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Tutorial: Microsoft Entra integration with EmpCenter

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In this tutorial, you learn how to integrate EmpCenter with Microsoft Entra ID. Integrating EmpCenter with Microsoft Entra ID provides you with the following benefits:

  • You can control in Microsoft Entra ID who has access to EmpCenter.
  • You can enable your users to be automatically signed-in to EmpCenter (Single Sign-On) with their Microsoft Entra accounts.
  • You can manage your accounts in one central location.

If you want to know more details about SaaS app integration with Microsoft Entra ID, see What is application access and single sign-on with Microsoft Entra ID. If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a free account before you begin.

Prerequisites

To configure Microsoft Entra integration with EmpCenter, you need the following items:

  • A Microsoft Entra subscription. If you don't have a Microsoft Entra environment, you can get one-month trial here
  • EmpCenter single sign-on enabled subscription

Scenario description

In this tutorial, you configure and test Microsoft Entra single sign-on in a test environment.

  • EmpCenter supports SP initiated SSO

To configure the integration of EmpCenter into Microsoft Entra ID, you need to add EmpCenter from the gallery to your list of managed SaaS apps.

To add EmpCenter from the gallery, perform the following steps:

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.

  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > New application.

  3. In the search box, type EmpCenter, select EmpCenter from result panel then click Add button to add the application.

    EmpCenter in the results list

Configure and test Microsoft Entra single sign-on

In this section, you configure and test Microsoft Entra single sign-on with EmpCenter based on a test user called Britta Simon. For single sign-on to work, a link relationship between a Microsoft Entra user and the related user in EmpCenter needs to be established.

To configure and test Microsoft Entra single sign-on with EmpCenter, you need to complete the following building blocks:

  1. Configure Microsoft Entra Single Sign-On - to enable your users to use this feature.
  2. Configure EmpCenter Single Sign-On - to configure the Single Sign-On settings on application side.
  3. Create a Microsoft Entra test user - to test Microsoft Entra single sign-on with Britta Simon.
  4. Assign the Microsoft Entra test user - to enable Britta Simon to use Microsoft Entra single sign-on.
  5. Create EmpCenter test user - to have a counterpart of Britta Simon in EmpCenter that is linked to the Microsoft Entra representation of user.
  6. Test single sign-on - to verify whether the configuration works.

Configure Microsoft Entra single sign-on

In this section, you enable Microsoft Entra single sign-on.

To configure Microsoft Entra single sign-on with EmpCenter, perform the following steps:

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.

  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > EmpCenter application integration page, select Single sign-on.

    Configure single sign-on link

  3. On the Select a Single sign-on method dialog, select SAML/WS-Fed mode to enable single sign-on.

    Single sign-on select mode

  4. On the Set up Single Sign-On with SAML page, click Edit icon to open Basic SAML Configuration dialog.

    Edit Basic SAML Configuration

  5. On the Basic SAML Configuration section, perform the following steps:

    EmpCenter Domain and URLs single sign-on information

    In the Sign-on URL text box, type a URL using the following pattern:

    https://<subdomain>.EmpCenter.com/<instancename>
https://<subdomain>.workforcehosting.com/<instancename>

    Note

    The value is not real. Update the value with the actual Sign-On URL. Contact EmpCenter Client support team to get the value. You can also refer to the patterns shown in the Basic SAML Configuration section.

  6. On the Set up Single Sign-On with SAML page, in the SAML Signing Certificate section, click Download to download the Federation Metadata XML from the given options as per your requirement and save it on your computer.

    The Certificate download link

  7. On the Set up EmpCenter section, copy the appropriate URL(s) as per your requirement.

    Copy configuration URLs

    a. Login URL

    b. Microsoft Entra Identifier

    c. Logout URL

Configure EmpCenter Single Sign-On

To configure single sign-on on EmpCenter side, you need to send the downloaded Federation Metadata XML and appropriate copied URLs from the application configuration to EmpCenter support team. They set this setting to have the SAML SSO connection set properly on both sides.

Create a Microsoft Entra test user

The objective of this section is to create a test user called Britta Simon.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a User Administrator.
  2. Browse to Identity > Users > All users.
  3. Select New user > Create new user, at the top of the screen.
  4. In the User properties, follow these steps:
    1. In the Display name field, enter B.Simon.
    2. In the User principal name field, enter the username@companydomain.extension. For example, B.Simon@contoso.com.
    3. Select the Show password check box, and then write down the value that's displayed in the Password box.
    4. Select Review + create.
  5. Select Create.

Assign the Microsoft Entra test user

In this section, you enable Britta Simon to use Azure single sign-on by granting access to EmpCenter.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.

  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > EmpCenter.

    Enterprise applications blade

  3. In the applications list, select EmpCenter.

    The EmpCenter link in the Applications list

  4. In the app's overview page, select Users and groups.

  5. Select Add user/group, then select Users and groups in the Add Assignment dialog.

    1. In the Users and groups dialog, select B.Simon from the Users list, then click the Select button at the bottom of the screen.
    2. If you are expecting a role to be assigned to the users, you can select it from the Select a role dropdown. If no role has been set up for this app, you see "Default Access" role selected.
    3. In the Add Assignment dialog, click the Assign button.

Create EmpCenter test user

In order to enable Microsoft Entra users to log in to EmpCenter, they must be provisioned into EmpCenter. In the case of EmpCenter, the user accounts need to be created by your EmpCenter support team.

Note

You can use any other EmpCenter user account creation tools or APIs provided by EmpCenter to provision Microsoft Entra user accounts.

Test single sign-on

In this section, you test your Microsoft Entra single sign-on configuration using the Access Panel.

When you click the EmpCenter tile in the Access Panel, you should be automatically signed in to the EmpCenter for which you set up SSO. For more information about the Access Panel, see Introduction to the Access Panel.

Additional Resources