IT teams rely on identity governance and administration (IGA) software to streamline access reviews, user provisioning and deprovisioning, compliance audits, and more. 

However, many IGA tools present key challenges: 

• Time-intensive setup and maintenance that drains IT resources.
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• Overwhelming complexity that requires extensive training and specialized expertise.
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• Limited self-service capabilities forcing you to contact vendor support for basic changes, even when you have the technical skills.
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• Forcing employees out of familiar workflows by requiring them to navigate separate portals for access requests instead of integrating with existing help desk systems. In our experience, this leads to poor adoption and unnecessary friction. 

In this article, we discuss how Risotto — our product — solves these fundamental limitations. We’ll also evaluate several other IGA platforms to help you choose the right solution for your unique needs.

‍Best IGA Software 

1. Risotto
2. SailPoint‍
3. Saviynt
4. Okta
5. Lumos
6. One Identity
7. Zluri
8. CyberArk

1. Risotto

Risotto lets you manage application access via AI without pulling employees out of their natural workflows. It works entirely within Slack and is embedded directly within the help desk support funnel. This means employees don’t have to set up and learn yet another tool, which significantly improves adoption. There are no external portals, no app switching, and no training required. 

As Toby Stewart, IT Engineering Manager at Ironclad, noted in our case study on how they achieved 90% automation rate across access-related IT requests:   

Risotto is built by IT for IT. Our co-founder Alex experienced the administrative nightmare of SaaS sprawl firsthand while leading IT engineering at high-growth companies like Dropbox and Gusto (read our full origin story).

Risotto works out of the box in hours. Whether you’re looking to streamline just-in-time access (e.g., temporary access to Stripe for 10 days), instant self-service for low-risk applications (e.g., “view only” access to Figma), and more, Risotto offers powerful pre-built workflows that can be deployed in hours — offering an outstanding time-to-value.

Risotto offers an intuitive self-serve dashboard. You can add new applications for access management in just minutes, configure sophisticated RBAC rules via boolean logic, leverage segregation of duties (SoD) with Risotto’s advanced approval engine, and more, all via an incredibly intuitive self-serve dashboard that’s user-friendly and has a minimal learning curve. 

Risotto seamlessly integrates with existing ticketing systems. We offer seamless bi-directional sync with Jira, Freshservice, and Zendesk. Employees request software access in natural language in Slack, and on the backend, we handle ticket creation, titling, categorizing, tagging, routing, triage, and more.

Risotto can automate various types of tier-1 tickets. While IGA automation is one of Risotto’s key use cases, our AI agent can also automate knowledge-based questions, password resets, and other IT workflows via a conversational format in Slack (which mimics the experience of chatting with a human agent). Most teams achieve 20-60% tier-1 ticket automation rates:

• Fundrise: Automated nearly 60% of IT support tickets
• Superhuman: Automated nearly 20% of IT support tickets
• Trust & Will: Automated nearly 35% of IT support tickets
• Hazel Health: Improved deflection rates from 3-5% to over 20%
• Shakepay: Automated nearly 40% of IT support tickets
• Retool: Cut average SLA resolution time from 2 days to under 1 day
• Vidyard: Automated nearly 56% of IT support tickets

Risotto is built for enterprise scale. For example, companies like Gusto are using Risotto to support 4,000 employees in Slack. We’re also a great fit for growing enterprise companies, such as Ironclad, who support 600 employees and went from 100+ weekly manual tickets to 90% automation. 

Up next, we’ll discuss: 

• How our IGA software works 
• Risotto’s key benefits backed by customer quotes 

How Our IGA Software Works

In a nutshell, employees request access in Slack using natural language, and Risotto streamlines the entire process, from provisioning and deprovisioning, while maintaining a full audit trail for compliance. As Phillip Rickett, VP of IT at Fundrise, stated in our case study: 

“When a team member asks, ‘How do I get access to Hightouch?’ they’re not looking for a link or a document; they need immediate, actionable assistance… Risotto intelligently understands the intent behind the request. It confirms existing permissions, coordinates necessary approvals proactively, and automatically provisions access upon approval. This automation significantly speeds up provisioning and improves user satisfaction.”

Next, let’s examine:

• 3 examples of how Risotto streamlines temporary just-in-time access, approval-based access, and instant self-service access. 

