Implementing Single Sign On for Office365

A lot of companies are moving their email to the cloud on Microsoft Office 365.  This is a great solution, however, it can create some challenges.  A lot of organizations, KTL Solutions included, do not want to have two logins–one for their network and one for Office 365.  When you are a small organization and everyone in the organization is on Office 365, that is easy to configure.

What if you are an organization of 200 Windows Users and not everyone is Office Users?  Some of your employees may be warehouse employees with a login, drivers with a login or other employees that don’t need to have access to Office 365, so you would want to provide single sign-on for your Office 365 users all while making it easy to manage at the same time.

I have put together the following steps to help streamline the process of configuring Office 365.

1. Purchase a subscription to Office 365.
   • You can contact KTL Solutions here if you would like to purchase.
2. In your Active Directory (AD), create an Office 365 Group or OU.
   • Add users from your AD to this Office 365 group that will need Office 365 Exchange or other applications.
3. Download and install the Azure Active Directory Connect https://www.microsoft.com/download/details.aspx?id=47594

4. Setup your Microsoft Azure Active Directory Connect.
   • This is what you will use to connect your on-premises AD to the Cloud. There are two types of Synchronization:
     • Synchronized Identity – This synchronizes Active Directory objects, users, and passwords. You would continue to manage the users in your on-premises AD.
   • Federated Identity – This synchronizes Active Directory objects, users, and passwords. You would continue to manage the users in your on-premises AD, but this is what gives you the single sign-on capabilities. (This is a little more complex and will take a little longer to do.)
     • You may want to consider the Synchronized Identity for a simpler configuration if you don’t want to have an ADFS server involved.

5. When configuring the Azure Active Directory Connect you will need to add a filter. You may want to use the OU based because the Group Based has to be selected and configured during the install.
6. Schedule the Active Directory Connect to sync at certain intervals. You can always force an AD sync manually if needed.
7. After the initial Sync, you will see the users in the Office 365 Admin Panel.
8. Assign Office 365 licenses to the Users in the Admin Portal.
9. Now, you will be able to log in as one of those Users using your internal Username and Password.

Questions about this process? Want to find out more about how to purchase a subscription to Office 365? Contact our Account Managers at 301.360.0001 or email info@ktlsolutions.com.

[avatar user=”tlally” size=”thumbnail” align=”left” /] TIMOTHY (TIM) LALLY, SR. | CEO/ Founder

Tim Lally, Sr. is the founder and CEO of KTL Solutions, a full technology consulting firm. As CEO, Tim is responsible for running all facets of the business including, but not limited to, mentoring new developers, teaching accounting principles and processes, and leading the development and design of custom solutions. Tim also works directly with clients promoting lasting relationships, analyzing business processes, and providing effective solutions to improve productivity. He provides high-level guidance to KTL clients in order to help them better use technology within their organization.

With a proven, executive track record and over 20 years of experience driving sales, consulting, and development within the technology industry, Tim’s specific experience has been with Microsoft Business Solutions’ software implementation and development. Tim started implementing MAC GP in 1987 and has been working in Microsoft Dynamics GP since 1994. Tim is an inactive Certified Public Accountant with a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting from University of Maryland.