Guide for Student & Staff Login for BB and Microsoft Authenticator - Does it exist

Albert Giuliano
Albert Giuliano
Third Anniversary Name Dropper Facilitator 1
in Blackbaud Higher Education Solutions™ General Discussions

Since BB has now increased the Security Requirements to login into their LMS section I have a to deal with the whole Microsoft Azure & Authenticator situation. I have found that Most Staff, Faculty & Students completely breakdown when presented the requirement to Install and Setup their account with Microsoft Authenticator - They literally get to the screen that says you need to install Authenticator on your device and poof their in trauma…. Maybe I missed it - is their ANY type of Guide with screen shots for both Android & Apple that show this login procedure step by step - Frankly I am getting tired of making guides that become obsolete every time BB Implements a new security requirement (or can I turn off the MS Authenticator requirement as My Business office uses FE7 and isn't required to do this at all). I have to send credentials to next years new Students and if I can't get the current people to complete the process who are in physical proximity how am I going to deal with people via email and phone who won't be on campus till late summer.

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  • Jessi Walters
    Jessi Walters Blackbaud Employee
    Seventh Anniversary Kudos 5 Name Dropper Participant

    Hi @Albert Giuliano! I want to reassure you when it comes to student accounts - Students will not be required to use MFA with their BBID. Current and future students do not need an authenticator app to meet any Blackbaud requirement now or in the foreseeable future.

    If you want to avoid the MFA authenticator app for faculty and staff, consider creating an SSO connection with Blackbaud ID, which makes it much easier to log in. Here is a link to our documentation that explains how to establish an SSO connection: https://docs.blackbaud.com/sso-overview-docs/

    With SSO enabled, staff would enter their email address on the login page and be redirected to your identity provider (which sounds like Microsoft, yes?). If they're already signed in, then they automatically land in Education Management. If they are not signed into their email, they enter their email account password, and then they're automatically redirected into Education Management. It's much easier than using BBID MFA.

    I know the change in authentication management has required a lot of work for administrative staff, and I truly appreciate your partnership in helping us keep your school's data safe and secure. After the enforcement of MFA for faculty and staff in October, there are no other major changes to user authentication on the horizon.

  • Albert Giuliano
    Albert Giuliano
    Third Anniversary Name Dropper Facilitator 1

    @Jessi Walters
    Yea so looking at the instructions in the guide for SSO they appear to be identical to the setup we were required to implement not to long ago when we were told that ALL users would be required to use a BBID. I see options to “Turn on SSO” but following the documentation seems to just lead me back to the same info I used to set up MS Azure to comply with the BBID requirement. I will have to contact Tech support have them check my current setup and determine what is making the Students & Staff require to use the MS Authenticator (fyi ALL students are provided an Email address by our organization so the rules and setup procedure are identical weather you are a student or staff - the only people who are exempt are Parents, Agents, etc. as they use their personal email)

  • Jessi Walters
    Jessi Walters Blackbaud Employee
    Seventh Anniversary Kudos 5 Name Dropper Participant

    @Albert Giuliano I offer sincere apologies. I misunderstood your situation. You already have SSO established at your school; I just verified. You're all set!

    Your faculty and staff will not be further impacted in October. Additionally, you do not have to enforce MFA through Microsoft for anyone, including your faculty and staff. The BBID MFA enforcement only applies to BBID accounts where the user enters a password on the app.blackbaud.com.

    While we recommend MFA with your Identity Provider, we have no way of enforcing that. The identity is managed entirely through Microsoft Azure in your case.

    Please email me at jessica dot walters at blackbaud dot com if you have any additional questions.

  • Albert Giuliano
    Albert Giuliano
    Third Anniversary Name Dropper Facilitator 1

    @Jessi Walters
    Thanks for the reply's I was on the phone with tech support we confirmed we have it setup already (from over a year ago - the instructions you sent me was the resource I used originally, so they are going to get back to me so we can review the settings and find out why the MS Authenticator is being required by my users.

  • Murphy Evelyn
    Murphy Evelyn
    Second Anniversary Name Dropper Facilitator 1

    @Jessi Walters dino game

    This article is great!

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