How Deel IT Simplifies Identity and Access Management for Global Teams

Your company uses an ever-shifting patchwork of tools and channels. As people join, leave, move to different teams, take on cross-functional roles, or get promoted, IT access needs to be updated. Keeping track of who has access to what can be a headache, particularly for globally distributed teams and those working across time zones. But when not handled efficiently, you risk delays, orphaned accounts, and even compliance and security issues.

Manual access management simply doesn’t work in the modern workplace. The answer is Identity and Access Management. In this guide, we’ll take you through what that is and how Deel IT makes it scalable and seamless for today’s teams.

What is Identity and Access Management (IAM)?

Identity and Access Management (IAM) is the process of simplifying and automating access and permissions within an organization.

IAM handles:

• Authentication: Verifying that someone is who they claim to be (passwords, multi-factor authentication, SSO, etc.).
• Authorization: Making sure those people only get access to what they need (not everything).
• Administration and lifecycle management. Giving access at hire, updating as roles change, and revoking it at exit.
• Audit and reporting: Logging who accessed what and when, useful for compliance, security reviews, and internal visibility.

The goal of efficient IAM is to ensure that the right people have the right access and that any changes are handled quickly. This keeps data secure while also helping teams work smoothly.

For example, if a member of your marketing team moves over to product management, they’ll need access to your product roadmapping and user research tools. They’ll also no longer need access to marketing tools and advertising dashboards. Efficient IAM can approve and revoke access accordingly, getting them what they need for their new role swiftly.

Why efficient IAM matters for HR

HR leaders should be cheerleaders for proper IAM, as it helps create a smoother employee experience (especially for those working remotely), and is a key component of seamless HR Ops.
IAM supports HR by handling:

• Automatic access provisioning and deprovisioning: As soon as you add a person in the HR platform (or mark their status as changed), Deel IT automatically gives them the right access — or revokes it when they leave. No need for manual tickets or back-and-forth with IT.
• Seamless role changes and updates: When an employee’s role or team changes, access rights update automatically. That keeps permissions aligned with responsibilities and reduces the risk of over-privileged accounts.
• One single source of truth: HR becomes the “source of truth” for identity and role data, making it easier to manage identities, access, and compliance from one place.
• Secure and compliant by default: With authentication best practices (e.g., multi-factor authentication, single sign-on), and detailed audit logs, Deel IT helps companies meet data protection and compliance requirements. This is important for global teams working under different regulations.
• Scalable for global operations: Whether you hire in Madrid, Berlin, São Paulo, or Manila, Deel IT supports international teams, managing access across locations without headaches.

IAM with Deel IT: How does it work?

Deel IT is designed to keep your employees connected, productive, and secure, without increasing HR and IT overheads. Our approach to IAM is no different.

Key capabilities

With Deel IT IAM, you get a centralized tool that handles:

• User directory and provisioning: Identities are created the moment a contract is signed in Deel, so new hires are ready to go on day one without manual setup.
• Application integration and Single Sign-On (SSO): Employees log in once to access all their apps. Behind the scenes, Deel uses standard secure protocols (like SAML and OIDC) to make it seamless.
• Access and security policies: Enforce MFA, password resets, and conditional access rules from one place, all scaling automatically as roles or teams change.
• Auditing and reporting: Track user activity with real-time logs and audit trails, keeping companies always audit-ready.
• HR-driven lifecycle management: Access is automatically updated with HR events in Deel: provision on hire, adjust with promotions, and revoke instantly on termination.

Key benefits

The main benefit is unified management and the ability to manage permissions for all SaaS applications from the Deel dashboard. This makes permission management as simple as possible, negating the need to log in and out of different tools manually. You also gain a comprehensive view of who has access to what, giving you more overall control over your applications.

This centralized approach gives you a single source of truth, particularly when used with Deel HR. Automatically granting or revoking access as people’s relationship to your organization changes eliminates manual work and minimizes delays.

This approach is also a benefit for employees, contributing to a smoother working environment. Instead of running around looking for an account owner, they get a personalized launchpad inside of Deel, where all provisioned apps are available in one place. The use of SSO protects company data whilst also allowing them to smoothly move between the apps they need without remembering multiple passwords.

