Single Sign On for SaaS

Single Sign On seems to be one of the hot items when it comes to SaaS application usage. While traditional software resides on your PC and you just load it - Internet Software Services need to be securely accessed over the Internet. The need for SSO (Single Sign On) becomes pretty obvious. As users have more and more SaaS applications in conjunction with other online services, the user-ID/Password handling becomes kind of ugly. Yes you can store them on your PC, but that doesn't feel too save either. In particular when you think of all the applications you access outside salesforce.com, BlueRoads, Recruitmax, RightNow and you name it such as etrade, schwab, bankofamerica, ebay, amazon...

Now - SSO is not that easy. There is either integration work to be done so that each and every software vendor is good with the service or there has to be whole new ways to be developed. We are working on various options within Tanooma and will provide some alternatives when we come out. But there is not only a technical challenges to overcome but also legal issues in regards to contract definitions. Some vendors for instance - such as LinkedIn, have very specific definitions in their contract regarding how you access the application.

So the SaaS industry has to overcome 2 battles when it comes to SSO - a technical acceptable solution and a legally respected way of doing it. We will work on both and welcome any input or concerns.