Hypatia Research Publishes Customer Identity Authentication: Avoiding Identity Theft, Fraud & Risk

BOSTON - March 25, 2015 - PRLog -- Industry analyst and market research firm Hypatia Research Group (http://www.hypatiaresearch.com) announces publication of a new primary research study entitled “Customer Identity Authentication: A Practitioner’s Guide to Best Practices in Avoiding Identity Theft, Fraud & Risk” (CIA) (http://hypatiaresearch.com/product/customer-identity-authentication-best-practices-in-avoiding-identity-theft-fraud-risk/). This forty page study with ten figures provides end-user organizations with best practice benchmarking, vendor evaluations and an analysis of how, why, and when companies invest in Customer Identity Authentication software, what tangible benefits are possible, and which metrics can be used to measure an organizational return on investment (ROI).  In short, our research provides actionable insight that companies may use in compiling a vendor short list, request for qualifications and best practice terms of engagement with software vendors and providers of services

Two distinct – and possibly conflicting – motivations overshadow the discussion on customer identification authentication (CIA). On the one hand, organizations want to improve customer service, which means dealing with contact center queries quickly and efficiently. On the other, organizations want to improve risk management. That means limiting to as small a percentage as possible fraudulent attempts at credit card purchases, identify theft, prescription drug misuse, or other crimes. These two motivations overlap sometimes as well: organizations strive to assure customers that their call-center processes keep personal information safe and secure.

According to co-author and senior analyst Howard Baldwin, “Anytime an organization can remove a human being from a business process, it makes it faster and less expensive. Furthermore, there’s always a record of the transaction, and a verifiable voiceprint of who made the request. It’s like an automatic auditing system. With traditional contact center applications, there will be a record of a transaction, but it could be from someone with purloined information.”

Leslie Ament, (https://www.linkedin.com/profile/public-profile-settings?trk=prof-edit-edit-public_profile) SVP of research and principal analyst shared, ”We found that several vendors are taking a multi-modal or multifactor authentication approach to CIA beyond voice biometrics^{[1] (http://#_ftn1)}, in which case we recommend there should be assiduous back-end integration. In short, companies should think about cross-organizational design and encompass numerous issues, from integration of authentication methods to application integration."

Moreover, Ament continued, "We also strongly recommend that authentication methods should be deployed consistently across channels and modes – customers don’t care that you’ve selected different tools for online e-commerce and contact center usage. Customers engage with brands as one entity, and that’s the face that should be presented to them.”

Research Approach
Hypatia Research surveyed more than 626 global practitioners and executives directly involved with governance, risk, compliance, security and identity authentication processes and decision-making on the following facets of their deployments.  Our analysis of those that actually utilize, recommend, influence, hold budget or veto power over the purchase of customer identity authentication software provides contrarian insight into how and why large organizations:

--  Invest in CIA software solutions—and how much is budgeted through 2016

--  Measure productivity and effectiveness of CIA initiatives and how often?

--  Prioritize software selection criteria?

-- Prioritize specific CIA initiatives?

--  What percent of company revenues are committed to CIA, and when ROI is expected?

--  Evaluate certain vendors?

Evaluation Methodology
Our due diligence included a 1) vendor briefing, 2) product demonstration and 3) customer reference interviews.  In certain cases, customer references were obtained without vendor involvement through our professional network.

Survey Respondent Profiles
Respondents operate primarily in Europe (41.5%) with healthy representation from Asia Pacific (32.4%), and North America (26.1%) regions.  Among the 664 respondents, the organizations were divided among SMBs (8%) with revenues under $100 million, mid-market (34.6%) and large enterprises (57.5%) with $2 billion or more in revenues.  More demographic information at: Customer Identity Authentication: A Practitioner’s Guide to Best Practices in Avoiding Identity Theft, Fraud & Risk (http://hypatiaresearch.com/product/customer-identity-auth...).

About
Industry analyst and market research firm Hypatia Research Group (http://store.hypatiaresearch.com/customerdatamanagementhowleadersrealizetangibleroi.aspx) delivers high impact market intelligence, industry benchmarking, best practice, maturity model and vendor selection research for how businesses use software technology, professional services and management consulting providers to capture, manage, analyze and apply customer and market intelligence to enhance corporate performance and to accelerate growth. Coverage includes: Customer Management (CRM), Business Intelligence, Advanced Analytics, Customer Analytics, Social Media, Text Analytics, Digital Marketing, Information Management, Customer Data Management/Data Quality and GRC. Since 2001, clients have relied on Hypatia for industry insight, expertise and independent market research for guidance in assessing various technology and service options.

For advisory, licensing (http://hypatiaresearch.com/product/customer-identity-authentication-best-practices-in-avoiding-identity-theft-fraud-risk/) or further analysis on this topic by company size, industry, job function or geography, please contact Research@HypatiaResearch.com or call 781-862-5106.

Contact:
Zvi Ruder, SVP Operations & Intellectual Property Licensing
Hypatia Research Group
ZGR@HypatiaResearch.com
781-862-5106

[1] (http://#_ftnref1) Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is a method of computer access control which a user can pass by successfully presenting authentication factors from at least two of the three categories:

1  Knowledge factors ("things only the user knows"), such as passwords
2  Possession factors ("things only the user has"), such as ATM cards
3  Inherence factors ("things only the user is"), such as biometrics