Good news for all your teams: you can now benefit from SSO (Single Sign-On) authentication support on the Batch platform, compatible with all the identity providers on the market.

A key compliance and security issue, this feature allows you to centralise the management of all your employees' identity authentications for access to Batch in a single protocol.

As a Batch customer, you benefit in many ways, by:

• Strengthening your Batch account's protection;
• Gaining greater automation and control over your user management;
• Simplifying the login experience for your colleagues who regularly use Batch;
• Drastically reducing the internal requests'operational costs on this topic.
  We'll explain it all in detail!

*NB: This article is specifically for Batch CRM customers who work directly with their IT/Tech/Data colleagues, who are able to drive the implementation of Batch SSO support.

The Batch SSO support: easy to use

When your Batch users log in to your organisation's Batch dashboard, the first page they see is an invitation to enter their email address:

As Batch’s user, your colleague enters their work email address and clicks the 'Next' button. There are then two redirection scenarios related to your use of SSO authentication:

• Scenario 1: If your company does not use SSO authentication, your colleagues will be redirected to a password prompt (Note: If the user clicks the "Not you?" button in the work email field, they will be redirected to the previous screen above);

Scenario 2: If your company uses SSO authentication, your colleagues will then be redirected to the external identity provider (IdP) responsible for authenticating the user used by your company.

If your company uses Okta as identity provider, your colleagues will login to their Batch dashboard like in this video below:

Overall, any successful login will lead to your Batch dashboard, like in this company:

However, if an error occurs, the message "An error occurred during your connection, please try again or contact our team" will be displayed (here with one specific reason):

Below is a summary diagram of the different scenarios for connecting to the Batch dashboard (with the case of Google as identity provider):

Disconnect warnings

For security reasons, sessions with SSO support are much shorter than those requiring a username/password - sessions often expire after a day or two.

So we've added a contextual logout warning popup on the dashboard to alert your batch users that they need to log in again:

Being disconnected from the dashboard without warning is a frustrating experience that can cost you a lot of working time.

To avoid this, we've made sure that non-SSO users who use the classic username/password will also see this pop-up, even for much longer sessions.

From this point on, users can reconnect or disconnect if they want to change their account.

SSO users will be redirected to their identity provider, all other users will be redirected to our login page.

Below is a summary diagram of two disconnect alert scenarios (with the case of Google as SSO's identity provider):

The benefits of Single Sign-On (SSO)

It’s important to remember the value of this functionality in centralising your identity management. Support for SSO authentication impacts the various stakeholders involved in using the Batch platform: administrator profiles, user profiles, IT and/or DPO departments, and your organisation as a whole.

SSO Benefit #1: Enhanced protection for your Batch dashboard

While the increased security of your workspace - and in this case, your Batch dashboard - is not the only benefit of SSO authentication, it is the primary reason for its existence. Here are three ways:

Password fatigue reduction and its associated risks: SSO enables users to remember and manage fewer passwords, reducing the likelihood of weak or reused passwords. This reduces Password-Related Risks such as :

• Phishing mitigation: SSO can help mitigate phishing attacks by reducing the number of places where users enter their credentials. Stronger authentication: SSO can be combined with multi-factor authentication (MFA) for an additional layer of security.
• Centralized authentication: Authentication is handled through a single, secure identity provider (IdP), making it easier to implement security policies, and monitor user access. Let's take one concrete SSO use case benefit: when some of your colleagues who use the Batch dashboard and one day leave your company. Since they should no longer have access to Batch and your other solutions, the unified identity management enabled by SSO greatly simplifies your offboarding process.

Improved compliance and auditing:

• Comprehensive access control: SSO solutions enable administrators to define and enforce access policies consistently across all applications, helping to ensure compliance with security and regulatory requirements.
• Audit trails: SSO systems often include logging and reporting capabilities, making it easier to monitor user activity and track access to sensitive resources.

SSO Benefit #2: Simplified connectivity experience for Batch users

In addition to the security dimension, the benefit of SSO authentication lies in the experience's extreme simplification for your users. Whether they are connecting on a daily basis or frequently using their Batch dashboard.

The proliferation of account creation in all sorts of online solutions - both professional and personal - in recent years has made managing the associated passwords more complex and stressful. In other words, managing dozens of different passwords has been a source of frictions and fatigue for users.

This is where SSO brings a valuable convenience to the table: users can access multiple applications and services with a single set of credentials, streamlining the login process and reducing frustration.

Numbers don't lie: single sign-on authentication has emerged as the new standard - with a market value of more than $1.6 billion by 2021 - enabling users to connect quickly, without friction and without the mental burden of having to remember a new specific password.

SSO Benefit #3: Increased scalability and productivity for all teams

Finally, the benefit of SSO authentication is the significant productivity gains for your various teams :

For marketing and CRM teams, this means regular, near-instantaneous and frictionless access to your Batch dashboard without compromising its protection. SSO eliminates the need to remember multiple usernames and passwords, saving time and minimising disruption caused by forgotten credentials.

For IT teams and help desks, spend less time on password reset requests and account management, freeing up resources for more critical tasks. Consolidated licensing: SSO can enable organisations to consolidate licences for multiple applications, potentially reducing software costs.

In short, SSO authentication means centralised, automated, scalable and cost-effective identity management for your organisation. In a growth environment, as your business evolves, SSO will scale with you to accommodate additional users and applications without significant overhead.

FAQ / Frequently Asked Questions

How can I benefit from this SSO support feature?

Contact your Batch teams (Customer Success Manager and/or Key Account Manager) and they will answer your requests and questions.

Who has the rights to enable the feature?

Batch SSO support is not a self-service feature. Your Batch account's administrators can manually activate this feature via an installation with your Batch Solution Engineer.

What are the implications of enabling SSO support on an account that has not previously used it?

Password reset via SSO. In fact, there is no password anymore, it all depends on the Login via the identity provider.

Does everyone get unlogged? Are users notified?

Disconnected users are warned on the dashbarod via this popup:

Users can reconnect or disconnect if they want to change their account.

SSO users will be redirected to their IdP, other users will be redirected to Batch's login page.