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MEF’s latest survey, supported by BokuPersonal Data, Digital Identity, Verification and Authentication in the Enterprise: Analysis and Opportunities – has the goals of increasing knowledge around current enterprise usage and plans for the future – segmented by sector, geography and enterprise size.

Report author, Andrew Parkin-White, adds “we are seeking to clarify enterprise attitudes towards the challenges that they are facing and to identify opportunities for suppliers. We also explore what enterprises are seeking from their suppliers and their views on them.”

Report co-author, Phi Todd comments – “we have spoken to senior individuals in 450 enterprises of varying sizes in nine key geographical markets. These enterprises represent key sectors interested in personal data, digital identity, verification and authentication, including financial services, fintech, payments, e-commerce and healthcare. “

We have spoken to senior individuals in 450 enterprises of varying sizes in nine key geographical markets. These enterprises represent key sectors interested in personal data, digital identity, verification and authentication, including financial services, fintech, payments, e-commerce and healthcare.

Looking first at the current enterprise scale and scope, we are seeing an increased trend towards organisations having a more global customer base with around 50% having customers in more than one country and there appears to be a trend towards greater globalisation. Globally over 50% of enterprises operate over multiple legal or regulatory environments and they appear to favour a single global policy. Covid has created an acceleration in the use of digital channels. Josh Gosliner of Boku points out – “what is becoming increasingly apparent is that all organisations are now tech companies and are building superior digital customer experiences is a necessary core competence.”

Turning our attention to the understanding of personal data and digital identity in the enterprise, we see that security and fraud prevention are the main global drivers with almost 60% giving this as a reason. The business pressures behind the main drivers of security and fraud prevention are primarily customer related, with the two user experience factors of customer expectations and customer complaints seen as most significant. “Improving operational efficiency and product development are the key use cases which is once more about focusing on the customer experience of the enterprise”, Josh adds.

Over two thirds of enterprises use just cellular for identity, verification or authentication. Single Factor Authentication and Know Your Customer (KYC) are the two most widely used methods at present, being used by 85% and 78% of enterprises respectively globally. Although these two are the most prevalent methods, most importance is given to – PIN and number codes, multi-factor authentication, cellular phone for authentication and then KYC. Authentication is used to specifically support new customer onboarding, registration and changing customer details – in fact it is in use across the overall customer journey with the enterprise.

If we look specifically at the use of telco APIs within the enterprise, an interesting picture emerges. There is a clear opportunity for growth here. At present, 96% of enterprises surveyed use digital identity proofing in their business. There is further extensive use of biometrics and SMS OTP. Newer services – such as identifying stolen or recycled devices, silent mobile authentication and SIM swap detection – are gaining ground and suppliers have the opportunity to engage enterprises in discussion around these APIs.

We see that the most important supplier criteria are track record followed by cost. Across all sectors and enterprises, the buyers for identification, verification and authentication solutions are the IT department and the fraud and security team. The market is open to a range of suppliers – trust levels for different types of suppliers are broadly comparable, although technology specialists score best. This suggests a relatively open market for suppliers, so the emphasis will need to be on specific supplier criteria that are relevant to the market segment.

The report contains a vast amount of data and analysis and points to key trends, plans and opportunities across the ecosystem. The full report and data tables are available to members with an executive summary available to non-members. You can also register now for a webinar with the report authors, on the 9th December.

Andrew Parkin-White

MEF Advisor

  

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MEF, supported by Boku, presents its latest enterprise survey report. In this survey, we have spoken to senior individuals in 450 enterprises of varying sizes in nine key geographical markets.

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