Closing the 70% IGA Coverage Gap — Without Replacing Core Platforms

By Prakash Palani

The Unfinished Story of IGA

Over the past decade, enterprises have invested heavily in Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) platforms such as SailPoint, Saviynt, One Identity, and Oracle. These platforms provide critical governance over foundational systems—yet most organizations acknowledge a common limitation: coverage rarely extends beyond 30–40% of enterprise applications.

The result is a persistent governance gap. Core systems may be managed, but legacy tools, departmental applications, and custom-built solutions often remain outside the IGA perimeter. Despite budgets and planning cycles, many enterprises find themselves perpetually waiting for “Phase 2” integrations that never arrive.

Industry research reflects this reality. Gartner notes that more than half of IGA programs fall short in scope or execution, with integration challenges as the leading cause.

Where Traditional IGA Coverage Ends

Typical deployments successfully govern:

Directories such as Active Directory

HR platforms like Workday

ERP and core applications including SAP and Salesforce

However, critical areas are often excluded:

In-house business applications

Legacy on-premises tools

Department-specific platforms

Dev/test environments

SaaS applications without prebuilt connectors

The gap is not about intent—it is about feasibility. Connector limitations, long onboarding cycles, and low adoption among business users all contribute to governance remaining incomplete.

Why Integration Stalls

Limited Connector Libraries: Most platforms support a small set of widely used applications; everything else requires costly customization.

Extended Implementation Timelines: Onboarding a single application can stretch into months or longer.

Complex Business Adoption: Interfaces and workflows often cater to IT rather than business managers, slowing participation.

Manual Workarounds: Unintegrated systems continue to rely on spreadsheets, ad hoc approvals, and manual tracking.

The outcome: governance exists in theory but remains partial in practice.

Extending, Not Replacing

The way forward does not necessarily require abandoning existing IGA investments. Instead, leading enterprises are adopting reinforcement models that extend coverage across the long tail of applications—custom, legacy, and departmental—while retaining the value of their core platform.

Capabilities that make this shift possible include:

Rapid Integration Frameworks that reduce onboarding from months to days

No-Code Studios that empower application owners beyond IT teams

Automated Identity Lifecycle Management across diverse architectures

Business-Friendly Access Controls that improve adoption

Real-Time Policy Enforcement even for systems without modern APIs

This reinforcement approach avoids costly disruption and accelerates time-to-value, while closing long-standing governance gaps.

Outcomes from Extended Coverage

Enterprises that pursue this model report:

Near-Complete Application Coverage — moving from 30–40% to close to 100%

Faster Onboarding — integrating non-standard applications in weeks, not years

Operational Efficiency — eliminating spreadsheet-based processes

Higher Business Engagement — enabling business approvers to participate directly

Improved Audit Readiness — delivering a comprehensive governance view

Industry Signals

Analyst findings continue to underline the urgency:

Over 50% of IGA deployments fall short due to integration scope gaps (Gartner).

Many programs stall after governing fewer than 15 systems (KuppingerCole).

Organizations adopting connector-agnostic approaches achieve lower integration costs and faster time-to-value.

The trend is clear: reinforcement, not replacement, is becoming the practical path to IGA completeness.

Closing Perspective

IGA investments remain foundational, but coverage gaps limit their effectiveness. The next phase for enterprises is not wholesale replacement but reinforcement—extending governance to every application environment without disruption.

For leaders, the imperative is clear: identity governance cannot remain partial. Comprehensive coverage is achievable, but only by addressing the hidden 70% of applications left outside the scope of traditional deployments.