Identity and access management for Forest Industry

IAM Challenges in the Forest Industry

The forest and paper industry is undergoing a digital transformation by adopting IoT, AI and cloud technologies to improve efficiency and sustainability. However, this shift also amplifies identity and access management (IAM) complexity. Forest companies typically operate dozens of manufacturing sites and sawmills worldwide, with a mix of permanent staff, seasonal workers and contractors accessing diverse systems (ERP, OT/SCADA, cloud apps, etc.). This environment creates the following key IAM challenges:

 

  • Fragmented, multi-environment identities. Multiple clouds and on-premise systems often use their own directories (Active Directory forests, ERP/HR databases, etc.), resulting in siloed directories, conflicting policies, and reduced visibility of accesses. Forest organizations may also have legacy domains or older IT infrastructure (e.g. PLC control systems) that lack modern IAM integration, creating security gaps.

  • Joiners, Movers and Leavers (JML) gaps. Managing user lifecycles across many entities (head office, plants, logging sites, contractors) is difficult and error-prone. Onboarding delays or offboarding oversights can leave new employees without needed access or, worse, former users with orphaned accounts. Inconsistent or manual processes for role changes lead to privilege creep and compliance failures. For example, manual offboarding delays are security gaps that create stale accounts and insider threats.

  • Excessive privileges and role sprawl. Over time, users accumulate unused entitlements. Traditional static roles can’t keep pace with dynamic operations, so employees often retain access they no longer need, and no single person has full visibility into those privileges. This privilege creep is a hidden risk: e.g. one developer with ERP admin rights and financial approvals might bypass separation-of-duty controls.

  • Secure external/vendor access. Forest companies rely on third-party vendors for equipment maintenance, network support and specialized services at remote plants. Without a central gatekeeper, trusted vendors often get broad VPN or admin credentials, increasing risk. 

  • Regulatory and audit pressure. The forest sector is heavily regulated (environmental, safety, financial) and must comply with standards like ISO certifications, GDPR and industry-specific audits. Manual IAM processes make it hard to generate accurate audit trails. Without automated policies and reporting, companies risk compliance fines (e.g. GDPR penalties up to 4% of turnover) or reputational damage if a breach is mishandled.

 

In summary, forest companies need a unified IAM platform that handles distributed identities, automates user lifecycles, enforces least-privilege access, and provides complete auditability across hybrid systems

How Appmore’s ServiceNow IAM solves these challenges

Appmore’s ServiceNow IAM application is a SaaS-based Identity and access management solution that addresses the above forest-industry needs with built-in automation, integration and compliance features. Key capabilities include:

 

  • Automated user lifecycle management. The IAM application integrates with HR and IT directories (cloud/on-prem AD, Azure AD, ERP/HR systems, etc.) to automate onboarding, role changes and offboarding. When a forest company hires, transfers or departs an employee or contractor, IAM triggers provisioning/deprovisioning workflows automatically. For example, it can schedule a contractor’s access to expire at the end of a project, ensuring all access is removed when personnel leave. This eliminates manual delays and prevents stale accounts. Reporting tools track who has had access at a certain point in time, aiding audits.

  • Rich connector ecosystem. To unify its identity fabric, IAM offers prebuilt connectors to common systems and applications. This includes Active Directory (cloud and on-prem), SAP (S/4HANA, SuccessFactors), Atlassian Jira, Salesforce, Basware, Ansible and more. By centralizing identities, forest companies avoid the siloed directories problem. For instance, IAM can synchronize user accounts across all 54 sites of a global group so an employee’s role is the same everywhere. Access requests in any connected system go through one portal, simplifying management and reducing helpdesk tickets.

  • Access request and approval workflows. The IAM application provides a self-service catalog where employees, managers and delegates can request access. Managers or compliance officers get automated approval tasks. This replaces legacy forms or email approvals, making the process user-friendly. Every approved change is logged, supporting transparent audits.

  • Role and policy-based access controls. The IAM application supports both role-based access control (RBAC) and attribute-/policy-based (ABAC/PBAC) models. Administrators can define roles for typical forest-industry functions (e.g. “Maintenance Engineer,” “Forestry Operations Manager,” “Supply Chain Analyst”) and assign entitlements. Dynamic rules can also grant temporary elevations (with expiration) based on context. This combats privilege creep by regularly reviewing role memberships and enforcing the principle of least privilege. For example, two critical permissions (say, editing procurement orders and approving payments) can be flagged as a SoD conflict, preventing one user from holding both. In short, IAM helps ensure only users who need to have access, have access.

  • Audit, compliance and reporting. The platform continuously records identity events and access changes. Standard reports and customizable dashboards make it easy to answer audit queries. It also includes continuous access certification campaigns, so managers regularly review and recertify current access – an approach that scales better than outdated yearly reviews. By embedding compliance into provisioning (for instance, disallowing overlapping critical roles), IAM helps forest companies stay audit-ready. This readiness is critical given that non-compliance fines can be severe.

  • Scalability and cloud delivery. ServiceNow’s platform-as-a-service model means the IAM application scales to any size. All data is hosted in secure data centers with high availability. Forest companies, which often have seasonal usage peaks, benefit from this elasticity. Importantly, there’s no hardware to install or maintain – updates and security patches are automatic. This “SaaS” model yields cost savings and ensures forest organizations always run the latest functionality without downtime.

  • Improved user experience. Traditional IAM can frustrate users. In contrast, our IAM applications modern portal offers single sign-on and password self-service. Easy interfaces for requesting access and viewing entitlements reduce calls to the service desk. For the forest workforce (including deskless or remote workers), this means faster access to needed systems with minimal IT intervention. As Appmore highlights, simplifying access for employees, contractors and even customers reduces security issues while lowering IT workload.

 

By automating and centralizing IAM, Appmore’s ServiceNow solution turns identity management into a business enabler. Forest industry organizations gain a digital gatekeeper – unifying identities across plants, protecting OT/IT systems, and granting just-in-time access to trusted users. In practice, this means faster onboarding of new hires or acquired companies, fewer helpdesk tickets, and minimized breach risk. It also means being audit-ready: detailed audit trails, continuous access reviews, and policy enforcement help pass internal and external compliance checks with ease.

 

Overall, IAM is becoming the new security perimeter in every enterprise. For the forest sector’s unique needs Appmore’s ServiceNow IAM provides a tailored solution. By addressing the industry’s challenges with flexible governance, automation and end-to-end visibility, it helps forestry and paper companies operate securely and efficiently in the digital age.

Appmore has delivered over 100 projects with average customer satisfaction of 4.57/5.