Financial services group Liberty Life offers a range of long-term insurance products and services to the individual and corporate markets, and distributes risk, investment, retirement and health products through a network of licensed financial advisers. The company's systems are accessed by some internal employees as well as its broker workforce, further adding to the complexity of an already complicated environment.

The company has introduced a project called the 2010 Project that will see it decommission its mainframe entirely by 2010. As part of this initiative, Liberty Life is refocusing its security architecture, including identity management (IDM).

Says Liberty Life head of Information Security Trevor Williams: “IDM is a big word.