How do you combine convenience with identity management and security? How do you bring your end users and your IT team together in the most efficient way possible? By marrying single sign on with your ticketing system in an easy to use mobile application.
The problem
SRI Infotech was invited by two separate clients to solve a unique challenge: to create a mobile application which allowed end users to open, monitor, respond to and close service tickets with their technical support team. Both clients – one a large global clothing retailer with a significant online shopping presence and the other a leader in information technology and security – required an agile, mobile way for end users – employees and contractors – to manage technology tickets so as to ensure continuity of business operations around the clock.
Both clients had substantial investments in ServiceNow for ticket management and escalation. Simultaneously, both sought to use Single Sign On capability to better manage user identity management and access rights.
While SSO is readily available for ServiceNow for standardized installations, both clients wanted a custom built mobile application. This requirement – a benefit in terms of usability and efficiency for end users – required the use of the ServiceNow HTTP API, which does not natively incorporate SSO.
Why SSO
SSO provides numerous advantages to enterprise technology environments. By enforcing user name and password sets, end users are encouraged – and sometimes even required – to use more robust combinations that improve enterprise security while easing password retention. By limiting their numbers, SSO reduces the likelihood of employees using simpler, easy-to-crack passwords. By utilizing a single password for all applications, employees are more likely to remember it, even if it has unusual complexity requirements.
Most SSO systems today not only focus on simplifying password management, but also integrate with identity access management systems. The SSO / IDM connection not only allows streamlined provisioning and termination of access rights., but also simplifies audit protocols by standardizing user identities across networks and applications. By combining SSO and IDM, compliance departments are better able to determine which and when enterprise users have accessed specific systems.
The solution
Because the ServiceNow HTTP API lacks an onboard SSO integration, SRI needed to work around the issue of login/password pairing. A connection between the ServiceNow HTTP API and the SSO Agent (Ping) was required.
To achieve this functionality, SRI created a proxy server to interface between the Federation Service (Ping) and the ServiceNow HTTP API.
Built upon this infrastructure, the applications allowed for employees to achieve the following tasks regardless of time, location and office technical problems.
- Creating new incidents
- Updating incidents
- Writing comments
- Attaching photos
- Viewing incidents by status
- Searching the incidents database
- Seeing the user profile and editing contact information
- Receiving push notifications on status updates
By merging and taking advantage of the benefits of otherwise disconnected systems, both companies improved their tech support metrics and end user satisfaction.
To learn more about how your organization can improve identity access, ticket management or other complex business process tasks with sophisticated technology solutions, contact SRI Infotech today.