Why organizations should prepare for valuable digital identity ecosystems

As of August 2020, governments around the world had launched around 165 digital or partially digital identity schemes. Today, the market size for global digital identity solutions is projected to grow to $49.5 billion by 2026.  

Governments are proposing new legislation and frameworks that organizations need to be prepared for. The European Union (EU) announced amendments to its electronic identification, authentication and trust services (eIDAS) IDAS framework,  and the United Kingdom (UK), among other countries, is progressing with a  digital identity and attributes trust framework.  

There is also heavy investment in digital identity by governments globally. In 2020, Australia announced it as a major focus of its AUS$800 million technology budget package. As part of NextGenerationEU, France has allocated €72 million, while Germany plans to invest €200 million into a European identity ecosystem.

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The influx of new concepts and regulations will raise questions for many organizations. To respond, you'll need to evolve your processes to use, trust and accept digital identity. For a clearer understanding of what to do next, start with the key questions below: 

1. What is my opportunity?

Understand the opportunity available to you. Evaluate how you currently use identity and what services could improve with digital identity ecosystems.

• Think about the context in which your organization uses identity today. Which use cases do you currently provide? What others could you offer your customers/users? 
• Map out the pain points and prevalence of these use cases to identify which offer the highest value. 
• Prioritize use cases to create new or enhanced opportunities. Based on value criteria such as improved user experience, cost reduction, and efficiency.

2. How can I participate in a digital identity ecosystem?

Identify which digital identity ecosystems you can participate in as well as the role you can play and how to build trust in them.

• Understand the different roles within a digital identity ecosystem. 
• Based on the prioritized use case, identify the role your organization could play and whether you can leverage relationships you already have within your ecosystems today. 
• Research other digital identity ecosystems within your sector and geography to understand if you need to build a new ecosystem or find synergies with an existing one.

3. Where is the value and how can this be delivered?

Be sure the service you aim to deliver adheres to the World Economic Forum (WEF) core principles of delivering value through digital identity.

• These principles are: Fit for purpose, Inclusive, Useful, Offers Choice and Secure. This user-centric ideology defines "good" digital identity that unlocks value for individuals and organizations.  
• Work with both private and public sector organizations to establish rules for your trusted ecosystem and provide better services that align to how users wish to use their digital identities in their daily lives. 
• Understand how your ecosystem will be funded, implement the correct governance (both operationally and business-focused) and explore monetization options to help it become sustainable in the long term.

How to Put This Into Practice

The WEF and Accenture have convened a community of more than 30 experts, policymakers and businesses to create an interactive guide for executives: Digital Identity Ecosystems: Unlocking New Value. (For the best experience, download and open with a desktop PDF reader).  

This guide includes key information, questions and interactive tools to help you shape and implement your organization's digital identity ecosystem strategy.

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