• How you can add new applications for access management in just minutes.

• How you can set up flows that determine how Risotto grants access to any tool (and prevent unauthorized access), including RBAC rules, sequential and broadcast approval workflows, and more.  

Example #1: Time-Based Access 

Looking to move away from birthright access toward a model of just-in-time provisioning? 

Risotto can streamline this entire process. As Collin Clifford, Legal & Compliance Manager at Superhuman, stated in our case study: 

“For sensitive tools and resources Risotto’s automated time-based access has been a game-changer.”

Here’s a breakdown of the above example: 

1. Employee requests access in Slack via natural language: Hey IT, can you give my new team member @Michael Baker access to Stripe?
2. 🤖 Risotto clarifies access needed: Sure thing! What level of access does he need? 
3. Employee replies: View only.
4. 🤖 Risotto asks for duration: Got it. For how long? (1 hour to 90 days) 
5. Employee replies: 90 days, he’ll be on this project for a while.
6. 🤖 Risotto automatically provisions access: All set! He’s now got “View only” access to Stripe for 90 days. Need anything else? Start a new thread or click 👇 to chat with a human. 

The process is completely seamless for employees, and the only IT involvement required is approving requests, which is handled through an efficient Slack workflow. When reviewing requests, agents can see the full context: the employee's original request, their reasoning, and the complete conversation history — all in one view.

In addition, throughout this entire process, Risotto maintains a detailed audit trail. As Vergil Smith, IT Manager at Vidyard, stated in our case study: 

“Sending a compliance report from Risotto with all of the tickets tagged correctly — that's so much easier, it's definitely made audits a far less stressful experience." 

Additionally, Risotto can optionally send Slack notifications to employees before their access expires, asking if they'd like to extend it.

Per the above example:

1. 🤖 Risotto notifies the employee that access will soon expire: Hi Ethan, your access to Asana will expire in 7 days, would you like to extend your access by another 30 days? 
2. Employee replies: Yes, extend access, I’m still working on the design project.
3. 🤖 Risotto extends access: Done! 🎉 I’ve extended your access to Asana by 30 more days. Good luck finishing the design project! 

Example #2: Approval-Based Access 

Here’s a breakdown of the above example, taken from the Ironclad case study: 

1. Employee requests access in Slack via natural language: Hey! Can I get access to Appetize?
2. 🤖 Risotto clarifies which level of access is needed: Sure thing! What level do you need – Admin, Developer, or Appetite User?
3. Employee replies: Developer access, please.
4. 🤖 Risotto asks for reasoning: Got it! Just need a quick reason for the request so I can log it in the ticket. 
5. Employee replies: To test and post iOS builds.
6. 🤖 Risotto notifies employee the approval process is en route: Perfect - requesting approval now. 
7. 🤖 Upon approval, Risotto notifies the employee: ✅ You’re in! Developer access granted. Check your email for the invite.
8. Employee replies: Got it, I’m in - thanks! 

Just like that, an approval-based access request is solved seamlessly from initial request to final provisioning — all within Slack. This stands in stark contrast to competing tools. As the IT Engineering Manager at Ironclad noted: 

"The problem we faced is other AI support bots were not confident in themselves. If you asked, 'Can I have access to Salesforce?' it would respond, 'Do you want access to Salesforce?' Or worse, it wouldn't find the app at all."

In addition, Risotto excels at the small touches that transform user experience. Rather than asking vague questions like "What level of access do you need?", it proactively suggests specific options: "Do you need admin, developer, or standard user access?"

When granting access, it automatically reminds users to "check your email for the invite." These seemingly minor details eliminate confusion, reduce back-and-forth exchanges, and create a seamless experience that employees actually enjoy using.

Example #3: Instant Self-Service Access 

Based on your pre-configured rules, Risotto can automatically grant access to low-risk applications instantly — with no IT involvement and no approval delays. Employees request access and receive it immediately, all within the same conversation.

Here’s a breakdown of the above example:

1. Maya Lin requests access for her and a coworker: Kai Turner and I need Figma access. 
2. 🤖 Risotto clarifies access needed: Sure! Can you tell me why you need access? 
3. Kai Turner replies: We need to view the roadmap.
4. Maya Lin replies: Same here! 
5. 🤖 Risotto provisions instant self-service access: Just got that approved, and gave you both access to Figma. Roadmap’s all yours. Happy designing! 🚀

Smart Handling of Complex Scenarios 

Risotto goes beyond simple single-user requests. When an employee requests access for multiple people, it intelligently collects the required information from each individual — asking for business justification from both users, verifying manager approval (where necessary), and ensuring that every compliance requirement is met. No detail gets overlooked, maintaining security standards even as the process scales.

