Syniverse and Omdia teamed up in the latter part of 2024 for an Omdia-commissioned study, to ascertain how well organizations achieve the critical, yet tricky balancing act between security, CX, and cost. You can find an infographic and the full white paper prepared from the research here.
In this blog, we share the key findings. Some are unsurprising and confirm commonly held assumptions. In other cases, the research reveals gaps in how companies handle Mobile Identity and Authentication (MI&A).
First, it is worth mentioning the scope of the research. A total of 314 respondents with decision-making responsibility for MI&A solutions from across North America and Western Europe contributed. Half of these respondents work for companies with annual revenues over $1B, with 22% working in a C-level role or holding a vice president position. They represented the financial services, healthcare, retail, e-commerce, and travel and hospitality sectors. The insight provided by the findings comes from those who are faced with the day-to-day challenge of securing mobile communications between their organizations and the customers they serve.
Here are some excerpts from what they told us.
All organizations experienced a security incident in last 12 months
This comes as no surprise. The fact that mobile fraud is not going away is instinctive to professionals in this space. And here we have a ringing endorsement of that instinct. The reported impacts of these security incidents further illustrate the need to mitigate them. Nearly two-thirds of organizations say their productivity took a turn for the worse, because of the incident(s) they had suffered over the previous year. Further, more than half said their brand had taken a hit, an issue closely followed by the costs of a data breach and issues with their regulatory compliance.
Keeping customers safer comes at the expense of CX
The importance of frictionless mobile authentication is front and center for digital and security teams. So, the following findings illustrate a significant gap between intention and execution.
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Just 13% say they successfully balance strong security with user experience.
The impact this gap has on business KPIs should not be underestimated. The previously cited impacts of security incidents are one side of the problem. But a clunky CX damages the propellers of everything from customer acquisition, to repeat purchases and customer retention.
Using multiple MI&A providers adds cost and complexity
On average, organizations are using 4.6 MI&A providers, with 36% using five or more! Not only does this introduce additional cost, it also adds layers of complexity as organizations must manage multiple vendor platforms and processes. Respondents reported that while using multiple vendors may be enticing, to blend the best of each vendor’s offerings, it often tends to backfire further down the road. Difficulty integrating multiple vendor systems, complexity of managing them, and the associated high costs were the top challenges identified by the research.
The findings in the report bring awareness to the fact that organizations struggling to maintain security without sacrificing customer experience, are not alone in this endeavor. The probability of a new attack is a question of when, rather than if. Stakeholders need to carefully consider desired outcomes and the best way to balance the security-to-customer experience ratio, while minding the budget. As a first step, look for a vendor who can offer a one-stop shop MI&A solution.
Contact a Syniverse expert if you’d like to discuss the MI&A requirements of your organization.
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