Single Sign On Clever for Schools (SSO) Implementation Case Study
Listen to Podcast
Like podcasts? Find our full archive here or anywhere you listen to podcasts: search Community IT Innovators Nonprofit Technology Topics on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, Pandora, and more. Or ask your smart speaker.
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
Carolyn Woodard:
Welcome everyone to the Community IT Innovators Technology Topics podcast. I am Carolyn Woodard, the host. Today we are going to learn more about single sign-on, which is a cybersecurity project, with Norwin Herrera. Norwin, would you like to introduce yourself?
Norwin Herrera:
Hello, everyone. I am Norwin Herrera. I have been with Community IT for about six years now. I worked on the implementation of a single sign-on project for an organization.
Carolyn Woodard:
You are an IT Business Manager and also the lead of that team. Can you say a little bit about what an IT Business Manager is? I usually say they are like an account manager, but so much more. You all have both the technology background and skills, but also a business background and strategic thinking. You help clients think through how to get more value out of their IT infrastructure, improvements they need to make, and strategic planning. Can you talk a little bit about what you do as an IT Business Manager?
Norwin Herrera:
Well, you just described it well.
Carolyn Woodard:
(laughs) And you had this client, which I think is a public charter school?
Norwin Herrera:
Yes, they are a public charter school.
Carolyn Woodard:
How did you come to the understanding that they needed a more robust single sign-on, and how did you go about helping them with that strategic planning?
Norwin Herrera:
Let’s start by saying that they did not have a single sign-on platform in place. They asked us for our best recommendation. There are some elements to keep in mind. If you have a child, you likely know what Clever is. Everyone who has a child in public school already knows Clever because that is the platform many students are using. We know for a fact that it is a single sign-on, it is easy to use, and it is helpful to children. That was one element.
The second element was that even though this organization was an adult school, we wanted a project that was easy to implement and user-friendly. If children can get it, adults can get it. The third element was whether we had done it before as a company. The answer was yes. We had already implemented a project with single sign-on using Clever. We had the experience, we recommended something we already knew, and we were aware of the glitches in the system. The client said, “I think we can go for it.”
Carolyn Woodard:
I want to jump in and remind everyone that we are vendor-agnostic. I am sure there are many different single sign-on options, but this was the one that fit based on your strategic decision-making. Can you describe a little bit what single sign-on is, just in case anyone does not know?
Norwin Herrera:
Single sign-on (SSO) is part of the cybersecurity roadmap we have at Community IT. It is one of multiple elements we consider for your cybersecurity infrastructure. SSO is one single point to sign in. The moment you sign in to that platform, you will have access to other platforms in your organization. It is easier for the user because they do not have to remember ten passwords or ten different logins. That one login grants you access to the rest of the software—Google, Microsoft, Zoom, Slack, Asana, whatever you name. You can include them there if the SSO platform allows it.
In some scenarios, certain software does not apply for Clever, for example. If it is not included, at least you can add the link there so people can go from the platform directly to the software. SSO is basically one door for all the doors you have internally. It is also good because the moment a person departs from the organization, if you cut off that single sign-on access, you are cutting off access to the rest of the systems. It is easy to get in, and easy to get them out.
Carolyn Woodard:
For schools, single sign-on is valuable because students often use school property like an iPad or laptop. The student signs on and only has to remember that one password to access allowed apps and programs. They can go to what they need for school, but they would not be going to apps that are not appropriate or allowed.
Norwin Herrera:
That is true. In this particular case, we had a mix of devices—some Chromebooks and some Microsoft devices. We did something very interesting by having Clever as the identity manager. Clever is the one provisioning, which means creating their accounts in Google and Microsoft. There is a small cost to it—about a dollar per user per year—but that cost is well-invested.
Carolyn Woodard:
And that would solve the headache of managing all those Chromebooks and Microsoft devices.
Norwin Herrera:
Exactly. To create a user in Google and also in Microsoft manually would take at least 15 minutes per user. Multiply that by a thousand users. Some people might say the project is expensive because they pay, for example, $25,000 to implement it. But if you divide that across every student and compare it to doing it manually, you save money. Plus, you have the layer of security. Usually, organizations forget to close some accounts when someone leaves. In this case, you have time-saving, money-saving, and higher security all at once.
Carolyn Woodard:
Especially for students, you want that layer of security around their schoolwork.
Norwin Herrera:
That is correct. You have a check for cybersecurity, a check for easy onboarding, and a check for saving time and money.
Carolyn Woodard:
It sounds like you must have a dashboard in Clever where you can manage those users.
