* Selling an identity system to your non-IT execs
Sex, politics and religion – three things you should never talk about at dinner and three things that should never be allowed to influence your choices within an identity project.
Today let’s talk about sex.
There’s rarely anything sexy about an identity project. Since it’s usually the offspring of the IT department and the security officer, it might be considered an asexual reproduction. But sex does seem to pervade some discussions about identity projects.
It’s just that some products, technologies, protocols, even some vendors are seen as sexy, trendy, “with it,” “in vogue,” “a la mode” even, as the French say, “la derniere cri.” Others, of course, are perceived as stodgy, traditional, conservative or “so last century.”
Microsoft’s CardSpace, for example, is currently perceived as new, forward-looking and user-friendly, in short, sexy. By contrast (and not to single anyone out, but just to pick an example) PassLogix’ V-GO simplified sign-on product might be perceived as stodgy.
Trying to sell an identity system to your non-IT, non-security executives would be so much easier if you could create it around CardSpace, the sexy darling of the business press, the general press and even the technical press. Selling V-GO is much tougher because you need to do a thorough job of actually detailing the technology and the benefits. For a technical crowd, that isn’t too hard as V-GO has a very good track record and is partnered with excellent security and identity vendors. But even a technical crowd can be swayed by a sexy presentation from a new (often unproven) product or technology that promises (as does most TV marketing) to make you thinner, younger, more intelligent or – here’s that word again – “sexier.”
There are two ways to try to avoid letting sexiness control the decision making process. You can either make the product you prefer seem sexy or you can make the product you don’t prefer seem dowdy. Again, I don’t mean to disparage any product and I’m only using CardSpace and V-GO as examples. But if you want to favor V-GO over CardSpace simply emphasize Microsoft’s security problems over the years. Talk about the failure of Passport and imply that CardSpace is a direct descendent of that poorly thought out program. It isn’t, of course and you shouldn’t say it is but implication can go a long way.
In other words, don’t let sex work against you in getting the decision on identity solutions for your organization. It’s best to avoid any references to the sexiness of products but if it comes up be ruthless in turning it to your advantage.
