Helsinki Innovation Company maximizes efficiency
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Country
Finland -
Industry
Government/Non-profit -
Website
https://forumvirium.fi/en/ - PDF Download
Challenges
For the innovation company of Forum Virium Helsinki in Finland, a user-friendly identity and access management (IAM) solution was critical to keep up with fast-paced, city-wide initiatives. According to the CIO of Forum Virium Helsinki, Juhani Kantola, the company annually runs around 20 large EU projects using only a small staff of six administrators and 60 employees. And as projects tend to be greenlighted very close to launch date, quickly onboarding new employees and introducing them to the IAM systems remains paramount.
But with the previous prevalence of lost or insecure passwords, lack of insight into app usage and general poor user experience, they knew they would need a secure, coherent, unified tool that cut down on the fragmented usage of browser-based services and streamlined management and security of form-based log-ins.
The evaluation process for a new access management program began in 2013, and the company focused on tools that allowed for logical and centrally managed user credentials to cloud apps to avoid such obstacles in the future.
The OneLogin implementation time was very fast. It only took us a couple of days to implement, and we haven’t looked back since.
Solutions
The goal was to find a completely cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) product, which made OneLogin stand out. It was further highlighted by its usability and seamless integrations with all the products that the company was already using as standard practice, such as Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.
Particularly, OneLogin was useful in terms of SAML integration when dealing with Microsoft 365. Kantola describes OneLogin as always having worked seamlessly with Google Workspace, but the changing relationship with Microsoft 365’s products, and the new absence of Microsoft’s former volume licensing that allowed for easier user access, hasn’t deterred the helpfulness of OneLogin. The SAML integration has allowed for users to retain workflow continuity when working with Microsoft Word or Excel simply by being logged in on their browser. The ease of use has been impressive enough for Forum Virium Helsinki to consider implementing the OneLogin desktop add-on on all workstations in the near future.
Forum Virium Helsinki initially chose OneLogin for these natural “set-it-and-forget-it” integrations. But it has retained OneLogin technology for 11 years due its efficient onboarding process, robust security, reliable customer service and logical development cycles.
While updates and changes are necessary and expected for any access management tool, Kantola expresses his appreciation of the stability of OneLogin, mentioning, “The OneLogin user experience has been very, very constant and very, very continuous, and that's something we love.”
Benefits
- Heightened security through MFA
- Consistently easy and efficient user experience
- Experienced and reliable customer service
- Logical Development Cycles
- Seamless integration with Google Workspace and Microsoft 365
The Story
With a small team handling so many crucial projects under sensitive timelines, inefficiency caused by poor user experience was not an option for Forum Virium Helsinki.
Speedy implementation was particularly key when choosing the best IAM product for their needs, according to Forum Virium Helsinki CIO, Juhani Kantola, who stated, “The OneLogin implementation time was very fast. It only took us a couple of days to implement, and we haven’t looked back since.”
For over a decade, OneLogin has prevented such pitfalls and enabled heightened security through password storage and MFA, has maximized onboarding efficiency and has ensured a smooth user experience for this Finnish innovation company.
“I have actually recommended OneLogin to several organizations,” Kantola, said. “Sometimes small organizations do not see the need for identity management or external single-sign-on solutions, but I would maintain that IAM and SSO are a good foundation for an IT infrastructure of any size.”