Best User Provisioning and Governance Tools
User provisioning and governance tools gives a single point of maintenance to manage user access to IT applications. Companies need identity governance and administration (IGA) programs to maintain organized records of user information such as personal information, account histories, or application credentials. These confidential records can be used by employees and administrators to retain information and regulations. IT managers and administrators use the information in these systems to automate tasks such as account creation, editing, or deleting, which can help facilitate employee lifecycle changes like onboarding, promotions, or termination. Human resource workers may utilize the databases as well to aggregate information about employees and monitor access requests. There is significant overlap between user provisioning software and cloud identity and access management. Many products function on a hybrid on-premise and cloud level, but user provisioning and governance software solutions may not be able to provide remote access. These products will also often integrate with or provide SSO/federation or password management capabilities.
To qualify as user provisioning and governance solution, a product must:
Featured User Provisioning and Governance Tools At A Glance
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Okta, Inc. is The World’s Identity Company™. We secure AI, machine, and human identity so everyone is free to safely use any technology. Our customer and workforce solutions empower businesses and dev
42,664 Twitter followers
JumpCloud® delivers a unified identity, device, and access management platform that makes it easy to securely manage identities, devices, and access across your organization. With JumpCloud, IT teams
JumpCloud is a tool that manages user access and authentication, unifying identity, access, and device management into a single, cloud-native platform. Users frequently mention that JumpCloud simplifies IT operations by providing a single source of truth for users and devices, enabling strong security through SSO, MFA, and automated onboarding/offboarding. Reviewers noted that the initial setup and policy configuration can be complex, especially for organizations migrating from traditional Active Directory or managing advanced security use cases.
36,543 Twitter followers
Entra ID is a complete identity and access management solution with integrated security that connects people to their apps, devices, and data and helps protect from identity compromise. With Entra ID,
13,088,482 Twitter followers
The Most Used Enterprise Password Manager, trusted by over 180,00 businesses, 1Password helps improve security, visibility and control over how their passwords and company data are protected. Secu
139,776 Twitter followers
CyberArk Identity Overview CyberArk Identity is a SaaS-delivered suite of solutions designed to simplify identity and access management in enterprises. CyberArk Identity unifies Workforce Access and
17,726 Twitter followers
BetterCloud is a comprehensive SaaS management platform designed to assist IT teams in effectively managing and optimizing their software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications. This solution focuses on aut
BetterCloud is an automation tool for IT services, providing centralized visibility for SaaS processes and security features for data loss protection and policy enforcement. Users frequently mention the powerful tools BetterCloud provides to automate and build workflows, manage Gmail signatures for Google Workspace, and alert users when something is shared externally, which is useful for protecting private information. Users mentioned that BetterCloud has issues with integrations, particularly with platforms that don't have an integration with BetterCloud and some existing integrations lack full functionality.
11,112 Twitter followers
SailPoint is the leader in identity security for the modern enterprise. Harnessing the power of AI and machine learning, SailPoint automates the management and control of access, delivering only the r
15,046 Twitter followers
Transform your organization’s IT operations with Rippling’s unified platform for identity, device, access, and security management. Centralize every IT workflow, from provisioning apps and laptops to
11,947 Twitter followers
AvePoint is the global leader in data security, governance, and resilience, going beyond traditional solutions to ensure a robust data foundation and enable organizations everywhere to collaborate wit
AvePoint Confidence Platform is a data protection and management tool that offers backup, restore, governance, and compliance capabilities for cloud environments. Users frequently mention the platform's ease of use, reliable backup and restore process, comprehensive data governance, and the ability to manage everything through a single pane of glass as key benefits. Users reported issues such as the platform timing out too soon, difficulty in reinstating large files, complexity in initial setup and configuration, and occasional performance issues like slow restores or lag.
9,777 Twitter followers
SAP Access Control is a comprehensive solution designed to help organizations manage and enforce user access policies across SAP and third-party systems. By automating user provisioning, conducting re
297,265 Twitter followers
A centralized solution for managing customer and workforce identity and access including capabilities such as single-sign-on, multifactor authentication, adaptive AI-based access, passwordless access,
IBM Verify CIAM is a customer identity and access management solution that manages customer accounts, handles identity verification, and ensures secure logins across various platforms. Reviewers like the strong security features of IBM Verify CIAM, including single sign-on and multi-factor authentication, which reduce login problems and protect user data. Users experienced complexity during the initial setup and configuration, and suggested improvements such as a more visual dashboard and step-by-step tutorial features.
