SSO Overview
This article describes what SSO is and how it helps improving users experience when connecting to Cognise. It also references the 3 different providers currently supported by Cognise, and how the SSO Setup works in Cognise.
What is SSO?
Single Sign-On is an easy way to connect two systems, allowing users to access without the need to manually type a username and password. This can be very helpful when we want to connect to Cognise within a Workplace Network. Businesses of all sizes now use SSO for authenticating users across applications.
SSO Providers
There are several SSO Providers, from which Cognise supports three of them:
Microsoft
Google
Okta
How SSO improves Users Experience?
Because SSO allows automatic access to a platform based on the data being stored in the SSO provider, there's no need for the users to setup their accounts or fill any personal information in Cognise. Everything is pulled directly from the SSO provider.
New Users through SSO
If the user doesn't exist in Cognise, but does in the SSO provider and is an active user, then Cognise will create the user automatically.
Updating Users through SSO
If a user's data has been updated in the SSO provider, for instance moved to a different department within the organisation, or changed role, phone number, etc., then this information will automatically be updated in Cognise as the user signs in through SSO. There must be match fields between the two systems.
Deactivating Users through SSO
When an employee leaves the organisation and is set as Inactive in the SSO Provider, then the access to Cognise is restricted automatically. The user's profile and all the stats around the user's learning content will be kept for reporting purposes.
Seamless Experience
When a user clicks an SSO enabled link, they are instantly taken to the content they wish to view with no additional identification, authentication and authorisation needed. This helps increase adoption by placing Cognise side by side with existing internal applications.
Auto Provisioning
Users are provisioned a license automatically upon clicking one of the SSO enabled learning objects in Cognise, bypassing the manual license assignment process.
Group Assignments
This allows for a user to be automatically placed into a Team within Cognise upon license creation. This further automates the setup and organisation of your Cognise experience.
What to do next?
If you’d like to have Single Sign-On for your company instance of Cognise please contact us and we will help you get SSO tested and underway.