When new stores are opened, employees are hired, or partners are onboarded, digital identities must be provisioned quickly and securely. For C&A – one of the most experienced and pioneering retail companies in the international fashion industry – this had long been a challenge: an IAM initiative launched years earlier had never reached productive operation despite several years of development.
Together with iC Consult, the company therefore decided to start from scratch. Within just six months, the project team implemented a modern identity governance platform based on Saviynt and automated the management of around 30,000 internal and external identities.
Content
Customer & Project Overview
Customer Profile
Industry: Retail
Headquarters: Düsseldorf, Germany
Employees: > 25,000
Number Identities: 30,000
With over 1,300 stores in 17 European countries and more than 25,000 employees, C&A is one of Europe’s leading fashion retailers. Every day, C&A welcomes millions of customers to its stores and online shop. The company offers high-quality, durable fashion at affordable prices for everyone.
Implementation of a new, company-wide IAM platform based on Saviynt to manage internal and external user identities. Automation of onboarding and identity lifecycle processes to enhance efficiency and security.
Saviynt
Results
Centralized management of 30,000 user accounts on a modern, cloud-based SaaS platform from Saviynt.
End-to-end automated onboarding for over 24,000 internal and 6,000 external users.
Seamless integration of key systems including Active Directory, LDAP, API based, and SAP S/4HANA.
Automated branch and location integration based on up-to-date HR data, without additional manual effort.
Significant reduction in administrative workload through automated identity lifecycle processes.
Enhanced security and compliance through standardized access policies and centralized governance.
Future-proof, scalable IAM platform to support further security initiatives and organizational growth.
Successful production go-live within just six months, despite a complex initial situation.
Situation
With thousands of employees and numerous external users, the fashion retailer C&A relies more than ever on a reliable and scalable Identity and Access Management (IAM) system. However, the company struggled for a long time with implementing the necessary identity infrastructure. While SAP Identity Services had been successfully integrated, the central platform intended to unify all dedicated systems and identities never went live. After several years of development and extensive testing, the system was ultimately never launched.
At the same time, the need for a modern solution continued to grow. New branches were opened, employees needed to be onboarded quickly, and secure, automated access to core systems such as Active Directory, LDAP, API based, and SAP S/4HANA became essential. Against this backdrop, C&A decided to fundamentally rebuild its IAM together with iC Consult.
Solution
The Path to a New Identity Governance Platform
As part of a comprehensive requirements analysis, iC Consult first assessed C&A’s existing requirements and system landscape. Based on this, the decision was made to implement a modern, cloud-based identity governance solution from Saviynt. Its AI-driven platform enables organizations to manage and secure access for human, non-human, and AI agents across applications, data, and infrastructures. A broad set of identity governance features allows Saviynt customers to streamline compliance processes, minimize risks, and ensure efficient operation of the entire architecture.
The project kicked off in May 2025 with a clear objective: to implement a production-ready IGA platform within just six months, capable of centrally managing both internal and external identities. The goal was twofold: to elevate the organization’s security posture and to significantly improve efficiency through the consistent automation of key identity processes.
Automated Onboarding
iC Consult implemented the Saviynt platform as the central component of a comprehensive identity lifecycle management approach. The solution was seamlessly integrated with C&A’s SAP HR system, which serves as the authoritative source for employee data. Whenever new employees are created in the HR system, the onboarding process is triggered automatically. The platform generates a digital identity for new employees and provisions accounts in Active Directory, LDAP, API based, and SAP S/4HANA.
New users are automatically assigned unique identity attributes and receive appropriate access rights based on their role from day one (“birthright access”). This includes essential baseline permissions such as email, collaboration tools, and internal applications. For more advanced access needs, iC Consult implemented structured access request workflows, enabling granular permission assignments based on predefined role-, attribute-, and policy-based models (RBAC, ABAC, and PBAC).
« What this project team has achieved in just a few months is truly remarkable. After the challenges of recent years, the implementation of a company-wide, production-ready identity platform was an incredibly important milestone for us. iC Consult supported us as a partner on equal terms – and went the proverbially extra mile for us more than once. »
Bernd Jürgens, CTO / Head of Technology Enablement at C&A
Rollout for Internal and External Users
The Saviynt platform was rolled out across the entire organization, covering both internal employees and external users such as branch staff and partners. To address all use cases, iC Consult developed dedicated onboarding workflows for each user group, including standardized templates and automated access provisioning.
Given C&A’s dynamic branch structure – with new stores opening regularly – the system was configured to automatically link new locations with HR data and assign them to the appropriate employees. In total, C&A now manages around 30,000 identities using the new solution – approximately 24,000 internal users and 6,000 external users.
Laying the Foundation for Greater Transparency and Security
In addition to automating onboarding processes, improving security and governance structures was a key priority for C&A. By introducing a centralized identity governance platform, the company established the foundation for centralized password policy management, automated lifecycle processes, and comprehensive reporting and notification capabilities.
Administrators and application owners are automatically informed about relevant changes and newly assigned permissions. Continuous synchronization of user accounts with HR data ensures reliable identity lifecycle control – for example, enabling the timely deactivation of accounts and access rights when employees leave the company, thereby preventing misuse. This approach has not only strengthened the security of C&A’s IT landscape but also reduced administrative effort in identity management.
Successful Implementation in Just Six Months
A key success factor throughout the project was the close and collaborative partnership between the teams at C&A and iC Consult. Despite ongoing adjustments to scope and parameters, the ambitious six-month timeline was successfully met. As planned, the new Saviynt-based identity governance platform went live at the end of October 2025 and has since been orchestrating all identity processes at C&A.
Outlook
A Strong Foundation for Strategic IAM Growth
The new platform already delivers tangible value in multiple areas. Even more importantly, C&A has established a solid foundation with Saviynt for a range of future strategic IAM initiatives. Potential next steps include the introduction of segregation-of-duties mechanisms, the integration of access certification processes, and the implementation of a Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution. Regardless of when these initiatives are executed, the groundwork has already been laid.
« Our collaboration with iC Consult was marked by a high level of commitment and a true partnership. The result far exceeded our expectations – and lays a solid foundation for many more IAM initiatives. »
Jörg Fichtner, Domain Lead Tech Core Services and Markets at C&A