What is Enterprise SSO and why does it matter?

As an enterprise grows, managing user accounts and passwords across the organization becomes increasingly difficult. With many employees accessing multiple applications, servers, and systems, keeping track of logins for each resource is not only tedious but also prone to errors.

This is where Enterprise Single Sign-On (SSO) comes in. With SSO, employees only have to sign in once into the corporate Identity Provider (IdP) to access multiple applications and systems across the organization.

In this article, we will learn what enterprise SSO is, why enterprises need it, how it works, and why you should support it in your SaaS.

What is Enterprise SSO?

Enterprise SSO is an authentication service that allows users to sign in once to access multiple enterprise applications. Instead of logging into each app separately, users sign in to an SSO portal which then authenticates them for all connected applications.

An example is the Okta portal, where you sign in and through it you can access all the apps your company uses (Slack, Zoom, Gmail, etc.).

Why do enterprises need SSO?

SSO simplifies access without compromising security. 

In an environment without SSO, users must create accounts for each application and service they use. This not only becomes a logistical nightmare with managing all these accounts but also increases the likelihood of security breaches for apps that use email/password authentication, as users may opt for simpler, easily remembered (and easily guessed) passwords.

Furthermore, because SSO centralizes authentication in one place, it’s easier for organizations to enforce strong security policies and control access. With only one identity to protect, enterprises can invest more in securing that single access point.

How does SSO work?

SSO allows users to log in once and gain access to several systems without being prompted to log in again at each of them. This process hinges on trust relationships between an Identity Provider (IdP) and Service Providers (SPs).

IdPs are responsible for verifying users' identities and issuing authentication tokens. They store and manage user identity information, such as usernames and emails, and provide authentication services to any SP that delegates authentication to it. Examples of identity providers include Google, Microsoft Entra Id (formerly Azure Active Directory), and Okta.

An SP is any application or service that users wish to access that relies on the IdP to authenticate identities. 

Several protocols facilitate SSO's functionality. Protocols are sets of rules or standards that determine how authentication information is shared between the IdP and your SaaS. They determine how data is formatted, transmitted, received, and secured. 

The most common SSO protocols include:

• Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML): An XML-based standard used to exchange authentication and authorization data between IdPs and SPs. SAML is widely used for web-based applications.

• OpenID Connect (OIDC): Built on top of OAuth 2.0, OIDC is a simpler, more modern alternative to SAML, designed primarily for mobile and web applications. It conveys identity information through JWTs.
• Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP): Used primarily for authenticating and authorizing users within an organization's directory services, though it's more of an access protocol than a dedicated SSO protocol.
• Kerberos: A network authentication protocol designed for client/server applications, providing mutual authentication — both the user and the server verify each other's identity.

The protocol you support will depend on the protocol your customers’ IdP uses. That said, at the very least, you’ll need to support OIDC and SAML since they’re very popular among corporate IdPs.

Each protocol enables SSO differently, though the process is generally the same:

• The user logs in to the IdP using their credentials. This could involve anything from a username and password to multi-factor authentication methods. 
• Upon successful authentication, the IdP generates an authentication token and sends it to the SP. This contains proof that the user has been authenticated. It may also contain other details about the user (not their credentials), like email, role, or department.
• The SP validates the token from the IdP.

• If it’s valid, the SP grants access to the user without requiring them to log in again.

What are the benefits of SSO?

Some benefits of SSO include:

• Convenience: Enterprise SSO is convenient for both users and admins. For users, it means only having to log in once to access all their apps and accounts. For admins, it means less time spent managing credentials or multiple user identities. SSO reduces the number of password-related issues, allowing IT departments to allocate their resources to other critical tasks.
• Increased security: With SSO, there are fewer access points for hackers/thieves to potentially compromise. Additionally, by centralizing user management, it becomes easier to control users' permissions for each app they access. An admin can create various access groups with permissions to allow access to only the apps required by that user. And, if a user’s account is compromised, an admin can quickly revoke their access across all connected apps from a central dashboard.
• Improved compliance: For regulated industries, SSO helps ensure compliance with security standards. User access can be monitored and controlled centrally based on predefined policies. Detailed audit trails provide visibility into who accessed what and when. Plus, if there is ever a security incident, reports can be generated to help with the response.‍
• Better user experience: SSO provides a seamless experience for users to access the applications they need. Once logged in, users can switch between apps without re-entering their credentials, which is especially beneficial in workflows requiring multiple services.

Why should you support SSO with your SaaS app? 

There are some very compelling reasons for supporting SSO in your SaaS app:

• Closing more deals with enterprises: By supporting SSO, you open your product up to more enterprise customers. Many larger organizations require SSO integration for all their cloud services and business applications. If you don’t offer it, you risk missing out on a huge chunk of the market.
• User adoption and retention: The easier and more secure you make it for users to access your application, the higher the likelihood of adoption and continued use. SSO reduces friction during the login process, which is extremely important in an enterprise environment where employees need frequent access to a wide array of apps.
• Improved security: By using SSO, you're essentially outsourcing a chunk of your security needs to your customer’s identity provider. These identity providers are built to secure identities and manage access. They invest heavily in security and compliance, and regularly update their defenses against the latest threats.‍
• Reduce your security burden: Building and maintaining a secure authentication system is complex and resource-intensive. By integrating SSO, you're able to focus more on improving your core product rather than splitting your attention between managing a custom authentication system.

Next steps

SSO is important to enterprises. It reduces their admin costs, reduces login friction for their employees, and improves overall security. To land these enterprises as clients, your app needs to support SSO.

Unfortunately, integrating SSO can be a pain. You’ll have to create connections for each of the identity providers your customers use, which can get complex, thanks to the different protocols, policies, and implementations these IdPs use. Things get even more difficult if you have a complex organizational model.

WorkOS SSO deals with all these complexities for you. It unifies SSO from multiple providers, like OneLogin, Okta, and Microsoft Entra, to give you a single API-based integration for enterprise-grade SSO.

With SDKs in every popular language, easy-to-follow documentation, and Slack-based support, you can implement SSO in minutes rather than weeks.

With OAuth 2.0 integrations to popular providers like Google and Microsoft, compatibility with every major IdP, and full support for custom SAML/OIDC connections, WorkOS can support any enterprise customer out of the box. And the Admin Portal takes the pain out of onboarding your customers’ IT teams and configuring your app to work with their identity provider.

Unlike competitors who price by monthly active users, WorkOS charges a flat rate for each company you onboard — whether they bring 10 or 10,000 SSO users to your app.

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Explore Unified SSO by WorkOS.