708,744 Twitter followers
Saviynt helps organizations transform their organization with identity security. Our AI-first platform enables enterprises to secure every identity — human, non-human, and AI — within any application
1,229 Twitter followers
Fastpath is a cloud-based access orchestration platform. It allows organizations to manage and automate the processes around access governance and security, quickly and efficiently. Customizable, qu
879 Twitter followers
Swif.ai is a next-generation Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution designed to assist organizations in managing and securing their mobile devices while ensuring compliance with various regulatory st
Oracle Identity Management is a comprehensive suite of identity and access management (IAM) solutions designed to help organizations manage the entire lifecycle of user identities and access privilege
825,317 Twitter followers
Learn More About User Provisioning and Governance Tools
What are user provisioning and governance tools and software?
User provisioning and governance tools help companies automate the process of creating, permissioning, managing, and deactivating user accounts on corporate systems and applications across the enterprise. Typical use cases include user lifecycle stages such as setting up accounts for newly hired employees during onboarding and providing them access to the tools they need, changing user groups and permissions when employees are promoted or move within departments, and removing user accounts after an employee leaves the company. User provisioning and governance tools software automate user account creation by connecting information in user identity stores such as HR systems and/or user directories like Active Directory or G Suite to enterprise applications to systems that employees use such as email systems, databases, CRM systems, communication systems, employee productivity software, file storage systems, ERP applications, subscriptions, custom company applications, and more.
There is considerable overlap between user provisioning and governance tools and identity and access management (IAM) software functionality, as both offer user provisioning and govern user access. User provisioning and governance solutions focus more specifically on user lifecycle and group management. At the same time, IAM software includes additional benefits, such as centralized identity functions for both on-premises and cloud accounts and providing user authentication before granting user access to corporate systems.
Key benefits of user provisioning and governance software solutions
- Automate user account lifecycle from provisioning during onboarding through de-provisioning after leaving the company
- Grant access to applications and systems based on user type through role or group management functions
- Reduce the time helpdesk team members need to spend manually creating users
- Improve end-user experience by offering self-service tools and integrations with single sign-on solutions and password management tools
Why use user provisioning and governance systems?
Using automated tools to manage user lifecycles, companies can eliminate manual user provisioning and de-provisioning tasks, which can ultimately reduce the burden on IT help desk teams and free up staff time for more high-level work. Deploying user provisioning and governance solutions reduces human error when creating accounts while reducing the threat of “permission creep" when accounts are not properly changed after promotions, demotions, or terminations. Using this software enables companies to manage large numbers of users at once by applying role or group policies across users in a standard fashion.
Setting up new hires — Companies use user provisioning and governance tools to ensure new hires receive access to the accounts they need as quickly as possible during onboarding. If IT staff manually created user accounts, the process could take days, weeks, or even months and be prone to human error.
Removing access for terminated employees—It is important to remove access for terminated employees as quickly as possible to prevent security risks, either from the terminated employees themselves or from hackers accessing abandoned user accounts. Using user provisioning and governance tools, companies can automatically de-provision user accounts when an employee is removed from an HR system or other identity store.
Enforcing role or group-based policies — When managing hundreds (if not thousands) of user accounts, taking actions, such as providing access to new applications based on the users’ role or group types, can save a lot of time and get these users up and running quickly. For example, suppose all sales representatives should have access to a particular sales-related application. In that case, those user accounts can automatically be provisioned with access if they belong to the sales group. On the other hand, employees in the legal department may not need access to that sales application, so they would not be provisioned with an account for that specific sales software.
Security — Insider threats can occur when user accounts are given too much access for their job type, and employees use the information they shouldn’t have access to. For example, an intern-employee likely shouldn’t be given the same access to the company’s accounts, like an accounting system, as the chief operating officer has. Using role- and group-based policies, IT administrators can easily remove permissions no longer needed by a type or group of employees and prevent permission creep.
