A large energy sector business approached us with a problem - they use a large number of subcontractors and partners, and they needed to allocate actions to them. The only problem was, their internal systems only allowed access from their own domain and their security teams were understandably nervous about granting domain access to external companies and individuals, and any access had to go through a long and complex approval process before work could commence. Of course this introduced the potential for unhelpful short-cuts (let's call them 'work-arounds'!) including password sharing, maintaining parallel spreadsheets which are emailed to non-domain stakeholders etc.
Allowing system access from multiple domains was game changing for them and that's why this company is now one of our biggest customers.
It's a pretty common issue. Companies need their contractors and partners to have access to project data, but they don't want them on their domain for security reasons, which leads to inefficiencies and ad-hoc workarounds
That’s why enabling multi-domain access isn’t just a technical configuration. It’s a reflection of how work actually happens today and it's why it's 'baked in' to our product range.
It's not a new problem - but modern security threats have made it even harder to engage with IS teams to allow this kind of flexible access, creating at best long delays before approval is granted, and in many cases simply a denial of access.
Pisys decided to adopt a hybrid approach - one that allows users to access our external systems with single sign on using their own domain authentication, while issuing usernames and passwords to contractors and partners - maintaining the existing domain security and keeping their security teams happy !
As we've seen with our Action Tracker and Permit to Work systems, when people across different domains can access a shared platform securely and seamlessly, three powerful things happen:
- Collaboration happens naturally. Teams can work together without messy account duplication or manual and possibly disastrous workarounds. Having real-time access to a common set of data improves efficiency and reduces error.
- Security scales. Each domain keeps control of its own authentication, and the platform operates independently
- Growth gets easier. Bringing new teams, regions, or partners on board stops being a technical hurdle. Internal teams don't have to worry about scaling internal systems which can often be more expensive than external ones.
In the end, multi-domain access is about respecting organisational reality. As companies increasingly recruit partners to augment existing skillsets, and as partners and stakeholders demand increased visibility it is vital that the systems used are able to cope, while maintaining the security and integrity of the critical data being managed. The most successful providers in this space will have invested heavily in security standards like ISO27001 to give their customers the comfort of knowing their data is being well protected.
