1. The Challenge

As a major FTSE 250 retailer operating hundreds of stores, distribution centres, and a large head-office workforce, the organisation relied heavily on Microsoft 365 and Azure AD for daily operations.

Over time, organic growth, seasonal hiring, and distributed teams had introduced identity-related risks, including:

• dormant or duplicate user accounts
• inconsistent MFA and password policies
• excessive privileged roles
• legacy authentication still enabled
• lack of visibility over app permissions and access pathways

With retail operations dependent on smooth access and high security, the organisation needed clarity on its identity estate and a practical plan to modernise its controls.

2. Our Approach

Peritus delivered a targeted identity and access governance project focused on strengthening hygiene, reducing operational risk, and setting a scalable foundation for the retailer’s cloud environment.

Our work included:

• Full audit of user lifecycle, joiner-mover-leaver processes, and identity hygiene
• Review of MFA, conditional access, and privileged role management
• Identification of risky or unused permissions across SaaS apps
• Evaluation of legacy authentication and sign-in patterns
• Mapping of misconfigurations aligned to retail-specific workflows and access needs
• A prioritised remediation roadmap with actionable technical steps
• Recommendations for long-term identity governance and automation

This gave the retailer a clear understanding of its identity posture and practical actions to strengthen security and operational efficiency

3. The Outcome

The project delivered a measurable uplift in identity security, including:

• 38% reduction in misconfigured or excessive-access accounts
• Improved MFA consistency across store, warehouse, and head-office teams
• Removal of legacy authentication across the estate
• Stronger privileged access controls and role alignment
• Reduced operational risk tied to seasonal and temporary workforce onboarding
• Clear, repeatable processes for identity governance moving forward

Peritus helped the organisation modernise identity security without disrupting retail operations or employee experience.

“Peritus gave us a level of clarity and control we hadn’t had before. Their recommendations were practical, specific to our environment, and immediately improved our identity security.”    

— Head of Technology Security, FTSE 250 Retailer

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