Most EUA solutions can provide a relatively fast ROI simply through those self-service features. Because the solution provides centralized management and can synchronize with all the disparate systems across your enterprise, it's simple to let end users change and synchronize their passwords across applications, databases, directories and servers.
Password-related issues represent a call volume range of 10 percent to 30 percent for IT helpdesk support, according to Gartner. The reduction of these calls can bring big savings in personnel productivity and IT support costs. "In a nonautomated support model, password reset costs range from $51 (best case) to $147 (worst case) for the labor alone," the Gartner report says.
Personnel at one Fortune 1,000 research firm supported the Gartner report, indicating that in January, 43 percent of 3,000 calls were password-related, with more than half of that 43 percent needing password resets. In April, 29 percent of 2,000 calls were password-related. The noticeable reduction was due to a change in password policy that relaxed the password-expiration time period. Using Gartner's estimated best-case labor cost, the total spent in April for this company dealing with password-related issues was $27,948. Assuming the percentage of calls stays the same for an entire year, that's $335,376 annually. Best case. Just passwords.
Compare that cost with the price of an EUA solution that provides password self-service. The ROI on the password self-service alone makes the solution worthwhile for companies like the research firm we interviewed, without giving any consideration to the benefits of the core functionality of such a solution.
One of an EUA's core features, which can be used to determine ROI, is account management from the systems administration point of view. For every account that must be created or deleted, there is a definite labor cost. Figure out the time and cost to create just one account on one system, then multiply that by the number of systems and accounts necessary for the typical employee. Now double it, because at some point you'll need to delete that account across your enterprise. What's the total cost? Remember, that is for one employee and doesn't take into consideration a change in responsibilities during that person's tenure.