Meeting Employees Where They Are

Again, the beauty lies in meeting employees where they already are. Most employees already use Slack to ask for software access; Risotto transforms this familiar manual workflow into intelligent, scalable automation that delivers immediate results with minimal setup required.

Employees don’t have to learn separate interfaces and workflows, and this was one of Ironclad’s guiding principles when choosing Risotto. As Toby Stewart stated: “If we wouldn’t use it, we wouldn’t make other people use it.” (Read the case study here.) 

Add New Applications for Access Management in Just Minutes 

Risotto offers an intuitive, self-serve dashboard that makes setup and maintenance a breeze.

We offer integration with Okta groups, Google Groups, and other IDPs, so you can import your existing applications and rules in minutes. 

Here’s a preview of our Okta import wizard:

Centralized Application Management 

All applications and their access rules are displayed in a single, unified dashboard for complete visibility and control.

Flexible Configuration Options 

For each application, you can easily configure:

• RBAC rules using intuitive Boolean logic 
• Sophisticated approval workflows (e.g., sequential approvals, broadcast approvals, etc.) 
• Other custom security policies 

Notably, all configuration changes can be made directly by your team through our intuitive self-service dashboard. This stands in sharp contrast to many IGA platforms that require you to contact their support team to make both complex and routine adjustments alike — creating unnecessary friction and delays. 

Customer Quotes Highlighting Risotto’s Key Advantages

Throughout this article, we've explored many of Risotto's key features and benefits. Next, we'll consolidate these advantages alongside additional capabilities we haven't covered yet — all supported by customer testimonials. 

❇️ Risotto offers IGA automation via powerful AI workflows

“When a team member asks, ‘How do I get access to Hightouch?’ they’re not looking for a link or a document; they need immediate, actionable assistance… Risotto intelligently understands the intent behind the request. It confirms existing permissions, coordinates necessary approvals proactively, and automatically provisions access upon approval. This automation significantly speeds up provisioning and improves user satisfaction.”

‍– Phillip Rickett, VP of IT at Fundrise

“The software access automations were a huge win for us. They were super easy to set up and we now have more than 30 applications with automated provisioning running 24/7.”

‍– Tom Grinberg, IT Manager at Trust & Will 

"Automated software access saves us so much time. Within minutes people get the access they need with everything tracked, approved, and no additional overhead needed… For sensitive tools and resources Risotto's automated time-based access has been a game-changer."

‍– Collin Clifford, Legal & Compliance Manager at Superhuman 

"Our control for SOC 2 is that access to privileged systems is approved by a manager… Risotto is able to automate the approval process and ticket tracking portion which is exactly what we needed.”

‍– Vergil Smith, IT Manager at Vidyard

❇️ Risotto works out of the box in hours (not weeks or months), and we provide a thorough onboarding experience

“With our old chatbot, every new application required a cumbersome onboarding process through the vendor. Now, adding an application to Risotto takes just a few minutes.”

– Phillip Rickett, VP of IT at Fundrise

“Ease of deployment was huge. We didn’t need a consultant or months of configuration. Risotto just worked.”

– Peter Hadjisavas, Head of IT at Hazel Health

"Risotto had the most thorough onboarding experience I've ever been a part of. Alex was great - he met with us weekly and made it very easy to quickly get up and running."

– Collin Clifford, Legal & Compliance Manager at Superhuman

 ❇️ Beyond IGA automation, our AI agent excels at solving knowledge-based tickets via a conversational format in Slack (and can perform triage, multi-step troubleshooting, and more) 

“Our previous tool summarized whatever it pulled from wiki articles, it didn’t supplement responses with broader LLM knowledge or reasoning. This approach fell short because it lacked the capability to fully understand user intent or supplement answers with external knowledge… Risotto, however, synthesizes information from multiple inputs to provide context-aware, accurate, and actionable responses.”

