Single Sign On Clever for Schools (SSO) Implementation Case Study
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Single Sign On Clever for Schools (SSO) Implementation Case Study with Norwin Herrera, IT Business Manager Team Leader at Community IT
In this episode host Carolyn Woodard is joined by Norwin Herrera, IT Business Manager and Team Lead at Community IT. Together, they walk through a real-world case study of a public charter school that implemented a Single Sign-On (SSO) platform called Clever that can solve cybersecurity and accessibility challenges for adult or child students.
Strategic IT Leadership for Nonprofits
Unlike a traditional account manager, an IT Business Manager (ITBM) acts as a strategic partner, helping nonprofit leadership understand the technology landscape and make informed decisions that align with their mission. The ITBM role is unique to Community IT and is an example of a commitment to partnering with clients over the long term.
In this case, the goal was to find a SSO solution that could handle a complex mix of Chromebooks and Windows devices while remaining user-friendly for both adult students and faculty.
The Power of Single Sign-On
SSO acts as one door for all of your doors. By using Clever as an identity manager, the client organization was able to:
- Enhance Cybersecurity: Centralizing access allows for immediate offboarding. If a student or staff member leaves, closing one account automatically secures access to all others, prevents fraud, and saves money.
- Automate User Provisioning: Through zero intervention integration with the Student Information System (SIS), accounts are created or deactivated automatically based on enrollment status.
- Improve User Experience: Students no longer need to remember multiple different passwords for Google, Microsoft, Zoom, and Slack for example. One password provides access to all the apps they have access to as a student using a school device.
- Reduce Administrative Costs: Norwin breaks down the ROI of SSO, comparing a small per-user fee against the hundreds of hours of manual labor required to manage accounts individually.
Change Management and Successful Implementation
A successful IT project is about more than just software; it is about people. Norwin explains why this project resulted in zero tickets and no complaints: it started with leadership buy-in and a commitment to clear communication.
Whether you are an executive at a school or a volunteer board member at a community nonprofit, this episode offers practical insights into how integrated cybersecurity and strategic IT planning can save your organization time and money.
Listen in to learn how your organization can move toward a more secure and efficient digital future and subscribe to the Community IT Innovators Technology Topics podcast.
Presenters
Norwin joined Community IT Innovators in November 2019 as an IT Business Manager. Bringing over 25 years of experience working with technology to his role, Norwin knows how to help clients achieve their organizational missions by managing IT tools wisely. He is now Team Leader for the IT Business Manager team, as well as continuing to serve clients as a Senior Consultant and IT Strategist at Community IT.
Norwin has a strong history of providing direct services in Spanish and English to nonprofit organizations in the Washington DC area. Prior to joining CIT, he worked at Casa de Maryland as a computer teacher and created a technology handbook with popular education techniques. At La Clinica del Pueblo he was Manager of Technology.
Norwin was happy to have this conversation with Carolyn about a recent implementation he led at an adult charter school client to improve their cybersecurity and accessibility for remote students using a single sign on Clever (SSO) for schools.
Carolyn Woodard is currently head of Marketing and Outreach at Community IT Innovators. She has served many roles at Community IT, from client to project manager to marketing. With over twenty years of experience in the nonprofit world, including as a nonprofit technology project manager and Director of IT at both large and small organizations, Carolyn knows the frustrations and delights of working with technology professionals, accidental techies, executives, and staff to deliver your organization’s mission and keep your IT infrastructure operating. She has a master’s degree in Nonprofit Management from Johns Hopkins University and received her undergraduate degree in English Literature from Williams College.
She was happy to sit down with Norwin to learn about how an IT Business Manager worked with a client to implement a Single Sign On (SSO) using Clever for schools.
Ready to get strategic about your IT?
Community IT has been serving nonprofits exclusively for twenty-five years. In fact, we celebrate 25 years of Community IT this month and all year. We offer Managed IT support services for nonprofits that want to outsource all or part of their IT support and hosted services. For a fixed monthly fee, we provide unlimited remote and on-site help desk support, proactive network management, and ongoing IT planning from a dedicated team of experts in nonprofit-focused IT. And our clients benefit from our IT Business Managers team who will work with you to plan your IT investments and technology roadmap if you don’t have an in-house IT Director.
Being 100% employee-owned is important to us and our clients. It is an important aspect of our culture as a business serving nonprofits exclusively for 25 years. Your Nonprofit IT Budgeting strategy is important to Community IT. Unlike most MSPs, Community IT considers budgeting and strategic management a major part of our services to our clients.
We constantly research and evaluate new technology to ensure that you get cutting-edge solutions that are tailored to your organization, using standard industry tech tools that don’t lock you into a single vendor or consultant. And we don’t treat any aspect of nonprofit IT as if it is too complicated for you to understand.
We think your IT vendor should be able to explain everything without jargon or lingo. If you can’t understand your IT management strategy to your own satisfaction, keep asking your questions until you find an outsourced IT provider who will partner with you for well-managed IT.
More on our Managed Services here. More resources on Cybersecurity here.
If you’re ready to gain peace of mind about your IT support, let’s talk.
Transcript coming soon
Photo by Alex Alvarez on Unsplash