What does PIM stand for?
PIM stands for privileged identity management, the control that makes admin rights temporary: a person is eligible for an administrator role rather than holding it, activates it for a set window when a task needs it, usually after MFA and sometimes an approval, and loses it automatically when the window closes. Every activation is logged.
Privileged identity management (PIM) is the practice of governing who may hold an administrative role and for how long. Instead of granting a person permanent Global Administrator or Exchange Administrator rights, PIM marks the person as eligible for the role. When they need it, they activate it for a defined window, usually with multi-factor authentication and, for the most sensitive roles, a second person's approval. When the window closes the role is removed automatically, and every activation is written to an audit log.
Why it matters for a small business
If your Microsoft 365 tenant has five people with permanent Global Administrator rights, each of those five logins can take down the whole company, and a phished password on any one of them is a full compromise. PIM lets those people keep doing their jobs while holding admin power only for the hour they need it, with a log that shows who activated what. Insurers and compliance frameworks increasingly ask for exactly this. It is a configuration change rather than a new product if your licensing already includes Entra ID P2.
Setting up PIM in your tenant?
We configure Entra ID PIM in our managed agreements: standing admin roles become eligible ones, with activation limits, approvals and scheduled access reviews.
Privileged Identity Management (PIM): FAQs
Is PIM included in Microsoft 365?
Entra ID Privileged Identity Management requires Microsoft Entra ID P2 or Microsoft Entra ID Governance licenses. P2 is included with Microsoft 365 E5 and available as an add-on for other plans, including Business Premium, which itself includes Entra ID P1: enough for Conditional Access but not PIM. Microsoft's licensing requires the license for the people who hold eligible or time-bound roles, approve activations or perform access reviews, rather than for every user in the company, so a small business usually licenses only its administrators.
Do we need PAM if we already have PIM in Entra ID?
Usually yes, because PIM covers who can activate a role in Entra ID but does not protect the credentials of accounts outside it: firewall admins, backup consoles, local administrator passwords, service accounts and vendor logins. PAM vaults and rotates those credentials and records privileged sessions. Think of PIM as the answer to whether someone should be an admin right now, and PAM as the answer to how that access is protected while it is in use. NetSys treats them as one sequence and includes both in a managed agreement.
How does just-in-time admin access work?
A user who is eligible for a role opens the PIM portal, requests the role, gives a reason and completes MFA. If the role requires approval, a designated approver gets a notification and grants or denies the request. The role becomes active for a set period, often between one and eight hours, and then disappears without anyone having to remember to remove it. The activation, the reason and the approver are all logged, which is what makes the model auditable.
What is a privileged identity management role?
It is an administrator role, such as Global Administrator or Exchange Administrator in Microsoft Entra ID, that is managed through PIM instead of being assigned permanently. Microsoft's PIM distinguishes eligible assignments, which the person must activate before using the role, from active assignments, which work without any action. Either kind can be permanent or time-bound with start and end dates, and the access granted is the same; only the need to activate differs.
What does Microsoft Entra PIM include?
Microsoft lists just-in-time access to Entra ID and Azure resource roles, time-bound assignments with start and end dates, approval to activate a role, MFA on activation, a required justification, notifications when roles are activated, access reviews, downloadable audit history, and protection against removing the last active Global Administrator. Rolling it out means choosing which roles become eligible, how long an activation lasts and who approves.
Does PIM mean anything else?
Yes. In retail and e-commerce, PIM usually means product information management, software that keeps product descriptions and specifications consistent across sales channels. Older software guides use it for a personal information manager, a contacts and calendar program. In IT security and Microsoft 365, PIM means privileged identity management.
More terms
Have PIM designed, deployed and run.
Bring your Microsoft 365 plan and the list of everyone who holds an admin role today. NetSys confirms licensing first, then scopes the rollout: role design, activation windows, approvals and access reviews, with emergency access kept outside PIM.