PIAM (Physical Identity & Access Management)
The discipline of governing physical-access identities across an enterprise — typically employees, contractors, and long-tenured non-employees. PIAM is the umbrella term for what AE Guardian does: it consumes identity from HR (Workday, SAP HR), syncs entitlements from IAM (Okta, Entra ID), provisions access into one or more PACS, and reconciles drift between the systems.
PIAM is distinct from but adjacent to: - IAM (Identity & Access Management) — logical/digital access (apps, networks, data) - VIM (vim) — short-lived visitor identities - PACS — the downstream physical access control system itself
The "PI" in PIAM is the differentiator — physical access has different requirements than digital (real hardware revocation, badge re-issuance after loss, on-site badging at hire, off-boarding day-of-termination escort policies). AE Guardian's value proposition centers on automating PIAM at enterprise scale.
What other systems call it
Per-vendor / per-standard terminology for this same concept.
| System | Term / Notes |
|---|---|
 AlertEnterprise | PIAM (the Guardian platform's core discipline) |
| LELenel | PIAM (Lenel OpenAccess exposes Cardholder + Cardholder Badge + Cardholder Access for the PIAM scope) |
| SHSoftware House C·CURE | PIAM (CCURE 9000 Victor exposes Cardholder + Cardholder Badge + Cardholder Access for PIAM) |
Used by 4 connectors
Connectors in the catalog that reference this concept.