Identity as a Service

Some vendors in the market of IAGRC-M consider their service to be “Identity as a Service”. We believe that without the knowledge and process around it, a product offered as a SaaS (Software as a Service) solution does not qualify for that. No SaaS solution can make a IAGRC-M project solution successful by itself. Salesforce, which has been a front runner for SaaS, do not market their solution as “Sales as a Service”, because they understand you need more than just their solution to be successful in the market. Therefore, we bundle the product with two key services that we deem needed for a successful deployment and life cycle. The more knowledge the organization and/or partner have, the less of it we offer, but we always want to include it in the business proposal.

The Product, TFS Gateway

It starts with the product TFS Gateway. It has 30 years of experience to bridge gaps between products, that often are not able to communicate directly, or not communicate in a way that is fitting the organization’s need. The license to use the product is included in the total package of services we offer either directly from TFS Gateway AB or through one of our partners. In some organizations, TFS Gateway will have a central role, and in others it will act more as a slave to another central component building bridges between users and applications that should be managed. If the organization has already deployed some functionality that TFS Gateway could also provide, it is up to the organization to compare and decide which alternative to choose.

Operation support

The product, TFS Gateway, is installed within the customer’s infrastructure, either on-premise or in its IaaS. Resources from us will access the product and make sure that the product is up and running and performing the tasks it is configured to do. No need for the customer to have their own resources to manage the product. All operations, including upgrades, is included when you buy TFS Gateway Services.

Strategy

As an option we can provide strategic guidance and execution of your IAM strategy. With our vast experience in this field and with different companies, we can provide the best practices in this field.

TFS Gateway AB also has extensive experience with pricing models and functionality with other vendors in the area of IAGRC-M. We can advise an organization on how to streamline the investment. Different phases of an IAGRC journey often require different mixes of vendors. Our experience and guidance not only assist in the first stages of an organization’s maturity process, where discovery and role modelling can benifit from products from TFS Gateway and Okta, but alsa assist more mature organizational phases, when products such as Microsoft Identity Governance or SailPoint do more of the work. This is why the concept of subscription per year makes sense, and it is important to have a vision of the future.

Pricing

Our experience tells us that an organization needs to allocate a budget for managing Identity, Access, Governance, Risk and Compliance. It does not mean it is an extra cost on the existing IT budget. The order and structure created by TFS Gateway Services removes frustration and loss of work time due to a troubled IT system. The fact that it also brings the organization in compliance and improves its security posture is an added value, but does not have to be included in a ROI evaluation.

Budget allocation to TFS Gateway Services differs for each organization. Factors that decide the amount are:

• complexity of the organization’s IT
• maturity level
• ambition
• internal resources that can be allocated
• the speed for rollout
• …

Most IT costs today are offered by cost per user per month, but almost always billed as a subscription for the year, at the start of the period. Depending on the factors mentioned above, the price for TFS Gateway Services is between 20 EUR to 100 EUR per user per year, either directly from TFS Gateway AB or preferably through a local partner, with operational support and strategies being included in the higher price levels. This is similar in cost of an IAM solution such as Okta or Microsoft Azure Premium. Especially beneficial for smaller organizations is the ability to buy smaller packages from traditional IAM vendors. The “per user” calculation is just to give a ballpark figure. TFS Gateway Services is not tied to a hard limit for users. Once we have established a price level, we encourage the organization to use the product and services for as many users as possible, to reach the common goal: the highest value possible of the service.