Reducing costs—Labor is typically one of the highest expenses companies have. Using user provisioning and governance tools frees up time for IT help desk team members to do other higher-value work. Many user provisioning and governance tools solutions allow end-user self-service to make changes like name changes directly.
Who uses user provisioning and governance software tools?
Most companies would benefit from using identity governance software solutions to manage employee user account provisioning, management, and de-provisioning. In particular, companies with many employees and user accounts to manage, such as enterprise-level companies, would benefit from using identity governance platforms, as manual account creation is difficult, laborious, and prone to error.
IT administrators and help desk teams typically manage user provisioning and governance tools within a company’s corporate structure. With automated lifecycle management, however, multiple stakeholders across the enterprise can work in tandem to ensure users are set up correctly and have the proper access. For example, HR representatives can change new hires or people who have left the company in the HR system. This information can be pulled by the user provisioning and governance tools system to automatically take actions on a user’s associated accounts. End users can use self-service tools to make changes to their user profile, like name or title changes.
Features of user provisioning and governance tools
At their core, user provisioning/governance software must, at minimum, provide tools to automatically provision and de-provision user accounts based on user identities and grant permissions based on governance rules for users to access specific enterprise applications. Many user provisioning/governance software offers additional features to further automate user account lifecycles and provide a better end-user experience. These features may include:
Automatic user provisioning and de-provisioning — User provisioning/governance software pulls data from identity stores like HR systems to provision new accounts. Specific access to accounts can be automated based on roles or group membership. When an employee leaves or is terminated or when a contractor’s contract date expires, the software can automatically terminate accounts to prevent abandoned accounts from living on in systems.
Lifecycle management — The software takes user account actions throughout employee lifecycle changes from onboarding and promotions to termination.
Integrations — A main tenet of user provisioning/governance software is integrating with other software applications such as HR systems, user directories, ERP applications, email systems, databases, CRM systems, communication systems, employee productivity software, and file storage systems.
Identity synchronization — User provisioning/governance software can synchronize identity information changes across multiple applications. For example, if a user changes their personal information, such as a phone number or title, in one system, those changes are pushed to their other applications in corporate systems.
Access governance, role/group management, and policy enforcement — Governing who has access to what applications or systems is determined by a user’s role and group membership. Using role-based or group membership factors to determine what access a user should be granted ensures that access to a company application is granted uniformly and adheres to company policies.
Delegated access authorization—When business managers need to give their subordinates access to company accounts or change their permissions, they can approve access using delegation workflows.
Access verification workflow — User provisioning/governance software can regularly query managers to confirm their subordinates' access and whether changes need to be made.
Reports and audits—User provisioning/governance software can conduct audits and provide reports on account usage, including account creation and deactivation. This may be a necessary feature for companies in highly regulated industries that need to periodically audit users.
User self-service and improved user experience — Providing users with self-service functionality, such as allowing employees to change their names and titles directly in the system or being able to request access to specific applications for manager approval, can further remove manual processes off IT helpdesk staff and improve employee productivity.
Password management and single sign-on—Many user provisioning and governance tools offer additional end-user benefits, such as password management and single sign-on functionality.
Other Features of User Provisioning and Governance Tools: Bi-directional identity synchronization, Identifies and alerts for threats, Mobile app
Emerging trends in user provisioning and governance
Historically speaking, Microsoft’s product, Active Directory (AD), has been one of the most widely used directory services since its introduction in 1999. Because of AD’s large market share, it is worth mentioning that many other user provisioning and governance tools vendors generally offer both identity and user governance tools that integrate with AD or, conversely, offer entirely separate solutions that utilize their own directory service.
Active Directory manages IT resources, stores information about users, groups, applications, and networks, and provides access to computers, applications, and servers. AD was initially designed for on-premises use cases. Still, given the shift to cloud computing and storage in the digital transformation, Microsoft introduced Azure AD, which extends an on-premises instance of AD to the cloud and synchronizes identities with cloud-based applications. Other user provisioning and governance tools offer cloud solutions tying into on-site AD instances. Many providers provide cloud-native solutions and robust identity and access management (IAM) tools.
