In EDUCAUSE’s 2025 Technology Leadership Workforce in Higher Education report, 45% of higher education IT professionals identified “increased stress from managing multiple platforms and tools simultaneously” as a key challenge. In addition, concerns about data security and privacy compliance, difficulty integrating new technologies, and rising workload demands without matching budget or staffing increases were consistently reported. For institutions navigating a digital landscape filled with fragmented tools, legacy systems, and rising regulatory pressure, these findings are all too familiar.

At Fischer Identity, we’ve spent decades working alongside higher education institutions, helping them tackle these exact pain points. Here’s how Fischer Identity directly addresses the top challenges in the EDUCAUSE report:

1. One Unified Platform to Reduce IT Stress

Managing identity data, access requests, security policies, onboarding, offboarding, and compliance reviews across dozens of tools creates not only inefficiency—it creates burnout. With Fischer Identity, higher education institutions benefit from a unified Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) platform.

• One place for managers to request access.
• One portal for users to manage credentials.
• One dashboard for IT staff and help desks to view lifecycle and security information.

No more jumping between systems or writing custom scripts for provisioning. Fischer Identity simplifies the complexity, allowing your IT teams to focus on strategic value rather than manual interventions.

2. Simplifying Data Security & Privacy Compliance

Data privacy isn’t optional—it’s a mandate under FERPA, HIPAA, GDPR, and NIST standards. But staying compliant across disparate systems is increasingly difficult without centralized control.

Fischer Identity makes compliance straightforward by:

• Enforcing policy-based access controls that define exactly who can see or do what—and when.
• Allowing students and employees to manage their own privacy settings using intuitive self-service controls.
• Offering built-in compliance features like automated access reviews, audit trails, and pre-packaged regulatory reports to ensure audit readiness and reduce risk exposure.

3. Frictionless Integration with Over 100 Systems

EDUCAUSE respondents cited “difficulty integrating new technologies with existing systems or workflows” as a top concern. With over 100 native connectors (including Workday, SAP, Ellucian Banner, PeopleSoft, Active Directory, and ServiceNow), Fischer Identity reduces integration headaches.

Whether your institution is modernizing your ERP, adding a new CRM, or migrating systems to the cloud, Fischer adapts to your environment—not the other way around. Our platform is fully configurable—no custom coding required—allowing you to modify workflows and onboard new applications quickly and securely.

4. Built for Multi-Role, Multi-System Institutions

Higher education is uniquely complex. Faculty are often researchers, administrators, and advisors. Students can also be employees. Visiting nurses and research partners may need short-term access. Many IAM products struggle here.

Fischer Identity thrives in these environments by:

• Handling multi-role identities across employee, student, contractor, and alumni roles—often simultaneously.
• Automating role transitions and lifecycle events (e.g., student becomes staff) without duplicating identities.
• Supporting external identities (like vendors, contractors, and clinical affiliates) with the same governance, automation, and compliance enforcement as internal users.

5. Enabling Agile Change in a Static Budget Environment

Many institutions face increasing workload demands without additional staffing or budget. With Fischer’s cloud-based IAM platform, institutions benefit from:

• Predictable subscription pricing with fixed-fee implementation.
• 6–9-month deployments—not years-long projects.
• Full administrative control post-launch (no reliance on vendors for every change).
• 24/7 customer advocacy and technical support.

By removing complexity and manual effort, we help higher education IT teams do more with less—while improving security and compliance at the same time.

6. Designed by People Who’ve Been in the Trenches

At Fischer Identity, many of our staff—both technical and advisory—have real-world experience in higher education IT, having served at institutions of varying sizes and complexity. We speak the language of enrollment changes, HCM integration, multi-campus identity governance, and regulatory audits. We’ve lived it—and built Fischer Identity to solve it.

The Fischer Identity Advantage

Higher education needs more than just tools. It needs trusted technology partners who understand the ecosystem, the regulatory landscape, and the human side of identity management. Fischer Identity is that partner.

Whether you’re struggling with platform sprawl, staffing shortages, system integrations, or compliance fatigue, we can help simplify your IAM program—without sacrificing power or flexibility.

• Unified IAM/IGA platform
• Native integrations for modern and legacy systems
• No-code configuration for rapid changes
• Built-in governance and compliance tools
• Trusted by leading institutions—including those with affiliated hospitals and research programs

Discover how Fischer Identity can help you reduce stress, improve efficiency, and secure your environment—all with one powerful platform.