Why idGenius from Anomalix is the Superior Alternative to SailPoint NERM

Managing identities beyond your own workforce has become one of the most pressing security challenges of the modern digital era. Every organization today depends on a wide network of external contributors — partners, suppliers, contractors, vendors, consultants, managed service providers, and even machine identities like service accounts, APIs, bots and AI agents. These entities play an essential role in driving productivity and innovation, but often operate outside traditional HR systems and governance controls. This gap creates a growing exposure: one that can lead to data breaches, compliance violations, and operational inefficiencies if left unchecked.

Two major platforms aim to address this challenge — SailPoint’s Non-Employee Risk Management (NERM) and Anomalix’s idGenius. While both solutions tackle non-employee identity governance, their philosophies and technical architectures differ dramatically. idGenius from Anomalix is a purpose-built platform designed specifically for managing third-party and machine identities with agility, automation, and contextual intelligence. IdGenius combines principles and capabilities from Identity Governance Administration (IGA), Third Party Risk and Vendor Management to provide a holistic solution for securely managing non-employees and third-party organizations.  idGenius is focused, flexible, and fast to deploy, offering an experience that aligns perfectly with organizations seeking precision governance rather than a bulky IGA extension.

What is Non-Employee Risk Management?

Non-Employee Risk Management (NERM) refers to the framework organizations use to manage identities and access for external users who are not part of the full-time workforce. This includes contractors, third-party service providers, temporary staff, and robotic or digital identities such as service accounts, APIs and AI agents. Unlike employees, these identities are often managed through disparate and decentralized systems, spreadsheets, and manual approvals — creating an environment ripe for access errors and persistent access long after the non-employee disengages.

idGenius redefines this challenge by consolidating all non-employee identities into a single, source of truth. Through policy-based automated onboarding, continuous monitoring, and time-bound access provisioning, it ensures that every external identity follows the same governance lifecycle as internal ones — from engagement to deprovisioning.

The Four Key Dimensions of Non-Employee Risk Management

In identity governance, these dimensions can be summarized as Identification, Assessment, Mitigation, and Monitoring.

1. **Identification:** Knowing who your external users are (and their respective third-party organizations) and what applications, data and systems they can access. idGenius provides granular visibility by linking identity sources, business agreements, access policies, and external directories in real time.
2. **Assessment:** Evaluating each identity’s risk level based on behavior, job function, and data sensitivity. AI analytics within idGenius continuously score risk and highlight anomalies automatically.
3. **Mitigation:** Applying automated controls such as least-privilege enforcement, policy-driven approvals, and project-based access scopes.
4. **Monitoring:** Tracking and auditing every action. idGenius offers a point-in-time view for each identity — something often missing from traditional governance tools.

In contrast, SailPoint NERM covers lifecycle management and delegation workflows programmatically and is fraught with feature limitations.  SailPoint NERM does not support PII data storage for non-employees.  SailPoint NERM also does not support document or consent management.  For organizations managing thousands of vendors and automated processes, this distinction can mean the difference between audit findings and reactive data cleanup.

IGA Pillars and Core Values: Where idGenius Excels

Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) is built on four core pillars: visibility, compliance, automation, and intelligence. SailPoint’s ecosystem embraces these principles within its broader Identity Security Cloud, but idGenius goes beyond by infusing them with domain-specific intelligence focused on non-employee and machine identities.

• **Visibility:** idGenius provides unified dashboards that visualize every external organization, external identity, and its associated access timeline.
• **Compliance:** Built-in audit trails and certification workflows ensure full adherence to industry regulations.

• **Document Management:** Built-in document management workflows and e-signature ensure all documents are centralized for compliance. 
• **Project Management:** Built-in visibility and traceability to projects.  Users can have varying degrees of credentialing processes based on the projects they are assigned to.
• **Historical Context** Much like HR solutions retain performance history and “do not hire” flags, idGenius enables historical performance retentention of non-employees and third-party organizations.   

• **Automation:** Delegated onboarding and policy-based workflows eliminate manual dependencies on IT.
• **Intelligence:** AI-driven behavior analytics detect anomalies and automatically trigger remediation, creating a self-healing governance ecosystem.

