Establishing a user's rights to information within an organization. The management part deals with adding user names and passwords to electronic directories along with the assignment of rights to data and network resources (files, databases, printers, Internet, etc.). Maintenance includes updating the directories when employees change their job classifications or departments or leave the company. The provisioning deals with planning, setting up and configuring the hardware, software and networks that actually deliver access to the data and network resources for the users. User management and provisioning is also called "identity management." See provisioning.