RSA Governance & Lifecycle product is a widely used solution for employee access management. It assists companies in conducting access reviews, policy enforcement, and compliance maintenance within internal systems. Nevertheless, it wasn't made specifically for the growing group of users who fall outside the boundaries of conventional employment.
The modern workforce now comprises of non-human and third-party identities such as contractors, vendors, brokers, partners, service accounts, and API integrations—identities that don't typically reside in core HR systems. These users also need access to sensitive information, internal systems, and project workspaces. Over time, it becomes challenging to manage these identities without tools specifically designed for them, causing friction and putting organizations at risk.
idGenius is what fills that void. It works in conjunction with RSA, supplying third-party identity context that the IGA platforms don't usually possess. Combined, the systems bring accountability to identities that have traditionally been overlooked.
This blog explores how idGenius augments and extends RSA Governance & Lifecycle for the organizations that need to track, certify, and govern access for non-employee identities at scale.
RSA Governance & Lifecycle and most identity governance tools were designed for full-time employees. It provides very structured workflows for internal personnel but often lacks visibility into identities that don't go through the standard HR onboarding channels.
Non-employees—contractors, vendors, third-party service providers, etc.—usually enter internal systems via ad hoc processes. Their identities might be stored in spreadsheets, in ticketing systems, or not even recorded at all. This makes it difficult to assign ownership, impose access policies, or maintain a clear audit trail.
Internal personnel in many companies now only make up 29% of identities, with the remaining 48% being non-employees/external individuals. This imbalance increases risk, especially when RSA and other governance systems are not configured to monitor access for the majority of the engaged users.
Without identity-first control, third-party accounts are likely to fall between the cracks of your typical reviews. They may be granted too much access, stay active after their engagement has expired, or be assigned no sponsor/owner. Such weaknesses expose organizations to risk.
RSA is excellent at controlling what it sees. The challenge is that it often doesn’t see enough. That's where idGenius steps in, helping organizations govern external identities before they reach the IGA layer.
idGenius works alongside RSA, not instead of it. It serves as the system of record for non-employee identities before flowing into downstream systems.
It maintains vital identity attributes not inherent in RSA straight out-of-the-box: sponsoring department, project affiliation, contract terms, expiration dates, and required documents. These data points help ensure that there’s accountability early in the identity lifecycle and consistent governance throughout.
For example, when hiring a contractor, idGenius will be able to automatically:
• Order background checks, credit checks, and identity verification.
• Provide access based on predetermined project roles.
• Store necessary documents like NDAs or certifications.
• Issue expiration and renewal workflows aligned with contract terms.
All of this context is organized, auditable, and ready for consumption for RSA workflows.
Manual processes are one of the main causes for governance breakdown, yet studies show that 96% of organizations still rely on manual workflows in their organizations. With idGenius, third-party identity onboarding and upkeep become much more structured and simpler to audit. It’s no longer a manual process.
RSA remains responsible for things like authenticating access and enforcing SoD controls. idGenius simply makes sure that the identities entering those processes are adequately-scoped, adequately-sponsored, and adequately-tracked from the beginning.
Access reviews are only as effective and useful as the context behind them. RSA Governance & Lifecycle is able to automate and provide certifications, but it will often not have the necessary details to make decisions on non-employee access.
idGenius fills in that gap by adding another level of clarity. It attributes every identity to a specific sponsor, project, contract term, and expected access scope. This means that access review decisions aren’t made based on guesswork, but rather, they can be made by the business users who actually know what the identity is for.
With idGenius giving RSA informed context, organizations can:
• Provide certifications to business sponsors, not just IT
• Include project metadata, contract expiration dates, and role details in the review request
• Make decisions like approving, rejecting, or extending without changing tools
• Automate reviews based on real-world events (like contract expiration), not calendar periods
This type of automation helps focus attention on the things that truly matter.
It also prevents a well-documented threat: privilege creep. A study found that 82% of organizations granted highly privileged cloud positions to third-party providers, unbeknownst to security teams. With idGenius connected to RSA, access decisions can be made with context-aware visibility into the scope and reason for every permission.
The result is a more accurate and auditable certification process for non-employee identities that doesn’t cause friction in existing RSA processes.
Access isn’t always removed when a contract ends—though it should be. Even if a supplier is marked "inactive" within a VMS, their accounts in other connected systems can remain open. RSA can enforce policies, but only if it knows an identity exists and what it's tied to.
idGenius keeps access from lingering once it is no longer required by implementing expiration and renewal workflows at the identity level. Every third-party identity in the system has an end date, sponsor, and access scope—giving RSA the framework it needs to act with confidence.
These workflows reduce the risk of orphaned accounts, which is still a very real threat. More than half (54%) of organizations have experienced a breach that can be traced back to third-party access. When identities outside of the organization stay active once they're no longer involved, they become an open door.
idGenius also provides simpler way to detect and react to SoD violations against external users. For instance, there may be a conflict if a contractor is involved in two distinct, high-privilege projects. Without centralized monitoring, these instances can go unnoticed.
Research has shown that 89% of organizations identified third-party access-related audit findings that they couldn’t quickly remediate. By revealing duplicate access and making expiration reviews easier, idGenius gives RSA the visibility it needs to enforce SoD policies and address stale or risky access—before it becomes an incident.
With RSA and idGenius together, organizations don't just receive process improvements—they receive better control, faster decisions, and fewer gaps in oversight.
Business sponsors can manage their own third-party users without depending on IT teams. Identity checks become more explicit and faster, as each identity has context that is relevant like project, length, and role.
Onboarding identities is faster as well. idGenius provides pre-designed, no-code forms that capture required information once. Identity verification, background checks, and documentation all occur in one place. Less back-and-forth emails and faster time to initial access are just a few of the benefits idGenius powers.
From an audit perspective, idGenius’ value is also visible. idGenius keeps a full record of historical changes made across onboarding, renewals, document uploads, and access certifications. It's all audit-ready and correctly mapped to the correct identity from inception to completion.
There's a real cost savings as well. Third-party breaches are about 40% more costly to fix than internal ones. Preventing just one breach—by ensuring a vendor's access is cut off on time or a conflict is raised early—can offset months of governance effort.
RSA and idGenius combined allow organizations to reduce friction, close governance gaps, and have non-employee identities exist in accordance with policy.
RSA Governance & Lifecycle is still a key part of access control in many organizations. It handles certifications, SoD enforcement, and compliance reporting at scale. But when third-party identities are brought into the equation, traditional IGA tools fall short.
idGenius fills that gap. It adds structure, transparency, and lifecycle management of non-employees and third-party identities before their introduction into RSA workflows. With access based on projects, sponsor responsibility, and automated reviews, organizations can make more informed access decisions without additional administrative overhead.
This combined approach is becoming more and more necessary. With non-employees representing nearly half of active identities and third-party breaches escalating, governance models must adapt.
RSA provides the enforcement. idGenius supplies the context.
Identity governance isn’t complete without visibility into non-employee access. idGenius brings that missing context to RSA Governance & Lifecycle—enabling organizations to manage external identities with the same level of oversight as full-time employees.
From onboarding through offboarding, idGenius helps track sponsorship, enforce expiration workflows, and automate reviews across your hybrid environment.
Want to see how it works in your environment? Contact us at info@anomalix.com to schedule a tailored demo or see how idGenius works alongside RSA to simplify third-party identity governance and reduce access risk.
