If you’re like most businesses in Melbourne or Sydney, you’re likely looking for ways to optimize your workflow to keep your workforce engaged and increase productivity. Single sign-on (SSO) technologies can help you accomplish this by providing you and your employees with a way to save time while reducing costs and strengthening your network security.

How does single sign-on work?

SSO is an authentication service that allows the user to use one set of logins to access several applications. Once signed on, users will have access to all of their productivity applications and utilities without having to authenticate more than once. Software applications – including web apps – are housed in a secure cloud and behind a firewall.

SSO is also helpful for monitoring user accounts and activity, always a helpful tool when managing a large or remote workforce.

Once the user logs in to their single sign-on portal they can access everything they need to get the job done. Two-factor or multi-factor authentication can be enabled as well. Further security policies can be configured to limit user access to sensitive or confidential documents, so only those users with appropriate authority can open or modify.

Credentials are handled by a policy server, which authenticates each user based on their configured access. The administrator can configure several levels of user access,

Once signed in, users won’t have to log in a second time in order to use any supported apps or services.

More benefits of single sign-on

Deploy apps across the entire network at once

Another bonus of SSO is having the ability to roll out new applications to your entire workforce at once. Since the software lives in the cloud, once it’s deployed, everybody on your network with the appropriate credentials will have access to it.

Enhanced security

Your IT department or administrator can easily enforce security policies and manage users from a single dashboard. They will also have the ability to oversee what subscriptions are attributable to a specific user account.

The SSO system can be configured to lock out users after a set number of failed login attempts or to lock out accounts if login attempts are originating from a suspicious external network or source.

Platform and device agnostic

Users can sign in to access all network apps, regardless of what type of device or computer operating system they are working on.

Save time with multiple login functionalities

Multiple logins can be implemented to streamline your workflow, which is very helpful if you work in multiple environments. If you are a web designer, for example, and are working on several WordPress sites, you can set up multiple logins to give you access to all of your sites without logging out and back in again. In other scenarios, a design company who stages and produces on separate platforms will be able to continue working without interruption, and marketing professionals will be able to use it to access all of their social media accounts from within the portal.

Better reporting, better compliance

Along with a centralized dashboard for configuration, SSO offers centralized access logs that can help you determine how your users are spending their time. For industries that deal with a lot of confidential or personal information, such as healthcare or the legal industry, such reports can be helpful for compliance with data privacy and security policy and regulation.

Potential drawbacks debunked

As critics of SSO are so quick to point out, a security breach on a user account could be a disastrous and disruptive event. However, when using an SSO, the risks are considerably reduced, as people and companies who do not use single sign-in often recycle the same passwords for multiple sites and applications, and frequently store these passwords in unsafe areas.

Are you ready for single sign-on? Call Greenlight today!

In conclusion, SSO can help your team’s productivity by allowing them to focus on the task at hand without the distractions of having to use several different logins and security protocols. It helps your IT team become more efficient as well, as system configuration, user activity, and reports can be accessed from a centralized dashboard.

If you are thinking about migrating to a single sign-on environment, call Greenlight today. One of our technicians will be happy to answer any questions you have and help you choose the SSO provider that’s right for what you do.