Single Sign On Software: 5 Reasons to Get Started

What technology projects should you include in your plan this year? Some projects are intuitively attractive, like developing new smartphone apps or helping your sales force with a new CRM. What about protecting your company’s downside and risk exposures? It is a critical responsibility if your company is going to succeed in the long term.

Avoiding losses is the success secret widely practiced by top performers. Consider Warren Buffett’s guiding principle: “Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget rule No. 1.” Nobody’s perfect, however — Buffett’s firm lost money in the financial crisis and took a hit to its credit rating. That said, the company could have lost much more and failed to recover if this risk management principle had not been present.

Why Does Single Sign On Software Matter?

As you plan your technology projects, how high should single sign on software rank in your list of priorities? It depends on your company’s goals and current arrangements. If you are unfamiliar with single sign on software, read our article “How SSO Software Works” for an introduction. In short, single sign on software increases productivity, simplifies administration, and saves money.

Check out these 5 reasons and decide which apply to your environment. Once you review this list, you will be ready to start building the business case for single sign on software. Before you invite vendors to present to you, make sure you review the laws that may apply to your company’s cybersecurity.

1) Your company’s administration is hurting productivity

Becoming a large company delivers considerable benefits, like the ability to build a global brand. However, larger organizations face a difficult balancing act when it comes to administration. Too little process exposes you to increased risk, while too much administration kills productivity. Is there a way to solve this dilemma without sacrificing your goals?

Implementing a single sign on software solution is one way to keep up administration responsibilities without burying your people. Employees love SSO because they have fewer passwords to remember. They can also work faster without going through a never-ending sequence of login screens.

2) Your company is preparing to go public

If your company is planning to join the ranks of publicly traded companies, putting single sign on software into place can help. Consider all of the internal controls and oversight that public companies need to exhibit. External auditors will arrive, thoroughly assess your financial statements, and release a report. Generally, external auditors focus on internal audits and controls. That’s where single sign on makes a difference.

Without an SSO solution in place, your auditors and managers have constant reviews to worry about it, as each system access needs to be controlled. In addition to creating headaches for management, this oversight process may slow down daily work for your employees. Even worse, if you make a mistake in your internal controls, your failure may be reported to the public. That kind of failure is embarrassing and may hurt your stock price.

To avoid negative auditor findings, leverage single sign on software to improve your internal controls without adding burden to your staff.

3) Your company is adding new employees and contractors rapidly

Congratulations — your company is adding sales, employees, and products quickly. Maybe you even landed a spot on the Inc 5000 list of high growth firms. There’s a dark side to that level of growth: maintaining management control and oversight. Put yourself in the shoes of a manager who had 5 staff last year and 10 staff this year. How can they keep up?

The answer lies in senior management providing systems and processes to manage growth effectively. To find possible growth problems, organize a town hall meeting to explore barriers to growth. In our experience, technology limitations often hold people back. Single sign on software is not a panacea for every technology problem, it can streamline growth. Instead of new hires wasting part of their first day getting set up on your systems, they can hit the ground running by accessing your systems with a single sign on.

4) Your organization has cybersecurity problems

Sony and Target are just a few of the companies that have suffered major cybersecurity failures in the past few years. To reduce the risk of a cybersecurity incident, it pays to look at every facet of your cybersecurity program. As you build your cybersecurity improvement program, how does implementing single sign on software help?

Poor governance and oversight is a critical cause of cybersecurity failure. If managers are too busy to approve, cancel, and change user access, they will not do it. Further, a single sign on password eases the burden of remembering passwords. Instead of using ten simple passwords (and writing them on Post-It notes!), you can enforce complex hard-to-crack passwords.

Reducing the password burden on your employees matters. According to Mashable, more than 80% of adults reuse the same password across multiple accounts. For example, one of your employees may use the same password at home and at work; if their home passwords are compromised, your company’s systems may be at risk. With single sign on software, you ease the hassle of remembering multiple passwords.

5) Your company has a growing list of applications and systems to manage

“There’s an app for that.”

This tagline is a blessing and a curse in business. On the positive side, your employees have more options than ever before to improve productivity with new technology. On the negative side, constantly adding new applications to your company creates problems for managers. How do you ensure that information is protected? How do know that you are following licenses correctly?

Making mistakes with software license management can be costly. According to CIO, streamlining your software licenses can deliver millions of dollars in savings. With single sign on software, it is easier to control software licenses and only pay for what you use. That’s an excellent way for IT to demonstrate value added.

Where Do You Go From Here?

There are good reasons for your organization to use single sign on software. Your next step is simple. Meet with your technology leaders and ask them about their goals and frustrations. As you listen, look for matches between their needs and what single sign on software can achieve. If you don’t hear anything from your technology leaders, remember to consider strategic issues as well (e.g. taking your company public).