Microsoft Entra External ID vs. Tools4ever UMRA

It is not easy to calculate the actual ROI due to the difficult quantification of all factors, but it certainly contributed a lot in protecting, monitoring and controlling access to our system. It also made it much easier to detect vulnerable external users with simple and "easy to hack" passwords they use on multiple apps.

It is very well suited for tying multiple systems and services together, allowing for exchanges of information and account management. I'm not sure of instances that it is not well suited since solution was recommended by folks in education. With that being the case it suited our needs quite well.

• Single sign-on simplifies access to your apps from anywhere
• Strong authentication for your customers using their preferred identity provider.
• Integrating with social accounts such as Facebook or Google+

Incentivized

• Imports students and staff into our Active Directory and email system.
• It manages those same accounts, disabling accounts for folks who have left, and creating "Windows" when accounts should be enabled.
• It interacts with our Microsoft AD and our student management software seamlessly. Once accounts are in our AD environment, our student management and other systems create new email accounts automatically for us.

• Troubleshooting diagnostic logs effectively requires VS Code
• Group and role management requires additional effort
• The programming model (XML) could use some developer experience love

Incentivized

• We have been attempting to get single sign on for students, so they have the ability to change their passwords on their own. The documentation of this process is very dated, and often support isn't even aware that their site issues/ references those older documents.
• During the initial buildup of our server Tools4ever UMRA support was a bit hit and miss, but I will say our ongoing support has been very good.
• Some integration tools had to be custom created.

Each one of these alternatives has pros and cons. PingOne from Ping Identity states they "help deliver the secure and seamless customer experience to win battles for customer acquisition, retention, revenue, loyalty, and trust." While that may be the case, they did not fit our needs. We have a complex system and it did not seem to fit into our business.

Incentivized

• Having monthly active users billing was cost-effective.
• Helped with the IT support that was already managing the Azure platform of the company; this helped to manage the costs better and optimize them.

Incentivized

• We save considerable work hours by a multitude of staff having the system manage and generate accounts for us on a daily basis.
• We have some peace of mind knowing accounts for staff and students who leave our district can no longer gain access to our systems because it automatically disables those accounts.
• Because of the way the system interacts with input that is put in, it automatically creates logical positions which dictate different levels, meaning it automatically sets up when staff gain access and lose access depending on the position they are filling.