £58.8bn – up from an estimated £5.5bn for the period 2018-20². 

But a modern Identity solution can help government bodies have confidence that the people accessing their services are who they say they are. With a verifiable and repeatable digital Identity to help stop fraudsters in their tracks – without compromising the experience for genuine users. Helping to boost trust and assurance of privacy and data security.  

With modern Identity management by Okta, government authorities get a solution for all this. A single, cloud-based system that delivers consistent, seamless, secure access to digital public services for citizens and employees, at scale. And it can be deployed in under a day, meaning fast ROI and time-to-value, ticking crucial boxes for the most frugal government body. Especially when you combine it with all the benefits – like giving IT and security teams more freedom to innovate, deliver excellent user experiences, and win public trust.

So, what does a modern Identity solution deliver? 

• A cloud-based approach, adaptable and ready for innovation, like social authentication.
• Intuitive login, making services more accessible even to less digital-savvy users. 
• Centralised access management, with all access points and admin under one roof, IT resource is freed up.
• Comprehensive access policies, like being able to recognise and control segmented access rights for different scenarios, using automation to drive policy updates and deliver stronger Identity hygiene. 
• Additional security based on context, so IT can boost resilience by spotting unusual patterns of behaviour. 
• Adaptive multi-factor authentication (MFA) to protect Identity and data wherever users go and wherever data lives.

Like Batman for Gotham City, we want to help keep citizens safe and happy. But don’t take our word for it – put us to the test and see what great Identity management could do for your citizens and workforce with a free trial. 

Get your free 30-day trial of either Customer Identity Cloud or Workforce Identity Cloud right here.

¹ Research commissioned by the Local Government Information Unit

² Report by the National Audit Office