Salesforce is a leading cloud-based customer relationship management platform (CRM) utilized by the University System of New Hampshire (USNH) to engage constituents with relevant, digital marketing and communication. Business units across Granite State College, Keene State College, Plymouth State University, and the University of New Hampshire (Durham, Law, and Manchester) use Salesforce, including Admissions, Student Support/Advising, and several departments at UNH that interface with businesses and the community.
The Enterprise Technology & Services (ET&S) Enterprise CRM Services team provides Salesforce-based technology solutions to support student recruitment efforts, current student services, and outreach to internal and external customers. This team manages and maintains seven Salesforce environments across all USNH, none of which was set up with multifactor authentication (MFA). USNH Salesforce users also signed in directly to the platform, which required a unique username and password, which meant they could not use their own USNH credentials for access to the platform (aka single-sign-on or SSO).
In February 2022, Salesforce began enforcing the use of multi-factor authentication (MFA) to provide an additional layer of security for its users. The ET&S Enterprise CRM Services team started work in the fall of 2021 to develop and implement an SSO and MFA solution for all USNH Salesforce instances in all seven environments and completed this process on time to meet the February 2022 deadline.
The results were well-received by the USNH Salesforce user community. “My first reaction to the rollout of the MFA/SSO project was we would be required to take an additional step when accessing the technology,” said Peg Richmond, Director of Admissions at Keene State College. “Because of the rollout, the transition was so smooth that I hardly noticed that extra step! That’s especially due to using the app option – it’s as simple as looking at my watching and pushing accept. Thank you!”
This project significantly increased security while also allowing users to sign into Salesforce with their USNH credentials, which relieved Salesforce administrators of the dubious task of resetting passwords for individual users; USNH users can now reset their own passwords through the MyAccount portal.