This alignment with IGA pillars ensures that governance doesn’t become a bottleneck but rather a business enabler — enabling departments to operate faster while staying compliant.

Compliance Alignment with Global Standards (ISO 27001 & ISO 31000)

Another frequent topic of search interest revolves around international standards — particularly ISO 27001 and ISO 31000 — and whether they apply to third-party risk management. The short answer is yes: ISO 27001 requires organizations to address supplier and third-party access, while ISO 31000 provides the overarching framework for managing all forms of risk. However, implementing these standards manually can be time-consuming and resource-intensive.

idGenius simplifies compliance by automatically aligning identity workflows with these frameworks. Its ‘point-in-time’ access visibility and automated deprovisioning features provide auditors with clear, verifiable evidence of control effectiveness. This reduces audit fatigue, shortens assessment cycles, and strengthens accountability — all while freeing up internal teams to focus on strategic initiatives.

Feature Comparison: idGenius vs SailPoint NERM

Real-World Scenarios: Why Organizations Choose idGenius

Imagine a large manufacturing enterprise that works with hundreds of suppliers and engineering consultants. Each partner requires temporary access to production systems, digital twins, or quality control dashboards. With traditional methods, IT teams manually create accounts, track spreadsheets, and revoke access after months — often missing several privileged accounts along the way. idGenius automates this entire cycle: Non-Employees onboard through self-service portals with predefined templates, access is approved through policy-driven rules, and every credential is automatically revoked once the project ends. This prevents dormant accounts, reduces security risk, and ensures full traceability.

Who is Responsible for Third-Party Risk Management?

One of the most common questions raised in the public data is, “Who is responsible for third-party risk management?”

Traditionally, organizations assumed that IT or information security teams carried the full responsibility for vendor and contractor oversight. However, as ecosystems became more distributed, accountability has evolved into a shared model that includes business owners, procurement, compliance officers, and external stakeholders.

In modern governance, responsibility is collective and contextual. Business units initiating a partnership are responsible for defining access requirements, while IT ensures secure provisioning and lifecycle control. Compliance teams oversee adherence to frameworks such as ISO 27001, SOC 2, or GDPR, and security operations monitor behavioral anomalies.

This is precisely where idGenius delivers a competitive advantage. By embedding policy enforcement and real-time visibility into every layer of governance, it unites these fragmented responsibilities into a single, transparent workflow. Every user — from a project manager onboarding a contractor to a compliance auditor reviewing access — operates within the same trusted platform.
The result is shared accountability without duplication, and a measurable reduction in risk across the entire third-party identity ecosystem.

The Future of Third-Party Identity Governance

The identity landscape is evolving faster than most security teams can keep up with. By 2026, industry analysts predict that over 60% of digital identities within large organizations will belong to non-employees or non-human entities. This shift demands smarter, context-aware governance platforms. AI will play an even greater role in correlating identity behavior, device context, and risk scores in real time. idGenius already lays the groundwork for this by embedding adaptive machine learning models into its core — enabling automatic adjustments in access privileges when risk thresholds are exceeded.

The future will also see tighter integration between IGA, PAM, and API security frameworks, breaking down silos and offering unified oversight. Platforms like idGenius are designed for that interoperability from day one, giving organizations the agility to evolve without overhauling their existing tech stacks.

Conclusion — The Right Solution for the Right Challenge

Third-party and non-employee identities represent both an operational necessity and a security challenge. While SailPoint NERM provides strong foundational lifecycle management, idGenius brings an additional layer of intelligence, automation, and adaptability. It was built not as a module or an extension, but as a dedicated platform for modern ecosystems that depend on external collaboration.

By leveraging AI-driven analytics, automated policy enforcement, and comprehensive audit visibility, idGenius transforms non-employee governance into a proactive, value-adding discipline. Organizations adopting idGenius reduce IT burden, strengthen compliance, and stay ahead of evolving cyber risks. In the era of interconnected digital ecosystems, Anomalix idGenius stands as the superior, future-ready alternative to SailPoint NERM.

To explore how Anomalix can help your organization simplify and secure third-party identity management, contact: info@anomalix.com

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