Having to sign on multiple times to access multiple different areas of your company’s IT system can really slow you down. Single Sign On (SSO) is a digital permissions solution which enables authorised personnel to simply enter one single authentication code to access multiple areas.

An example of how SSO works in practice

Imagine that your business requires a password to log on to its shift pattern manager where employees can view and alter their shifts, or apply for holiday leave. There is a different password required for the payroll system, and yet another password needed to access the employee intranet. A further password will be asked for employees who wish to access a central database, and more passwords will be demanded by company email systems. That’s five separate passwords! Wouldn’t it be easier if your employees could simply log on to all of these systems once and for all, so that they could then move seamlessly between updating their bank details with Payroll, adding a new shift, and accessing the data they need to write up their next report, all without being constantly held up by demands for passwords? This is precisely what Single Sign On provides.

A rundown of the benefits of Single Sign On

Here is a quick overview of some of the key advantages of integrating SSO access into your company’s IT system:

• SSO is much more efficient
• When employees need to set up several different passwords, they are more likely to write them down or choose absurdly easy passwords (such as their own name or ‘QWERTY’), thus compromising your business’s security. SSO evades this threat.
• SSO keeps your IT system unified.

More about the advantages of SSO can be found here and here.

Make Single Sign On stronger by requiring multi factor authentication

If you are worried about the security of you SSO access points, you can rectify this by requiring that employees provide more than one piece of information in order to sign on. For instance, you may ask them for a password and a CAPTCHA code, or a password and a fingerprint scan. This is known as multi factor authentication. Other ways of strengthening security include making it mandatory for all employees to change their passwords at least once a year, and adding a ‘timeout’ feature which requires employees to sign back in if their account is idle for a certain period of time.

Your business will become more efficient with Single Sign On

Adding Single Sign On solutions to your business’s IT security system is quick and easy. Once it is rolled out across your business, the employees will quickly learn how to use it. You should quickly notice an improvement in the efficiency and the productivity of your business thanks to this streamlined new way of accessing your digital services.