Password Management

In today’s digital marketplace, user access is everything. The average user accesses between five and fifteen IT systems on a daily basis, and many of those systems have their own password-based authentication system. Users are unlikely to remember fifteen passwords, leading to ‘manual’ efforts to synchronize passwords, write down passwords, or choose simple, easy to remember passwords. When users forget a password, calls to the help desk can take up to 20 minutes to resolve the issue, resulting in user frustration, increased cost, and lost productivity. Existing password reset mechanisms such as knowledge-based authentication (KBA) or challenge/response questions are subject to increased risk when multiple applications in the organization implement KBA reset differently.

Password Management solutions provide end users the ability to register a profile by answering a number of predefined questions about themselves that are used by self-service password reset workflows, thereby reducing help desk calls up to 30%. This allows users to bypass calling the help desk, empowering them to reset passwords themselves via a web-based application.

The typical cost of a help desk password reset across all applications is estimated at $50-$75 per support call. Automating password management can help reduce this cost and the repetitive burden on help desk personnel while meeting security and compliance demands.