Application integration patterns to fast track Identity and Access Management compliance objectives

Sebastien Gagne, an Identity Solution Architect at Indigo Consulting, presents pragmatic ways to onboard secondary applications into an IGA platform faster than building a custom, bidirectional connector for each one. His first strategy is reusing what already aggregates access data, such as an asset/inventory manager or a central directory like Entra ID, either as a one-way extract with a manual closed-loop request process or, where group membership already drives SSO, as a full bidirectional integration. His second strategy pushes standardization onto application owners: a simple CSV format, a standardized database view, or SCIM as a REST exchange contract, so each application team does its own analysis in parallel instead of the IGA team reverse-engineering every schema. His third strategy trains platform admins and directory specialists to generate new connectors from a template so integrators are freed for genuinely complex work. His fourth is a proxy application manager for systems that cannot be integrated at all or are too low-volume to justify it, holding a manual, periodically reconciled copy of accounts and access. He closes by stressing that none of this works without clear governance objectives and executive backing.