Finding a healthy balance between work and play, diet and dining, and so many other things in life are a struggle for many people. In the IT world, balance is extremely hard to find when it comes to providing a good customer experience and digital security. In fact, according to a survey of IT professionals by Equifax, 88 percent point to a gap when trying to maintain this balance.
Admitting there is a problem is a good first step, apparently, as the survey indicates that IT professionals are investing more of their budgets to close the gap. Still, most say they are focusing the most of their attention and money—nearly 10 percent more money–on strengthening the collective customer experience. Security, it seems, has taken a back seat. This leaves customers at risk—a poor indicator of customer service. The two—security and customer service—should and most go hand in hand.
Ken Allen, senior vice president of global identity and fraud at Equifax concurs: “More than half of IT professionals use legacy technologies to support their authentication strategies, which is alarming. If IT doesn’t prioritize adopting more advanced solutions and processes, they leave their organizations and their customers vulnerable to fraud, which will negatively impact the customer experience. Customer experience and security can’t be an either-or thing for organizations anymore.”
So what’s stopping IT pros from adopting better fraud detection and prevention technology? The survey says cost, effort, and time involved to implement. Still, they do report exploring more advanced methods of ID verification/authentication methods for improved security—noting high interested in biometrics or federated digital identity. In fact, 29 percent of the survey respondents said they already use federated digital identity, which is the result of linking a consumer’s digital identity and their attributes.
“Identity verification through a universal digital identity can solve the customer experience and protection challenges so many organizations face,” says Allen. “No more password juggling and frictionless fraud assessment creates a win-win for organizations.”
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