Novell has launched a set of tools designed to help firms manage the way users access corporate data in a more simple and efficient way.

The Novell Access Governance Suite will help security professionals manage user access from policy creation to enforcement using Novell Roles Lifecycle Manager and Novell Compliance Certification Manager, according to the firm.

The suite helps IT administrators gain visibility into users' access rights across the enterprise, and automates tasks such as access review, certification, reporting, access change management and access rights remediation, said Novell.

However, key to the announcement is the ability for IT security professionals to interact more closely with the business, allowing them to participate in role design and thus take accountability for managing roles and governing user access.

"IT departments are increasingly being asked to enact business policies and automate business processes which they neither have knowledge of nor control over," said Kevin Kampman, senior analyst at Burton Group, in a statement supporting the release.

"To close this divide, policy decisions and compliance monitoring must be pushed to the business owners. Identity management vendors have begun to address this issue through improved workflow, delegated administration, self-service and access attestation functionality."