Topic starter
22/06/2026 3:41 pm
TL;DR: Identity ROI is often underestimated because enterprises focus on help desk savings while hidden operational friction, manual access approvals, and integration maintenance consume expensive technical time and slow digital initiatives, according to EmpowerID. The real value emerges when identity architecture removes business constraints and lets onboarding, partnerships, and compliance move at market speed.
Editorial analysis by NHI Mgmt Group, based on content published by EmpowerID: “The Real ROI of Getting Identity Architecture Right”.
Key questions
Q: How should IAM teams measure identity ROI beyond help desk savings?
A: IAM teams should measure identity ROI by combining direct efficiency gains with business flow metrics.
Q: When does identity friction become a business problem rather than an IT problem?
A: It becomes a business problem when access delays start constraining launches, onboarding, compliance delivery, or partner integration.
Q: Why do identity programmes often miss their ROI targets?
A: They are often scoped around configuration and deployment instead of process redesign and measurable business outcomes.
Practitioner guidance
- Quantify hidden operational waste Measure the time consumed by approvals, access reviews, integration exceptions, and routine identity administration, then price that labour at the skill level actually performing it.
- Map identity friction to business cycle time Track how long customer onboarding, partner setup, and internal access requests stay blocked by identity dependencies, and translate that delay into missed delivery capacity.
- Reframe ROI around constrained velocity Build business cases that include the cost of delayed launches, slower integrations, and compliance effort, not only ticket reduction and licence consolidation.
Bottom line: Identity programmes create value when they remove hidden operational friction that slows delivery, not just when they cut support cost.
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22/06/2026 3:45 pm
Hidden operational friction is the real identity ROI lever. The article is right to separate visible productivity gains from invisible process drag, because many identity programmes overfit to help desk savings and undercount the enterprise cost of approvals, reviews, and integration upkeep. Those hidden costs consume senior technical time and slow delivery in ways that do not appear in conventional security reporting. The practitioner conclusion is that identity value should be framed as business throughput, not only support reduction.
A question worth separating out:
Q: Should identity leaders prioritise process removal or new control features first?
A: Prioritise the workflows that most directly slow business activity, especially high-volume approvals and repetitive administration. New controls matter, but if the organisation still relies on manual handoffs for standard access, the programme will continue to tax speed. Remove friction where it blocks delivery, then harden the controls around it.
👉 Read our full editorial: Identity ROI depends on removing hidden operational friction