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Telecom IAM challenges and how ServiceNow IAM solution can help

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Background

Identity and Access Management (IAM) in the telecommunications industry is notoriously complex. Telecom companies operate with massive scale, diverse user groups, and a tangle of legacy systems, all while facing strict security and compliance demands. In this article, we’ll analyze the key IAM challenges telecom organizations encounter and explore how a modern, ServiceNow-based IAM solution can address these issues. The insights and best practices shared here aim to help telecom providers modernize their IAM – improving security, efficiency, and ultimately better serving their customers.

IAM challenges in the Telecom Industry

Telecom operators face a complex mix of IAM challenges that affect both security and business agility.

 

  • Siloed Identity Systems: Many telecoms have grown through mergers and decentralized IT initiatives, resulting in fragmented IAM environments. Separate tools and inconsistent policies make it difficult to manage access centrally, especially during mergers or system integrations.
  • Inefficient Lifecycle Management: Manual onboarding, role changes, and offboarding often lead to delays and errors. Unremoved accounts for departed employees create serious security and compliance risks while wasting software licenses.
  • Privilege Creep and Access Sprawl: Employees frequently accumulate unnecessary access over time. Without regular reviews or role maintenance, excessive entitlements undermine least privilege principles and increase insider risk.
  • Legacy Systems and Poor Integration: Telecom environments rely heavily on legacy OSS/BSS platforms that do not easily integrate with modern IAM frameworks. This lack of interoperability prevents unified authentication, forces manual workarounds, and leads to outdated or duplicated identity data.
  • Weak User Experience: Employees across call centers, field operations, and corporate functions often manage multiple logins and long access wait times. Poor usability slows work and encourages insecure behavior, such as password sharing or writing credentials down.
  • Security and Compliance Pressure: Telecoms are frequent targets of cyberattacks and must comply with strict regulations such as GDPR and NIS2. Weak IAM practices, inactive accounts, and shared credentials can lead to data breaches, fines, and reputational harm.
  • Scale and Change Management: Large telecoms must manage tens of thousands of users and frequent organizational changes. Without scalable automation, identity provisioning during events like mergers or reorganizations becomes a major operational bottleneck. 
 

Fragmented systems, manual processes, and regulatory complexity make IAM one of the telecom sector’s biggest operational challenges. Modern solutions built on the ServiceNow platform provide a way forward — unifying identity management, automating workflows, and enabling secure, compliant, and scalable operations.

How ServiceNow IAM Addresses Telecom challenges

ServiceNow is widely known as an IT Service Management platform, but it has also become a powerful foundation for Identity and Access Management workflows. By leveraging ServiceNow’s capabilities, telecom companies can transform their IAM programs. Here are key ways a ServiceNow-based IAM solution helps solve the challenges outlined above:

 

  • Unified Platform and Process Integration: A ServiceNow IAM solution unifies all identity and access functions into one centralized platform. Instead of fragmented tools, telecoms can manage identities, requests, approvals, and audits in a single system of record. This reduces complexity, strengthens security, and provides full visibility into accesses. With ServiceNow’s Common Service Data Model, identities and applications are mapped enterprise-wide, ensuring consistent policy enforcement across all departments and business units.
  • End-to-End Lifecycle Automation: ServiceNow IAM automates the entire user lifecycle. From onboarding to offboarding, workflows handle account creation, role changes, and deprovisioning without manual effort. Appmore’s IAM solution automatically provisions and removes access across connected systems, eliminating orphan accounts and security gaps. This automation improves accuracy, reduces IT workload, and scales effortlessly to handle thousands of identity events.
  • Role-Based Access and Entitlement Management: Telecoms can standardize access through role-based access control (RBAC). With Appmore’s IAM, access rights are defined by business roles, ensuring employees get the correct permissions from day one. The system provides clear visibility into entitlements, enabling regular access reviews and certification campaigns. This proactive management prevents privilege creep and supports least privilege principles, minimizing insider risks.
  • Streamlined Access Requests and Approvals: Employees and contractors can request access through a single self-service portal, mobile app, or chat interface. Automated workflows route approvals to managers and system owners, ensuring every access change is tracked and authorized. This speeds up service delivery, strengthens governance, and simplifies audit readiness by maintaining a full access history.
  • Enhanced User Experience and Productivity: With built-in single sign-on and password integration, employees log in once to access all necessary applications. Call center agents, field technicians, and corporate users benefit from faster access provisioning and fewer login hurdles. Simplified access improves productivity, reduces frustration, and encourages compliance with security policies.
  • Built-in Compliance and Security Controls: Every access change is automatically logged, giving IT and compliance teams complete visibility. ServiceNow IAM provides real-time dashboards and reports for audits and regulatory requirements such as GDPR and NIS2. The system enforces segregation of duties, prevents toxic access combinations, and ensures ex-employees lose access immediately. Appmore’s reporting and policy enforcement capabilities make meeting compliance standards a seamless part of daily operations.
  • Scalability and Flexibility for the Future: Built on the cloud-based ServiceNow platform, Appmore’s IAM scales to telecom-sized demands and integrates with both legacy and modern systems. Its flexibility allows rapid configuration of new workflows or connectors as business needs evolve. During the T-Mobile and Sprint merger, centralized IAM automation enabled a seamless day-one experience for thousands of employees — a powerful example of the scalability and business agility enabled by ServiceNow IAM.

Turning IAM into a strategic advantage

For telecom operators, strong Identity and Access Management is no longer optional but essential for security, compliance, and agility. Fragmented systems, manual processes, and rising cyber threats slow innovation and erode trust. A modern IAM solution built on ServiceNow solves these challenges by unifying identity processes, automating access control, and providing a seamless user experience across the organization. By adopting Appmore’s ServiceNow IAM, telecom companies can significantly reduce security risks through automated provisioning and deprovisioning, cut costs by eliminating unused licenses, and improve productivity with fast, secure access from day one. These gains translate directly into better service quality, faster innovation, and stronger competitiveness. Comprehensive reporting and built-in policy controls make compliance and audits effortless, giving operators the confidence to meet regulations and protect sensitive data. Telecom companies that modernize IAM transform identity management from an operational burden into a strategic enabler. With Appmore’s ServiceNow IAM, they can securely scale, innovate faster, and ensure that the right people always have the right access — driving efficiency, trust, and long-term success.

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