Blackbaud ID Migration Delay

Jessi Walters

Dear community,

I wanted to let you know that the Blackbaud ID (BBID) migration is delayed for education solutions, so your users will not experience a change today, April 23, 2024. Our product development team is working on further improvements to ensure an ideal experience for you and your users. Our goal is to notify you at least one business day before the Blackbaud ID enhancements will be in place for your users, so we will announce a migration date here as soon as the new experience is optimized for success. Thank you for your patience.

Yours in partnership,
Jessi Walters,
Sr. Product Manager - Core

Brian LeBlanc

@Jessi Walters I don't know if this is a byproduct of the delay or not, but today I noticed that the Authentication Status area of the Access tab in Core is not available to click, and there is the following message: “To view Authentication details for a user, you need Solution admin access." The Learn More link goes to a documentation page for RE NXT.

The documentation for Core still says that this should be available to platform managers, which is how it's been since BBID was introduced. Is this a bug or a new security protocol? (And should I bring this to the attention of support?)

Bryna Gleich

@Brian LeBlanc
Can you send me the URL of the doc you're seeing that's got the bad “learn more”? I want to check it out and make sure I'm looking up the right one.

Jessi Walters

@Brian LeBlanc this month, the Access Management team (who oversees the blackbaud.com>Admin area) released changes to what was previously Environment Admin access. These changes made the access more granular to adhere to the Principle of Least Privilege.

This week, the Core team released a change so that we aren't showing a blank Authentication status box to users who don't have access to view the Authentication details in it. Because BBID is used across and org for all Blackbaud solutions, user management permissions prevail from the blackbaud.com>Admin area. Now, if a user doesn't have the needed access to view Authentication method and MFA details for a BBID user, we are showing a link to relevant docs so they will know what access they need.

Bryna is looking at the doc; sounds like something went weird there. If you think you should still be seeing authentication statuses, please contact Support so they can investigate and verify.

Brian LeBlanc

Sorry for the delay in responding; today has been A Day.

@Bryna Gleich I don't really have a link for you. It's the popup that appears in the Login Information column of a user's Access tab of their Core profile under Authentication Status when you click on the question mark. The message is what I pasted earlier, and the “Learn More” link goes to the RE NXT documentation rather than the EMS documentation, which is at https://webfiles-sc1.blackbaud.com/files/support/helpfiles/education/k12/full-help/content/bb-core-access.html and indicates that anyone with platform manager access should be able to view the user's authentication status.

@Jessi Walters It seems like it's back to working normally now. I can't replicate this afternoon what I saw this morning. Are we back to where we were that platform managers can still view this information? If not, the documentation needs to be updated, and I don't remember seeing any notice that this was going to be locked down further from where it had been since the introduction of BBID.

Brian LeBlanc

@Jessi Walters @Bryna Gleich it seems like this is back to where platform managers can't see it again. Bryna, I hope this screenshot helps; it's the best I can do.

The “learn more” link here is the one that goes to RE NXT documentation.

Again, if this is the way it's going to be, so be it, but the fact that this was changed with no heads up to EMS users and no change to documentation is poor form. It puts us in a position where if we are going to provide quality service to our parents, we need to either (a) give elevated admin access to people that really don't need it, or (b) pester an admin who does have that access with an exceptionally pedestrian task. This is, and has always been since the implementation of BBID, a read-only task. We can't do anything to change this setting, nor would we need to.

It comes it handy to be able to tell a parent who is using a gmail address but is not using sign in with Google, for example, that the password might not match the one they use to access their gmail account. What exactly is least access trying to prevent here, especially for a platform manager that already has access to enable/disable an account and disconnect/reconnect a BBID?

Jessi Walters

@Brian LeBlanc thanks for your feedback. Gosh, this small feature is full of important context.

• Thanks for pointing this out; we have updated our content to align with the admin access changes (dissolving environment admin into smaller sub-types of admin) that were released to all of Blackbaud's products under the blackbaud.com omnibar.
• The Learn More link points to RENXT documentation, but the information there matches the updates in the Education documentation. These admin types match among all Blackbaud products and customers, so it shouldn't matter which doc you review for this detail - now that it's updated. My team will correct the link in an upcoming release.
• We did not change who or which permission is enabled to view the Authentication status details. Previously, admins would see the Authentication status link, and if they had Solution admin or higher access at blackbaud.com, then they could view the authentication method and MFA status. Without that access, the admin would see a blank window. Now, users without Solution admin or higher access will see the Learn More link so they are empowered to get what they need.
• If you are now seeing the Learn More link instead of the authentication details and you're positive you have access to manage users from blackbaud.com, then please submit a Support case. That way we can gather all the information we need to troubleshoot the error you've encountered - probably with a .har file. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I am not able to reproduce the issue with my own accounts.
• You will not be able to see the Authentication status details while impersonating - even if the impersonated user is also a Solution admin. You must be navigating the system with your own account to view BBID details.

Happy Monday!

Diana Day

@Jessi Walters Hello, is there any update about when the BBID enhancements will take place?

Jessi Walters

@Diana Day I'm working on a post now. Here's a sneak peek:

The Blackbaud ID migration is scheduled for Wednesday, May 8, 2024.

Although this update was originally scheduled for April, it was temporarily delayed to ensure an optimal experience for users of Blackbaud's education solutions. May 8th was carefully chosen to avoid a common tuition payment day, to allow other significant product enhancements to release on Tuesday, to minimize disruption of the end-of-year season, and to provide you with at least a full business day of notice. The new BBID experience will be enabled between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. ET on Wednesday to ensure our award-winning Support team is available to assist you if needed. If users are already logged in, then they will not be interrupted; they will simply see the new BBID experience when they next log in.

Diana Day

@Jessi Walters
Thank you!!