Soft Market Testing for Identity and Access Management Consultation

This is a Soft Market Test being conducted by the University of Southampton, this is not an invitation to tender.

Project Description The University of Southampton (UoS) has recently launched a new strategic plan that has significant growth focused on Transnational partnerships.

This growth and added complexity in roles and relationships will increase pressure on digital business processes and underlying identity infrastructure.

The University's IT department, "iSolutions", developed an internal identity management system (IDM) in 2016, and a significant challenge around the implementation of this programme was focused on governance of identities and business processes, rather than the technology.

The University operates a highly complex digital operating environment, with a wide range of identity types requiring access to high value digital services.

The identity project in 2016 was partially successful in defining identities and their management, but for a variety of reasons some identities were not clearly defined, and accountabilities were not set.

These have since fallen into a digital bucket that iSolutions endeavours to maintain to the best of its ability.

Considering the changes that will be delivered as part of the new University strategy, there is a need to re-visit the previous identity project and finalise uncategorised identities, their ownership and address the sustainability of the University identity system.

The University are looking to utilise specialist experts in IAM to review and advise on existing external vendor products, including their capabilities, maturity, and implementation architecture, as well as conducting an analysis of our current home-grown IDM system, with the intention of either purchasing a new system or investing in our current IDM platform.

The University has an existing reliance on Microsoft Azure AD / Entra capability for authentication and access management, with cross tenant 'P2' level licensing.

There is little desire to move away from Entra unless significant benefits are apparent in competing platforms.

We require a supplier with experience operating within Higher Education, or who have worked with public sector bodies with equivalent complex identity landscapes.

Document to be returned as part of this Soft Market Testing - IDAM Soft Market Testing Questionnaire 2023UoS-0793 The deadline for clarifications is 11/07/2023 at 12.00 Noon, the deadline for Questionnaire submissions is 18/07/2023 at 12.00 Noon.