Single Sign-On: What It Is and Why Your Business Needs It

Is Single Sign On (SSO) just another trend you should ignore? 

Let’s face it: You didn’t start your business to spend hours on password resets and IT support calls. Each reset isn’t just a minor annoyance; it’s time and money lost, which can’t be easily recovered. 

The average business spends $70 for each password reset. If your organization has 100 employees and each employee needs a password reset four (4) times a year, that amounts to $28,000/year just for password-related issues. 

And that’s not all. Your employees also hate password resets: 55% will abandon an account or create a new one simply to avoid the password reset process. And if your employees reuse passwords, your business is at greater risk for infostealer-driven credential attacks. 

In this post, we reveal the role SSO plays in dramatically fewer password resets and a stronger defense against credential theft. 

What is single sign on (SSO)? 

Imagine a world where your team logs in once – and instantly unlocks every tool they need. 

That’s the power of single sign on (SSO). Instead of juggling dozens of passwords (and risking security issues), SSO lets your employees access all workplace apps with a single, secure login. 

Here are more reasons security experts endorse SSO for businesses: 

• It dramatically reduces password fatigue (mental exhaustion from managing multiple, complex passwords), which is especially critical in fields like healthcare. Research shows that logins and password resets can significantly disrupt care delivery, consuming up to 45 minutes of clinician time per shift. It’s not just about convenience. SSO significantly boosts productivity, saving employees 30+ minutes daily. This is critical when time is of the essence. 

• Issues like “I forgot my password” and “my work laptop’s not working” far outnumber server and network problems in corporate America. According to research, the average business loses 15.3 minutes per employee to IT support issues per day. If your business has 100 employees, that translates to about 25 hours of lost productivity daily. In all, organizations lose an estimated $5.2 million annually in password-related support costs and lost productivity. SSO reduces security incidents by up to 50% while cutting help desk costs by 30%-50%. 

• With SSO, you can enforce adaptive multi-factor authentication (MFA). For example, employees logging in from their usual devices and locations enjoy quick, frictionless logins, while logins from unfamiliar devices and locations trigger additional security checks.  SSO, combined with adaptive MFA, keeps more than 99.99% of accounts secure against credential-based attacks. With adaptive MFA, you get multiple contextual checks, so corporate accounts stay safe even if credentials are stolen. 

Ultimately, SSO benefits every member of your team. Your employees get one-click access. Your IT team gets visibility and control. And your compliance team gets audit trails that make passing security audits a breeze. 

Plus, with SSO, onboarding and offboarding becomes seamless. New hires get instant access to every app they need. 

And when an employee leaves, their access to corporate systems is revoked immediately. SSO delivers security, simplicity, and speed – boosting your organization’s ability to stay agile (and safe) in an evolving marketplace. 

How does Single Sign On (SSO) work with Active Directory (AD)? 

Behind the scenes, SSO and Active Directory work together to keep your business running smoothly. 

• Active Directory acts as the central identity provider or gatekeeper, verifying every user’s identity for your organization. 

• Meanwhile, SSO connects to AD through tools like Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) or Azure Active Directory (now Entra ID). 

• When an employee logs in to an app, the app redirects the authentication request to the SSO service, which in turn consults with AD to validate the user’s credentials.  

• For your employees, their credentials are checked once, and they’re granted access to every authorized app, without seeing another login screen. 

LastPass + ADFS = access to over 1,200 apps and fewer helpdesk tickets for password resets 

What if your team could access over 1,200 apps with just one login and spend less time on password resets? 

That’s exactly what happens when you integrate LastPass with AD via Active Directory Federation Services. 

LastPass acts as the “bridge” that connects your employees to every app they need: 

• Federated trust: ADFS establishes a federated trust between LastPass and Active Directory. When users attempt to log in to LastPass, SSO works with AD to verify their credentials.  

• Single set of credentials: ADFS allows your employees to use their AD credentials for cloud-based SSO. This means they can use their AD username and password to access LastPass and 1,200+ SSO apps. 

• Seamless SSO experience: Once authenticated, your employees will gain access to their LastPass vault, and by extension, all the apps and passwords managed through LastPass - without the need for additional logins. 

• Automated user management from a single, unified dashboard: Integrating LastPass with AD also automates onboarding and offboarding.  When employees are added or removed from AD, their access to LastPass (and to any apps managed through LastPass) is automatically provisioned or revoked. 

• Reduced password fatigue and resets: With SSO, your employees don’t have to juggle multiple passwords - reducing password fatigue, reused passwords, and IT support calls. If an employee does forget their AD password, they can use your organization’s SSPR (self-service password reset) solution like ADSelfService Plus to regain access without IT intervention. Once their password is reset, it instantly works for LastPass and all 1,200+ SSO apps – no need to reset passwords in multiple places. 

Essentially, ADFS enables SSO, allowing your employees to authenticate once with their AD credentials to access multiple apps. This reduces the password attack surface.  

 

Combined with an SSPR solution, your IT team will spend dramatically less time handling password reset requests. This means you’re better positioned to protect your business at a time when credential theft has increased 3X. 

 

If you’re an existing LastPass Business user and are wondering how to implement Single Sign On using Active Directory, check out this resource.  

 

However, if you aren’t yet using LastPass, try a Business Max trial for FREE today, which gives you access to everything in Business, along with unlimited SSO apps, enhanced multifactor authentication, and SaaS monitoring.

 

Our proprietary SaaS Monitoring tool offers visibility into EVERY app your employees are using - both authorized and unauthorized.  

 

As a G2 Spring 2025 Global Grid Leader in Single Sign-On (SSO), LastPass is here to deliver seamless SSO that simplifies secure access to every application. Try Business Max free today (no credit card or commitment required).