Streamline your identity verification processes with a unified identity platform

There’s a lot of debate in the tech world right now over “purpose-built” software. These programs are highly specialized at specific tasks but don’t always integrate well with other tools. Many big companies, drawn in by the allure of specialization, fall into the trap of investing in multiple, sometimes hundreds, of different products to run their identity verifications.

This puts those businesses in a very precarious position. The more software providers you rely on to run day-to-day identity verification (IDV) tasks, the more likely something will fail. Maybe a third-party app pushes through an untested update that doesn’t agree with your system, or a critical service provider has an outage for several hours — these issues can cause your whole verification ecosystem to crumble and leave your IT team scrambling to pick up the pieces.

The solution to this problem is to invest in a unified identity platform, where integration between programs is assured and businesses don’t have to juggle the particularities of multiple service providers.

What are unified identity platforms?

A unified identity platform provides all of the services, tools, and processes needed to perform comprehensive identity verification. With these platforms, there’s only one contract to sign and only one software to learn.

Put another way: unified identity platforms function a lot like orchestras, with one conductor managing the functions of each independent instrument. In the world of identity verification, some of the most important instruments working together are compliance checks, document captures, sanction screenings, and age verifications; all working seamlessly in concert. 

What are the benefits of using a unified identity platform?

Unified identity platforms offer a host of benefits to businesses, including:

Greater permission controls

With a unified identity platform, roles and permissions are assigned from a central location to all of the tools used in the identity verification process, with highly granular levels of customizability. Modifications are easy to apply quickly as required, since there’s no need to hunt down the permission settings hidden within multiple applications.

Faster employee onboarding

Unified identity platforms, such as Persona, make it simple to onboard new users into the identity verification process, as there’s only one system for them to learn how to navigate. 

Persona takes this easy-onboarding ethos one step further with a no-code “building-blocks” approach, which allows users to choose from preconfigured identity verification blueprints that solve common use cases, such as Know Your Customer (KYC) and Know Your Business (KYB). This fast-tracking saves your business time, money, and a lot of frustration for new hires. 

No unforeseen delays due to third-party mishaps

Every second of downtime matters to business operations, and minimizing the possibility of disruptions is a high priority for sensitive identity verification processes. This means tightening up the pool of potential culprits, particularly third-party applications that might go dark with little to no notice. 

Unified identity platforms help alleviate these concerns by keeping all of the necessary tools and services under one umbrella, so IT teams always know where to turn in times of crisis. With fewer balls in the air, this also means that IT personnel are less likely to miss messages about planned updates and downtime.

Predictable customer experiences and operational costs

As companies grow and evolve, their operational and compliance needs change dramatically. Unified identity platforms allow businesses to scale as needed and adapt quickly to new challenges, whether that means responding to shifting regulations or encountering new vectors of fraud. Businesses can overcome these  by configuring and tuning a single platform, as opposed to spending time in multiple disparate systems.

More customization options

The information gathered during the identity verification process, such as government IDs and banking information, is extremely sensitive. That’s why it’s critical for users to know immediately if they’re interacting with the correct business. 

Ask yourself this simple question: would you log into your bank account from an unfamiliar website? This is where detailed customization makes all the difference during the verification process. 

Unified identity platforms allow businesses to integrate consistent customization options — such as logos, colors, fonts, buttons, and text — across their entire ecosystem. With recognizable customizations in place, users will interact much more confidently with the identity verification process.

Seamless integration between functions

A unified platform approach allows businesses to experiment with many different products while they figure out what works best for their needs, without having to worry about running into integration issues at every turn. Companies also have the freedom to grow into new forms quickly and efficiently as needs change, thanks to the flexibility of unified identity platforms.

When the instant-payment company Branch decided that it wanted to launch a new service for independent contractors, the compliance team knew that they would need to integrate new identity verification processes to satisfy regulators. As a fintech, Branch already had a KYC process in place, and the team needed to build a KYB framework to work with it.

Using Persona’s unified identity platform, Branch was able to add a KYB process as a seamless extension of the KYC experience for users in its mobile application. Thanks to Persona’s end-to-end orchestration of Branch’s verification process, onboarding customers quickly with KYC and ensuring compliance with KYB standards all happens within one unified platform, with no hiccups or confusing hand-offs between the two services. 

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Why choose Persona? 

At Persona, we believe that identity is a relationship, not a transaction. It’s a dynamic concept that’s constantly evolving alongside technology, society, and regulations. Use cases shift over time, and every business requires a unique suite of services. Flexibility between services is critical to a smooth identity verification process that can keep up with these changes. 

Persona’s unified identity platform brings together all of the tools you need to satisfy every use case. Interoperability and extensive customization options come right out of the box, so your business can find exactly the right build.

Persona also collects and enriches verifications with additional data from inside and outside the platform, such as watchlist reports, making it easy to integrate with vendors you already work with.

“There was no competition when it came to Persona’s breadth of services,” said Jess Toy, product lead at the investment platform AngelList. “No one else offered everything.” 

AngelList used to use multiple vendors to verify investor identities, but this process was expensive, manual, and logistically challenging. By switching to Persona, AngelList was able to consolidate all of their processes into one platform, saving their team both time and money. 

“Everything’s in one place with Persona. It’s much simpler and streamlines everything,” Jess said.

Ready to learn more about what Persona’s unified identity platform can do for your business? Read our case studies from Lime and Coffee Meets Bagel, or get in touch to speak with our experts about your business’ specific needs.