Are your organization’s employees and leadership spending a significant amount of time signing in to various applications? You might think it’s not such a big deal to sign in to each app individually – but the time spent can add up. Multiple sign-ins can decrease productivity, cause IT support issues, and even act as a deterrent for app adoption.
Beyond that, asking employees to manage their own account sign-ins individually means that they may be bringing their bad password habits into your organization: weak passwords, insecure password storage, and repetitive use of the same password. According to IT consultants, there’s a better approach to securing your company’s passwords.
What SSO Can Do
Single Sign-On (SSO) eliminates these issues, boosts productivity, and decreases IT issues. You may have personally encountered something called social SSO when signing in to a third-party application that lets you use your Facebook (or other social media) sign-in rather than creating a whole new username and password. This can be convenient – but also not necessarily secure. True SSOs used for business purposes work differently.
Enterprise SSO solutions use secure protocols that allow users to sign in once (and once only) and then gain access to any of the apps or programs that your company has approved. They will not need to keep signing in to approved apps as they access them.
These SSO solutions, such as Jumpcloud, Okta, and Windows Intune, manage multiple sign-ins and make the process invisible to the user. Jumpcloud “centralizes and simplifies identity management.” This means that it uses technology to protect and provide access to your company programs, files, and servers. Okta is a similar service that has found that its use results in a “50% reduction in login-related helpdesk calls.” Intune manages sign-ins from various employee devices, including mobile phones, tablets, personal laptops, and more.
Depending on your needs, your organization can use any (or a combination of) these solutions to achieve a secure environment for SSO.
SSO and Security
Think about the way that hackers attack companies: One major point of entry is through usernames and passwords. If a large number of employees are using a large number of log-ins and logging in and out of applications all day long, that provides hackers with more opportunities to find a way into your system. And, if your employees are using their bad password habits, one point of entry could lead to many.
SSO allows organizations to set controls around log-ins: one secure password attached to one user, entered once a day. Some have expressed concerns about hackers gaining access to users’ central logins, which could provide them with access to your company’s entire system. But, top of market SSO solutions concentrate on creating secure environments by using multi-factor authentication and other important safeguards to ensure the security of user log-ins.
Is SSO Right For Your Organization?
Consult with a BNC expert to determine whether SSO is the right choice for your organization. IT consultants like BNC in Denver & Dalllas can help you figure out which solution – or combination of solutions – can make your employees more productive and keep your company data secure.
