Convenience: "anything that saves or simplifies work or adds to one's ease or comfort."

In a meeting at Sun's Executive Briefing Center last Friday, one of our telco customers volunteered the mantra driving their implementation of Identity Management to enable delivery of online services. "It's all about convenience for our customers," remarked one executive.

Convenience implies making life easier, simpler or more comfortable. Identity Management principles and technology can indeed simplify the process a subscriber uses to interact with an online service provider. While the visible process is simplified, people can also be more comfortable they are interacting in a safe way, with privacy and security concerns appropriately addressed.

An interesting thing about Identity Management is that if it really works, it is almost completely hidden. The building blocks that operate behind the scenes just go about their work without users even being aware of the complex protocols and processes required. But it is that very real, but unseen "magic" that really delivers value to a company whose mission is "Convenience for our Customers."

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