Privileged Identity Management (PIM)
The riskiest thing in most Microsoft 365 tenants isn't malware — it's the standing admin. Accounts that hold Global Administrator around the clock, for jobs that need it an hour a week. Privileged identity management (PIM) is the approval system that fixes it: admin roles become eligible instead of permanent, get activated just in time with MFA and an approval in front of them, expire on a timer, and leave a review trail. NetSys designs, deploys, and runs it — most often on Microsoft Entra PIM.
The short answer
Privileged identity management (PIM) governs who holds elevated roles and for how long. Instead of permanent admin rights, roles are assigned as eligible: when someone needs Global Administrator or another privileged role, they activate it just in time — behind MFA and, for sensitive roles, an approval — use it for a defined window, and the role expires automatically, with every activation logged and assignments re-checked through scheduled access reviews. The best-known implementation is Microsoft Entra PIM, which requires Entra ID P2 licensing. NetSys deploys and operates PIM as part of the same security stack our engineers already run, month to month — and where credential vaulting and session monitoring are needed too, it pairs with our privileged access management service.
Ask who the admins are in most small businesses and you get a list built by history: the owner, whoever set up the tenant, an IT vendor from two contracts ago, and a couple of people who needed it once. Every one of those is a standing target — an account that, if phished, hands an attacker the tenant at any hour, because the rights are always on.
PIM inverts the model. Nobody is an admin by default; the right people are eligible to become one. Elevation takes seconds — verify with MFA, state a reason, get the role for the window it's needed — and then it's gone again. The business gets the same work done with a fraction of the standing exposure, and the log of who activated what, when, and why writes itself.
The Approval System for Admin Rights
PIM answers one question continuously: should this person hold this elevated role right now? We configure the answer into the tenant — which roles are eligible for whom, which require approval, how long activations last, and who reviews the assignments each quarter. Then we run it: approvals staffed, reviews scheduled, alerts on activations that don't fit the pattern. It's governance that operates like a mechanism instead of a memo.
What the PIM Service Covers
Role Design & Eligible Assignments
From a history-built admin list to a designed one.
- Audit of every current admin-role holder — including the ones nobody remembers granting
- Permanent assignments converted to eligible, time-bound ones
- Role scoping: the role the job needs, not Global Administrator by default
- Break-glass emergency accounts excluded by design, so PIM never locks you out
Just-in-Time Activation
Admin rights that exist only while they're in use.
- Activation behind MFA, with a stated business justification
- Approval workflows on the most sensitive roles — a second person says yes
- Time-boxed windows that expire on their own — no standing rights to forget
- Activation alerts watched by the same team that runs your monitoring
Access Reviews & Recertification
Assignments get re-earned, not grandfathered.
- Scheduled reviews of who is eligible for which roles
- Automatic removal when a review lapses or a reviewer says no
- Departure and role-change checks folded into offboarding
- A review trail that answers auditors' access questions in minutes
Run Inside Your Microsoft Tenant
Built on Entra PIM, operated with the rest of your stack.
- Deployed on Microsoft Entra PIM — Entra ID P2 licensing, which we verify before anything is quoted
- Honest licensing guidance: P2 comes with plans like Microsoft 365 E5, not Business Premium
- Configured alongside Conditional Access, MFA, and the rest of tenant security
- Paired with credential vaulting from our PAM service where the environment needs it
Why Businesses Choose NetSys for PIM
Let The Netsys Group assess and help you resolve your exposure. Call 845-203-3914 for your complimentary risk assessment consultation today!
- Run by the engineers who already manage your Microsoft 365 tenant and security stack — activation alerts land somewhere staffed
- Licensing honesty first: we check what your tenant already includes before recommending anything
- Designed with break-glass access so governance never becomes a lockout
- Evidence as a by-product: activation logs and access reviews ready for auditors and carriers
- Month to month, like every NetSys agreement
Entra PIM licensing, honestly
The first PIM question isn't technical — it's whether you already own it. Where PIM sits across the plans small businesses actually hold:
| Plan you may hold | Entra PIM included? | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 Business Premium | No — ships Entra ID P1 | Conditional Access yes; PIM needs a P2 step-up |
| Microsoft 365 E3 | No — Entra ID P1 | Same position: add P2 or move up |
| Microsoft 365 E5 | Yes — Entra ID P2 included | PIM is ready to configure today |
| Entra ID P2 (standalone add-on) | Yes | Adds PIM to any base plan, per user |
| Microsoft Entra ID Governance | Yes — PIM included | PIM plus deeper lifecycle and review tooling |
Per Microsoft's licensing documentation at this writing. We verify what your tenant actually holds before recommending anything — often the answer is engineering, not new licenses.
