SSO – New login system for Centra
About this article
Single sign-on (SSO) is a session and user authentication service that lets users access multiple applications with one set of login credentials. SSO helps businesses and organizations make authentication of users and their access to applications simpler.
With this in mind, we are happy to announce the release of the SSO service for Centra AMS!
Our SSO service will include email/password login supported by TOTP, options for enabling additional internal multifactor authentication (MFA) and external SSO authentication methods, such as Google or Microsoft Sign-in.
Internal login system (MFA)
The Centra SSO login system features multifactor authentication (MFA). With this authentication method, a user is granted access to a website or application only after successfully completing two or more authentication steps (e.g. correct email and password authorisation and external code authorisation). One of these authentication steps is a time-based one-time password (TOTP), which is a temporary passcode generated by an algorithm that uses the current time of day as one of its authentication factors.
Each user gets the option to enable MFA for every fifth login to Centra. MFA recovery codes are shared with every user during the setup. These can be used to regain access in the following cases:
- The phone used for authentication is lost
- The authenticator application has been deleted
- The phone number has been changed
Learn how to enable Multifactor authentication here
External login system
Instead of the usual email and password verification, each user can enable additional external authentication systems: Google sign-in and Microsoft sign-in. Both external systems are available by default in Centra, but must be turned on for companies inside Google suite or Microsoft system. Also, MFA should be enabled on each of those providers.
Once set up, users can easily connect via these providers.
Introducing Organizations into Centra
Organizations are an additional type of user that allows you to have a certain group of users in Centra under one user. However, these don’t share the log in credentials.
Organizations can be used for solution providers (Sitoo, Frontend partners etc.) where more than one user from a given provider or partner requires access to Centra. For example, if you are starting a project with Sitoo and would like to grant access to your Centra instance for three users, instead of creating separate accounts for them you can create an Organization user in Centra.
To better understand how to setup an Organization user follow this link
Forgot password
If you are unable to remember your password, or if you want to change it, go to the login page of Centra click 'Forgot password' which starts the process of resetting your password.
When you click on 'Forgot password', you will be asked to enter the email address associated with your account.
It's important to remember that resetting your password will invalidate your old password and you will need to create a new one. It's also a good idea to use a strong and unique password that you don't use for any other accounts to help keep your account secure.
How to login for the first time to Centra
- Users will be able to login with their email address (not user name) and old password if they want to.
To be able to login to Centra a user needs to be created, either with your email address or a generic Organization user. This should be done by a Full Access Admin.
- Once you have a user created, a welcome email with an activation code is sent that will allow you to create your own password
- Once you have it set, go back to your Centra login page and use the email address and password you’ve set to log in
- If your organization has enabled the G-suite Google or Microsoft sign-in option, you can log in to Centra with that as well.
User is shared between multiple Centra instances
If a user's email address is the same between multiple Centra instances, and at least one instance is using MFA, the user needs to continue using MFA on all of these instances too. Learn more about MFA here.
Showroom and SSO
SSO in Centra will not have any effect when logging in to the Showroom.
Users and Agents will be able to set their password on the User level in Centra for the Showroom and use their old password after the release of SSO. Buyers will not be affected either. They will be able to login to the Showroom as before with their old password, or reset it as normal via the Showroom.