A former employee can still access a shared cloud folder. A finance team member has administrator rights they no longer need. Staff use one password across several business tools because nobody owns the process. These are the everyday gaps an identity management review is designed to find before they become a security incident, compliance problem or costly interruption.

For growing businesses, identity management is not simply an IT housekeeping task. It determines who can reach business data, applications, devices and services – and whether that access remains appropriate as people, roles and systems change. A clear review gives decision-makers a practical picture of risk and a realistic plan to reduce it without making daily work harder.

What an identity management review should examine

Identity management covers the full lifecycle of a user’s access. That begins when a person joins, continues as their responsibilities change, and ends when they leave the organisation. It also includes external identities, such as contractors, suppliers and IT partners, as well as non-human accounts used by applications, integrations and automated processes.

A useful review starts with a straightforward question: can the business identify every account that has access to its systems, and explain why that access is still needed? Many organisations cannot answer this with confidence. The problem is rarely negligence. It is usually the result of rapid growth, remote working, new software subscriptions and informal workarounds adopted under pressure.

The review should assess identity controls across the systems that matter most to operations. This typically includes email, cloud storage, finance platforms, customer relationship management systems, line-of-business applications, servers, virtual private networks and administrative tools. The goal is not to create a perfect spreadsheet. It is to establish control over access that could affect security, continuity or sensitive information.

Joiners, movers and leavers

User lifecycle management is often the highest-value area to assess. New staff need the right access promptly so they can work effectively. Employees who move between teams may accumulate permissions from previous roles. Leavers need access removed quickly and consistently, including access through personal devices, shared accounts and third-party software.

A review should test whether these actions are documented, assigned to clear owners and completed within agreed timescales. If managers notify IT informally, or if access relies on one person remembering what to remove, the process is vulnerable. A dependable process links employment changes to repeatable technical actions.

Privileged access and administrator accounts

Not all accounts carry the same risk. Administrator accounts can alter configurations, create new users, access sensitive files and disable security settings. They should be treated differently from ordinary user accounts.

An identity management review checks who holds privileged access, whether it is genuinely necessary and whether those accounts are protected with stronger controls. Shared administrator credentials deserve particular attention. They make it difficult to prove who made a change, complicate incident response and can leave access in place long after responsibilities have changed.

Where possible, staff should use separate accounts for normal work and administrative tasks. This limits exposure if an everyday account is compromised and improves accountability when changes are made.

Authentication, passwords and multi-factor authentication

Passwords remain a common route into business systems, especially where staff reuse them or where older applications do not support modern controls. A review should identify whether multi-factor authentication is enabled for email, remote access, cloud administration and other high-risk services.

Multi-factor authentication is not a complete answer on its own. Poorly configured recovery methods, weak shared accounts or unchecked administrator permissions can still create exposure. However, it remains one of the most effective ways to reduce the impact of stolen passwords when deployed thoughtfully.

The right approach depends on the organisation. A small business may start by protecting Microsoft 365, remote access and finance platforms. A larger or more regulated organisation may need conditional access policies, device checks and tighter controls based on location or risk. The principle is consistent: access should require enough proof of identity for the sensitivity of the resource.

How to carry out an identity management review

The work should be structured, but it does not need to disrupt the business. Start with systems that hold sensitive data or would cause serious operational problems if unavailable. Email and cloud identity platforms are normally first, because they often provide access to many other services.

First, create an inventory of identity sources and connected applications. Identify where user accounts are created, how staff authenticate and which tools are managed outside the main IT environment. Shadow IT can be a concern here. A department may be paying for a cloud service with its own user list and no central oversight.

Next, compare active accounts against an up-to-date list of employees, contractors and approved suppliers. Investigate accounts that have no named owner, have not been used for a long period or appear to belong to former staff. Do not automatically remove an account until its purpose is understood: some may support a business process or integration. They should, however, have an accountable owner and appropriate safeguards.

Then review access by role rather than looking at every permission in isolation. People in the same job should generally receive a similar baseline of access. Where exceptions exist, record the reason and confirm that a manager approves it. This reduces the tendency for permissions to grow indefinitely as people change duties.

Finally, test the process. Choose a recent starter, a role change and a leaver, then follow the evidence. Was the access request approved? Were the correct accounts created or removed? Was multi-factor authentication enrolled? Were devices and shared resources considered? Testing real examples reveals more than policy documents alone.

Common findings and what they mean

Most reviews uncover manageable issues rather than immediate crises. The value lies in prioritising them according to business impact. An unused account with no elevated permissions may be a simple clean-up task. A dormant administrator account for a former employee requires urgent action.

Four findings appear repeatedly in growing organisations:

• former employees or contractors still have active accounts;
• users have more access than their current role requires;
• multi-factor authentication is missing from a high-risk system;
• shared or generic accounts have no clear owner or audit trail.

These issues often arise because technology has expanded faster than governance. The remedy is not necessarily a major identity platform project. It may begin with clearer approval routes, regular access reviews, secure offboarding checklists and better use of the identity tools already included with cloud services.

Turning findings into a practical access plan

A good review ends with decisions, owners and timescales. Avoid producing a lengthy technical report that nobody can act on. Leadership needs to know which risks require immediate attention, what investment is required and how changes could affect staff.

Prioritise actions that reduce exposure quickly without causing unnecessary friction. Removing former-user accounts, securing administrator access and enabling multi-factor authentication for critical services are usually sensible early steps. Longer-term work might include centralising identity management, introducing role-based access, integrating HR and IT workflows, or improving device compliance before allowing access to sensitive systems.

It is also worth agreeing how often access will be reviewed. High-risk systems and privileged accounts may need more frequent checks than general collaboration tools. Businesses handling regulated data, payment information or sensitive client records may require a more formal evidence trail. There is no single schedule that suits every organisation, but a review performed only after an incident is not a control strategy.

For organisations without a large internal IT team, an experienced managed service provider can bring independent oversight to the process. URBlink can help businesses assess access, strengthen day-to-day controls and build security practices that remain practical as the organisation grows.

The most useful next step is simple: ask your team to name the systems that would cause the greatest disruption if the wrong person gained access. Start there, assign an owner and verify the accounts behind the permissions. Clear answers create a stronger foundation for every other security decision.