If you are like me, chances are you have an alphabet soup of usernames and passwords that you use every day to login to various websites and apps. This jumbled approach is far from perfect. You may have experienced the vicious cycle of creating, forgetting, and resetting passwords, only to forget them again. However, there is hope.
Meet the single sign-on, or SSO. SSO authenticates users to multiple accounts or applications within an account using only one username or password². Consider Google, for example. When you sign into your Google account, you can access Gmail, Docs, Slides, Sheets, YouTube and more without separate logins for every app². Here, we will learn more about why and how SSO is valuable for you and your business.
One major benefit of SSO is that it saves time. A single task may take twice as long if a necessary login is forgotten and must be reset. Some reset processes may require multi-factor authentication or email login links that are slow to arrive. By deploying SSO across your organization, your users will be able to access company resources from one convenient portal with only a single pair of credentials¹, avoiding the long lists of forgotten logins.
In addition to saving time, SSO also helps users save money. Specifically, it cuts down on costly IT help desk calls, as supported users may have too many logins to remember and must call a company’s help desk to replace them². Since these help desk calls cost companies an average of $70 each, the expenses add up². By implementing SSO for users’ account logins, you could potentially save your organization thousands of dollars in IT costs.
One organization saving thousands annually with SSO technology is St. Peter’s Healthcare System in New Brunswick, New Jersey. According to HealthTech Magazine, St. Peter’s adopted SSO to cut software licensing costs, and this move has paid off, with St. Peter’s CIO Frank DiSanzo noting that this switch has saved the organization more than $150,000 annually³. Baystate Health in Massachusetts deployed Imprivata’s OneSign solution over a six-month period in 2016³. By using a proximity card reader, OneSign streamlines the login process for hospital personnel including doctors and nurses³. This shows that SSO is quickly becoming valuable for healthcare providers.
While SSO use is growing in healthcare, it is also popular in education, both at the K-12 and college/university levels. Educators can use SSO to access various resources, including data reports, payment processing, security management, and the state’s District Informational Dashboard⁵. For example, New York’s Iona College uses an SSO called MyIona⁴. With MyIona, students use their assigned computer ID and password to access several different applications simultaneously⁴. The Tennessee Department of Education also uses SSO at the state, district, and school levels⁵. By saving time otherwise spent logging into disparate systems, SSO lets teachers better focus on creating lesson plans and enhancing classroom experiences. This shows that no matter your field, SSO saves time, money, and headaches.
Although there are plenty of SSO solutions on the market, Microsoft 365 users have access to two basic types of SSO with their accounts. Microsoft’s Azure Active Directory gives you several options for configuring SSO with your account, including password- and link-based along with federated SSO options such as OpenID Connect, OAuth, and SAML⁶. You can also enable SSO as an Office add-in⁷. Here, your users sign into Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and other Office apps with either their personal or professional Microsoft 365 account⁷. By utilizing the Office SSO add-in, you can authenticate and authorize your users without requiring them to sign in again⁷. This helps streamline the login process for your Microsoft 365 applications.
If you are looking to reap the benefits of SSO for your business, Navitend offers password management systems tailored to your needs. Following a one-time onboarding in which team members and users work together to ensure everyone’s passwords are loaded into the platform, you can securely access business applications with a single password that only you know. We typically offer password management as a subscription service with either per-user or site-license offerings.
Navitend can help you. Call 973.448.0070 or setup an appointment today.
Sources:
¹Progress (formerly Ipswitch) – “6 Advantages of Single Sign-On and Why Your Business Needs It” by Doug Barney. Retrieved from https://www.ipswitch.com/blog/6-advantages-of-single-sign-on.
²HumanID – “Pros and Cons of Single Sign-Ons” by Quan Nguyen. Retrieved from https://human-id.org/blog/pros-and-cons-of-single-sign-ons/.
³HealthTech Magazine – “Single Sign-On Benefits Workflow, Security for Healthcare Organizations” by Karen J. Bannan. Retrieved from https://healthtechmagazine.net/article/2017/05/single-sign-benefits-workflow-security-healthcare-organizations.
⁴Iona College – “Single Sign-On – Iona College.” Retrieved from https://www.iona.edu/offices/information-technology/it-resources/single-sign.
⁵Tennessee Department of Education – “Single Sign On (SSO).” Retrieved from https://www.tn.gov/education/district-technology/single-sign-on--sso.html.
⁶Microsoft - “What is single sign-on in Azure Active Directory?” Retrieved from https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/manage-apps/what-is-single-sign-on.
⁷Microsoft - “Enable single sign-on (SSO) in an Office Add-in.” Retrieved from https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/add-ins/develop/sso-in-office-add-ins.
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