‍– Phillip Rickett, VP of IT at Fundrise

“It was amazing to see Risotto solve questions for me when I was out of the office, and our employees loved getting answers instantly.”

‍– Collin Clifford, Legal & Compliance Manager at Superhuman 

 ❇️ For knowledge-based questions, our AI agent automatically learns from past ticket resolutions and Slack updates (ensuring IT agents never have to answer the same question twice) 

“The killer feature for us was that it could effortlessly learn and capture knowledge that our team creates every day in Slack… with Risotto, instead of constantly writing new documentation, our team can simply answer questions, and Risotto learns as we go.”

– Phillip Rickett, VP of IT at Fundrise

“The more we use Risotto, the smarter it gets, that’s what makes it different from every other tool we’ve tried.”

– Peter Hadjisavas, Head of IT at Hazel Health

 ❇️ Risotto is embedded directly within the help desk support funnel in Slack

"Other IGA solutions felt clunky to set up and maintain. There was a lot of overhead to maintain them and they weren't embedded in the help desk, so you're solving one problem but creating another… we include Risotto in all our onboarding material now, and once people see how useful it is they keep coming back to use it more which is a really good sign.”

– Toby Stewart, IT Engineering at Ironclad

“We want AI to seamlessly fit into our team’s daily operations, meeting our users where they already work… Risotto’s minimal operational overhead and integration into Slack has enabled us to achieve exactly that.”

– Phillip Rickett, VP of IT at Fundrise

“We wanted to implement more standardization and automation in our help desk, but there wasn’t an easy way in Slack without clunky custom work. Risotto helped us do that.”

– Vergil Smith, IT Manager at Vidyard 

“We’re now able to keep requests centralized and work on all of those things in one view, which is really nice. It works so reliably so we don’t have to worry about missing a message.”

– Charlie Verrey, IT Manager at Retool 

“Risotto has been super popular internally, it’s a much improved experience for employees to get answers and problems solved immediately.”

– Tom Grinberg, IT Manager at Trust & Will

 ❇️ Risotto integrates via seamless bi-directional sync with Jira, Freshservice, or Zendesk, and manages the entire ticket lifecycle behind the scenes

“Risotto became the orchestration layer for Jira Service Management and gives us instant automation with AI… We always wanted to require a reason for application access, but it was really difficult to integrate that into JSM. Risotto adds that functionality to JSM and so much more.”

‍– Tom Grinberg, IT Manager at Trust & Will

 ❇️ Risotto is multi-departmental — HR, Sales, Legal, and other departments can also automate repetitive tickets and tasks (and we offer intelligent ticket routing, flexible per-department configurations & more)

"The multi-department capabilities are awesome. Our engineering and RevOps teams now also want to use Risotto as they also get lots of the same questions over and over again.”

– Collin Clifford, Legal & Compliance Manager at Superhuman

Interested in Learning More About Risotto?

Risotto combines IGA + Knowledge + Slack, all in one unified platform. It’s designed for enterprise IT teams, and most teams achieve 20-60% tier-1 automation rates. 

We invite you to:

• Schedule a demo call with our team, all of whom have extensive IT experience prior to founding Risotto.

• Learn about our origin story: How we went from drowning in SaaS sprawl and endless knowledge tickets to building the solution we desperately needed.

• Explore the following customer success stories: 
  
  • Ironclad: Automated nearly 90% of access-related IT requests
  • Fundrise: Automated nearly 60% of IT support tickets
  • Superhuman: Automated nearly 20% of IT support tickets
  • Trust & Will: Automated nearly 35% of IT support tickets
  • Hazel Health: Improved deflection rates from 3-5% to over 20%
  • Shakepay: Automated nearly 40% of IT support tickets
  • Retool: Reduced SLA resolution time from an average of 2 days to under 1 day
  • Vidyard: Automated nearly 56% of IT support tickets

2. SailPoint

While SailPoint is a powerful IGA platform, it can be difficult and time-consuming to set up, and the time-to-value is slow. In addition, as a user noted on Reddit:

“If you want to do anything with SailPoint you need to contact their engineers or partners though. They do not expose or let you see code on processes. Very annoying for people that prefer to do things themselves because you already have the skill set and you don’t want to pay for services or have to wait an obscene amount of time to just receive responses.”

