Simplified Single Sign-On for Oracle Apps

As a Technology Sales Manager at Zirous I’m speaking with customers on a daily basis. Through this role, it did not take long to observe that businesses rely heavily on the accessibility of enterprise web-based applications. Users of these applications and IT systems, (whether an internal employee, a partner, or a customer), desire a simplified method of gaining access to a broad range of IT resources without the hassle of having to repeatedly re-enter their credentials. That collection of sticky notes containing all of your usernames and passwords is not efficient!

Due to this desire, IT organizations are constantly seeking ways to enhance the overall user login experience while maintaining a secure and compliant web environment. This has led to conversations with many of our clients about a Single Sign-On (SSO) solution. Web SSO is a key component of Oracle Access Manager (OAM) and is the only certified solution for Oracle enterprise applications including E-Business Suite, JD Edwards, iSupplier and OBIEE while also protecting non-Oracle and third party applications. Once implemented, OAM provides seamless user access across your entire infrastructure preceding a one-time login while regulating who has access to what information through back-end authentication. Reference our SSO One Pager at the end of this post to get a sneak peek into the capabilities you can achieve with a Zirous OAM implementation.

Apart from a simplified user experience, there are several long-term benefits that can be emphasized to create a business case for Single Sign-On.

1.    Decreased help desk calls and password resets

The most common help desk call within an organization requires a password reset. Users tend to either forget their password or are locked out of their accounts after a given number of incorrect password attempts.  Each password reset is expensive, costing a company an average of about $32 per reset (found on healthcareitnews.com).  A SSO solution can significantly reduce the number of usernames and passwords a user has to remember, therefore eliminating most help desk costs and enhancing user productivity.

2.    Comprehensive Identity Propagation and Federation

The management of external users is also expensive, especially for an organization that provides application and system access to many external contractors, business partners, vendors, customers, etc. Creating and maintaining identities for each associate across the enterprise can be extremely costly and tasking. Web SSO enables faster on-boarding of partners and service providers using industry security standards that are recognized throughout the infrastructure.

3.    Regulatory Compliance

With government regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPPA in place, senior executives are required to understand who has access to protected information. Regulators especially want to ensure that users are removed from certain systems in the occurrence of a role change or termination. A SSO solution is equipped with auditing and logging tools that help executives monitor user changes by automatically generating regulatory reports, helping organizations to remain compliant.

4.    Improved Enterprise Security

In addition to authenticating through usernames and passwords, SSO solutions enforce stronger authentication where security risk and costs warrant it. Multi-factor authentication, commonly used in fraud detection, can be implemented to ensure real-time fraud prevention.

Get in touch with Tiffany about SSO for your business!