As you look forward to the year ahead, are you prepared to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities for growth in your business? Commit to these five New Year's resolutions, and let identity management help you fearlessly accelerate business growth in 2006 — and beyond.

1. Manage your business by identity.

Identity management is no longer just about getting a handle on managing identities; it's about actually managing your business by identity. This means using identity to bring meaning to the way you do business with customers and partners. If you're a services-based company, for example, identity can become the key to determining to whom and how you deliver services in a manner that does the most for your top line. Identity information can help a company create new, targeted service offerings and even discover new business models. With identity management, it's possible to move beyond just providing secure access to resources and begin transforming partnerships and relationships in the interest of a more competitive, innovative business.

2. Control compliance instead of letting it control you.

Throughout 2005, we saw companies in "reactive mode" when it came to compliance — reacting frantically to one audit crisis after another. As shareholders' expectations for data integrity and security continue to rise, it's time to take compliance to a different level. This year, I expect to see more and more companies looking to make compliance a sustainable part of their everyday business practices. Using identity management to automate compliance processes can go a long way toward helping achieve this goal — enabling you to stop spending time reacting to compliance requirements and spending more time focused on your business.

3. Fasten your seat belt and give it the gas.

Remember, you can't "accelerate without fear" unless you have the mechanisms in place to keep you safe as you rocket forward. If you're in a car, that means having your seat belt on and your foot ready to hit the brake if necessary. In the business world, it means having effective security policies and processes in place, being on top of compliance requirements, and controlling costs. Resolve to take care of these basics in 2006, so that you can accelerate toward benefits like greater top-line revenue, a faster time to market, and a more competitive quality of service for your partners and customers.

4. Embrace the convergence.

The convergence of physical, layered, and network security is inevitable. It's time to stop looking at each type of security separately and start seeing it as one infrastructure. Taking this converged view of security operations is another way of improving the overall security of your company. Identity management is a critical aspect of this phenomenon as it can allow you to seamlessly and securely manage identities across your entire security infrastructure. For example, by integrating building security with network access management, you would know which buildings a user is permitted to enter as well as what systems they can access once inside.

5. Invest in open technologies that help you today — and tomorrow.

Flexible, heterogeneous technologies built on open standards are essential to moving your business rapidly. Instead of getting bogged down in proprietary applications that can cost you millions of dollars every year, resolve to invest in non-proprietary, flexible, non-invasive, and open technologies that will support your business goals over the long term without adding to your costs in the process.

I firmly believe that businesses can look forward in 2006 to some of the greatest opportunities for growth they have ever experienced — but you have to be prepared for them. Stick to these five resolutions for using identity management in your business, and you'll be ready to take your business to the next level.