Some of SailPoint’s key capabilities include:

• Access Risk Management
• AI-powered Application Onboarding
• Accelerated Application Management
• Search Connectors & Integrators 
• Cloud Infrastructure 
• Entitlement Management
• Non-Employee Risk Management
• Data Access Security
• Password Management
• Machine Identity Security
• Identity Risk
• Harbor Pilot

Some of the key use cases they list include: mitigating cyber risk, improving IT efficiency, embracing zero trust, accelerating on & offboarding modernization, and maintaining compliance.

Some of the industries they serve include Education, Financial Services, Government, Healthcare, Manufacturing, and more. Overall, it’s a solid tool for identity lifecycle management across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid ecosystems. 

3. Saviynt

While Saviynt is a powerful, customizable IGA software, some users report it’s too expensive for their needs. In addition, as one user noted on Reddit, Saviynt requires “so much setup, care and feeding, we just don't have that sort of time and money”.  

Some of Saviynt’s key products include:

• The Identity Cloud
• Identity Security Posture Management
• Identity Governance & Administration
• Application Access Governance
• Privileged Access Management
• External Identity Management

Some of the advanced capabilities they list include Intelligent Recommendations, Just-in-Time Access, Non-Human Identity, and Saviynt MCP Server. 

They offer integrations with AWS, SAP, ServiceNow, CrowdStrike, and various other platforms. Overall, it’s a solid tool to increase IAM process efficiencies. They can help protect sensitive data, mitigate the risk of data breaches, and improve cybersecurity measures.  

4. Okta

While Okta is a powerful platform, one user noted on Reddit:

‍“Okta is a great SSO and MFA solution. Their new ‘IGA’ solution is hardly that. IGA is all about processes and the Okta IGA solution is nowhere near best-of-breed.”  

Some of the key products Okta lists include: 

• Identity Governance & Administration 
• Identity & Access Management
• Privileged Access Management
• Security Posture Management 
• Identity Threat Detection & Response 
• Customer Identity & Access Management

Some of the key industries they serve include the Public Sector, Financial Services, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Retail, Travel & Hospitality, Technology, Non-Profit, Energy, and more. They can also assist customers with GDPR compliance. 

5. Lumos

While Lumos offers a solid IGA software, unlike Risotto, it wasn’t designed from the ground up to be embedded directly within the help desk support funnel. (As we cover in more detail in our article on the top Lumos competitors). 

Some of the key solutions Lumos lists include:

• Identity Governance 
• Least-Privilege Access Controls 
• Access Reviews 
• Identity Security 
• Posture Management
• Lifecycle Management 
• Zero-Touch IT 
• SaaS Discovery 
• Spend Optimization 

6. One Identity 

One Identity categorizes its products into 5 categories:

• Identity Governance and Administration
• Privileged Access Management
• Access Management 
• Active Directory Management
• Log Management

Some of the key solutions they list include behavior-driven governance, advanced authentication, enhanced active directory governance, enhanced log management, AI-driven security with built-in predictive insights, privileged access governance, and more. Overall, it’s a solid tool for managing identities, access rights, and security, offering cloud-based capabilities. 

7. Zluri

Some of the core capabilities Zluri lists include:

• SaaS Management
• Access Management
• Access Requests
• Access Reviews

You can also browse their solutions by regulation, including SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, SOX ITGC, and PCI DSS, ensuring regulatory compliance.  

8. CyberArk

Some of CyberArk’s key capabilities include: 

• Modern Identity Governance and Automation 
• Access Management
• Secure Cloud Access  
• Privileged Access 
• Endpoint Identity Security 
• Machine Identity Security 

They serve various industries, including Automotive, Banking, Critical Infrastructure, Financial Services, Government, Healthcare, Insurance, Manufacturing, and more. Overall, it’s a solid tool for real-time identity and access management, and they offer cloud-native functionality.   

Get Started with Risotto

Risotto saves you time, improves security, and reduces cloud costs with automated IGA. It’s embedded directly within the help desk support funnel in Slack and can be deployed in just a few hours. 

This stands in stark contrast to legacy IGA tools that require complex configuration setup, which can take several weeks or months. (Not to mention the maintenance and upkeep work).

You can choose from two plans: 

• Startup plan, available to <200 employees, for $750/month (paid annually). 
• Enterprise plan, custom and scalable for you. 

We invite you to book a demo call and learn more via our origin story.