What a PIM activation looks like
The whole point is that elevation becomes a fast, recorded ritual instead of a permanent state:
- Request — an eligible admin selects the role and states the business reason. Under a minute.
- Gate — MFA verifies the person; the most sensitive roles also wait for a second person's approval.
- Window — the role is active for the configured period: an hour for routine work, a shift for a project.
- Expiry — the role removes itself. No cleanup ticket, no forgotten admin.
- Record — the activation is logged, and scheduled access reviews re-confirm who should stay eligible.
Break-glass emergency accounts live outside PIM by design — governance should never be the reason you can't get into your own tenant during an incident.
Where we deliver Privileged Identity Management
Privileged Identity Management in Brooklyn, NY · Privileged Identity Management in Westchester County · Privileged Identity Management in Greenwich, CT · Privileged Identity Management in New Jersey · Privileged Identity Management in Orange County, NY — and remotely wherever your systems run. See all locations and service areas.
Privileged Identity Management FAQs
What is privileged identity management (PIM)?
PIM is the discipline of governing who holds elevated roles and for how long. Rather than permanent admin rights, people are made eligible for roles they activate just in time — behind MFA and, for sensitive roles, an approval — for a time-boxed window that expires automatically. Scheduled access reviews then re-check who should stay eligible. The result: the same admin work gets done with almost no standing admin exposure, and every elevation is logged.
What is Microsoft Entra PIM?
Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management is Microsoft's PIM implementation for Entra ID and Microsoft 365 admin roles — the most common way small and mid-sized businesses get PIM. It provides eligible role assignments, just-in-time activation with MFA and approvals, time-bound windows, access reviews, and an audit log. It requires Microsoft Entra ID P2 licensing, per Microsoft's documentation, which is included in enterprise plans like Microsoft 365 E5 but not in Business Premium.
What is the difference between PIM and PAM?
PIM is the approval system: it governs who gets an elevated role and when, through just-in-time, time-bound activation. PAM is the vault and the guard: it controls how privileged access is used — credential vaulting, automatic password rotation, and session monitoring. PIM asks “should this person hold this role right now?”; PAM asks “what is this account doing with its access, and is it secure?” Most environments benefit from both, and we run them as one program. Our PIM vs PAM guide walks through the decision in detail.
What are eligible and active role assignments?
An active assignment means the person holds the role right now — the traditional standing admin. An eligible assignment means they're pre-approved to take the role but don't currently have it; they activate it when needed and it expires when the window ends. Converting active assignments to eligible ones is the core move of a PIM rollout: the org chart of who can administer things stays the same, while the standing attack surface collapses.
Will just-in-time activation slow my team down?
Activation takes under a minute — verify MFA, state the reason, receive the role — and roles that fire constantly can be tuned with longer windows or no approval step. What disappears isn't speed; it's the permanent rights nobody was using between tasks. We pilot PIM on the noisiest roles first and adjust windows with your team before enforcing it broadly, and break-glass accounts stay outside PIM so an emergency never waits on an approval.
What does a PIM engagement cost?
It's scoped to your tenant: how many admin-role holders exist, whether your licensing already includes Entra ID P2, and how much review and approval structure your compliance picture calls for — then folded into a month-to-month agreement like everything we do. If your plan already carries P2, PIM is mostly engineering rather than new licensing. A short conversation about your admin list gets you a real number.
Guides on this topic
- What Is Privileged Identity Management? A Plain-English Guide
- PIM vs PAM — Which One Do You Actually Need?
- Privileged Access Management — The Vault-and-Guard Side
- Microsoft 365 Management — The Tenant Where Entra PIM Lives
- What Is Privileged Access Management? A Plain-English Guide
- Microsoft 365 Security Checklist — Where Admin Cleanup Fits
Related services
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