Norwin Herrera:
That is correct. You manage users, not devices. Devices are managed differently in Azure or the Google console. One important thing is that we tied the onboarding and user creation to their own student information system (SIS). The SIS is the main source of truth. We set this up for zero intervention.
The moment a student is registered in the SIS as “enrolled,” that system sends the information to Clever. Clever has an internal trigger and asks itself, “Do I have this user in Google?” If the answer is no, it creates it. Then it asks, “Do I have this user in Microsoft?” If the answer is no, it pushes a new provision to create the user. There is zero manual intervention because it all comes from the student information system.
Carolyn Woodard:
Can you talk a little bit about this from the student’s perspective? How easy is it?
Norwin Herrera:
Super easy. Before, the student needed to remember different usernames and passwords for Microsoft, Google, and other software. Now everything is in one place. Also, Google and Microsoft are forcing compliance—eight characters, uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and symbols. We managed to create something very unique and creative for the students that is easy to remember but still complies with those security requirements.
Carolyn Woodard:
I cannot tell you how many times my own kids have to do an assignment in Google Slides but then cannot show it on a screen because of a Microsoft issue. Lowering the barrier so they do not forget the password for a specific app is so helpful. For the administrators at the school, is it easier for them to manage?
Norwin Herrera:
It was easier because the teachers were waiting for the project to happen. We prepared them and gave them a heads-up that we were going to implement single sign-on over the summer. When we launched it, we explained the decision-making process and how it was going to work.
There was one caveat: at the beginning, we only considered Google, but then we realized we could also do it in Microsoft. Since this organization has their devices in Azure, we are using Autopilot. This means one single point of access. The student just signs in to their computer, and automatically the computer provisions everything for the Microsoft and Google environments. The first tab that pops up is the Clever portal. Nothing is saved on those devices; the data is stored in the cloud. Those computers are essentially like tablets for them.
Carolyn Woodard:
So they can work from anywhere as long as they have internet access. That is so important for adult students who are often working parents and need to do homework when they get the chance.
Norwin Herrera:
This project was a success because nobody has complained. We have almost zero tickets. In technology, when nobody complains, that means it is successful.
Carolyn Woodard:
That is amazing. We often say we want to be a trusted partner. Our clients know their business and their community, but they are not necessarily experts in what technology is available to save them money or time. That is where we come in.
Norwin Herrera:
That is exactly the IT Business Manager’s job.
Carolyn Woodard:
It sounds like a great partnership.
Norwin Herrera:
It is. We have over 200 clients, and that is a hub for learning and improvement. We are constantly being challenged and adjusting. Community IT also has a very low turnover rate; some of our engineers have been here for over ten years. They know what they are doing.
Carolyn Woodard:
When you partner with us, you are not just getting a single point of contact. We are talking to each other as a team. If an implementation goes well at one school, the rest of the team can use that value for other partners. We always want to do what is in the interest of the nonprofit to save them money and time.
Norwin Herrera:
That is correct. We want to partner with organizations for a long time. Our client retention is likely one of the highest in the country. We have clients who have been with us for more than 20 years. We give them our best advice, and then it is up to the organization to make the decisions.
Change is difficult. To make a change, leadership needs to be on board first. You are not going to please 100% of your staff—there is always one person who is going to be against a project—but leadership needs to understand that it needs to happen. We help you make it happen.
Carolyn Woodard:
The longer we work with a client, the better we get to know them and the more we are able to help with both big and small projects.
Norwin Herrera:
They make the decisions, and we give our advice. Sometimes they convince us, sometimes we convince them. We do not always have 100% success because there are things out of our control. Technology-wise we know what to do, but people are people. You have to be mindful of that.
Carolyn Woodard:
When I did the change management webinar recently, it was all about people. Technology does not exist in a vacuum; people have to use it and implement it. It is important to involve leadership and communicate the “why” and “how.” When there are no complaints, those skeptical staff members can breathe a sigh of relief. What is next for this organization?
Norwin Herrera:
Exactly. Now we are working on cybersecurity with that organization, which is fantastic. We keep improving every day.
Carolyn Woodard:
Thank you so much for your time today, Norwin. I really want to thank you for sharing this case study about Clever single sign-on. It sounds like it went very well.
Norwin Herrera:
Thank you. It was my pleasure to share knowledge.
As advocates for using technology transparently to work smarter, we’re practicing what we recommend. This transcript was edited lightly with the assistance of AI for clarity, and is not a verbatim transcript. The content was reviewed, edited, and finalized by a human editor to ensure accuracy and relevance.
Photo by Alex Alvarez on Unsplash