Best practices for efficient IAM

There is more than one way to approach IAM, but there are some best practices you can follow to keep it scalable and efficient.

Use role-based access control (RBAC) to manage access at scale

Tie access to pre-defined roles rather than individual requests. For example, anyone in your design team will need access to your brand assets, A/B testing tools, design suites, and heatmaps. Regional compliance will also dictate the access needed by your teams. So in this case, you might apply a role for ‘Designer - EU’ and ‘Designer - US.’

Standardizing access based on role and location is significantly more efficient than managing it manually, and gives you more control.

Offer training in secure access and password hygiene

Even the strongest defences can be breached if your teams are uninformed about potential threats. As your new IAM system is rolled out, offer training in basic hygiene, including:

• How to recognize phishing attempts across different channels
• Why personal devices and shadow IT create security blind spots
• Safe handling of login credentials and MFA prompts
• What to do if access is accidentally shared or compromised

This essential training enables your teams to be better collaborators in your organization’s security.

How to get started with Deel IT

We designed Deel IT to be fast and easy to use. Getting started is equally simple, with just a few steps to get your new IAM process up and running.

1. Audit how you manage access today

Document how new hires get apps, who handles access changes, and how offboarding is done. Create a list of common pain points related to IAM. You should have a short list of current manual steps, tools, and frequent failures (e.g., delayed access, orphaned accounts).

2. Gain access to Deel IT

If you haven’t already done so, speak with your Deel Customer Success representative or contact sales. You’ll need Deel IT admin permissions, and Deel IT Access Management must be enabled for your organization.

3. Navigate to your Access Management dashboard

This can be found from the Deel dashboard by going to IT > Access Management. From here, you can access the main IAM functions:

• Access Groups is your primary workspace, where you'll create groups of users based on HR data to assign app access in bulk
• Applications shows a list of all applications your organization has configured
• Settings is where you configure rules for onboarding and offboarding (such as provisioning/deprovisioning dates)
• Event Log shows a complete audit trail of all Access Management activities

4. Create and manage an Access group

These are the foundation of Deel Access Management, and there are two types available:

• Static Groups: Members are added manually, either individually or in bulk.
• Dynamic Groups: Members are added and removed automatically based on HR criteria you define (such as Job Title, Start Date, Country, contract type, and more). Dynamic groups updated automatically as your workforce changes.

5. Add a new application

To make a new application available for adding to access groups, go to IT > Access Management > Applications, and click Add Application. Follow the instructions to log in and authorize the new application.

6. Configure provisioning rules

These rules ensure onboarding and offboarding happen automatically, without manual intervention. On the Identity management page, go to the Settings tab. In the Access Rules section, configure the following:

• Onboarding: Choose when new hire accounts should be provisioned (e.g., on the start date or a few days before for pre-onboarding).
• Offboarding: Choose when departing employees lose access. Best practice is to suspend access on the termination date.

Case study: How Directional Pizza, the largest Pizza Hut franchise in the UK, manages global IT with Deel

When Directional Pizza expanded into Europe as a new franchisee, it encountered fragmented payroll and HR operating systems after establishing itself as a new entity and acquiring portfolios of restaurants across the UK, Denmark, and Sweden.

Without a unified system providing a single view of labor costs, the organization risked inefficiencies in navigating economic shifts and ensuring multi-market compliance.

With Deel IT’s global-first solution, the team was able to hire across borders and seamlessly equip employees with the technology they needed, wherever they were located. Directional Pizza can now procure, deploy, and manage IT assets across all countries from a single platform.

Read more about how Directional Pizza scaled globally with Deel HR and Deel IT.

Discover fast and scalable IAM with Deel IT

See for yourself what IAM looks like with Deel IT, and how it can keep your teams connected and your organization’s data secure. With Deel IT you can:

• Buy, lease, and ship devices for your whole team so they’re ready on their first day.
• Repair, recover, and
reuse devices with ease.
• Manage devices for your globally distributed team, in over 130 countries.
• Protect your business from cyber threats, 24/7.

Book your 30-minute demo today.