Compact IAM Tool Selection

Selecting an IAM tool can commit an organization for many years. Decision-makers often fall into a state of “analysis paralysis”. In practice, however, IAM projects do not necessarily fail because of the technology itself, but because requirements have not been defined clearly. There is also often a significant gap between polished vendor presentations and extensive requirement lists that lack robust selection criteria. Poor decisions during the tool selection phase can quickly become costly, leading to substantial follow-on expenses for licensing, implementation, and integration into the existing IT landscape.

The “Compact IAM Tool Selection” package takes organizations from the formal collection of requirements to a well-founded and thoroughly documented decision within six to eight weeks. The process is vendor-neutral, methodologically sound, and draws on extensive experience from numerous selection projects in Identity Governance and Administration (IGA), Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM), Privileged Access Management (PAM), and, increasingly, AI Agent Identity and Access Management.

Scope of Services:

Phase 1 – Requirements (Weeks 1–2)

The first phase focuses on collecting and consolidating the relevant functional and non-functional requirements, including the key use cases. Up to three requirements workshops are conducted with business departments, IT, and information security. The collected information is then used to create a weighted criteria catalogue that serves as the basis for evaluating the tools.

Phase 2 – Market Screening (Weeks 2–3)

A vendor-neutral longlist of suitable providers from the relevant market segment is created. This list is then narrowed down to a shortlist of three to five vendors based on defined knockout criteria and the criteria catalogue. The reasons for including or excluding each vendor are documented in a clear and transparent manner.

Phase 3 – Vendor Request (Weeks 3–4)

Depending on the selected package, either a compact Request for Information (RfI; “Basic” package) or a complete Request for Proposal (RfP; “Complete” package), including a pricing template and reference request, is prepared and sent to the shortlisted vendors. Vendor queries are also coordinated centrally. All vendors are given an agreed deadline for their responses. Delayed or missing responses may extend the project timeline accordingly.

Phase 4 – Evaluation (Weeks 4–5)

The submitted proposals are evaluated systematically against the previously defined criteria catalogue.

The “Complete” package also includes the preparation and moderation of up to five vendor presentations. Each presentation lasts no more than half a day and follows a standardized script to ensure that the solutions remain comparable. In addition, a Proof of Concept (PoC) test script is created, including clearly defined test cases and acceptance criteria.

Phase 5 – Decision (Week 6)

The project concludes with a consolidated decision paper. It contains a substantiated recommendation, an assessment of the key risks, and an indicative five-year cost comparison.

The “Complete” package also includes support during commercial negotiations, for example regarding the licensing model, scope of services, and project milestones. Legal review of the contracts remains the responsibility of the client.

Project Deliverables

At the end of the project, you will receive:

• A weighted requirements catalogue with documented use cases.
• A longlist and shortlist with transparent reasons for the selection decisions.
• RfI or RfP documentation, including an evaluation matrix. The “Complete” package additionally includes the presentation script and PoC test script.
• A decision paper containing a recommendation, risk assessment, and indicative five-year cost analysis based on vendor information and customary market benchmarks. No guarantee is provided regarding the costs actually incurred. The document is suitable as a basis for management and committee decisions.

Would you like to select your next IAM tool with the support of experienced specialists? We would be pleased to assist you.