Mark Allen Group

The Challenge

Extending and simplifying access across platforms

Single Sign-On (SSO)

institutional customers were requesting Shibboleth authentication.

Enabling institutional sales for new acquisitions

Mark Allen Group wanted a cost-effective solution to manage institutional access across diverse technical platforms, including a number of new acquisitions.

Unifying access management

Mark Allen Group were also interested in a solution that offered the potential for unifying individual and institutional access controls in the longer term.

Lack of technical expertise

Neither Mark Allen Group or their web development partners had the in-depth technical understanding of institutional access management needed to implement a solution smoothly and in a reasonable timeframe.

“LibLynx understood our situation, and offered a solution that appeared tailor-made for the challenges we were facing”

– Tom Pollard, Content Development Director

How We Helped

A flexible, cross-platform solution managed via a single CRM

Account creation wizard

we customized a ‘new account wizard’ in partnership with support staff to meet their needs. This feature enables rapid creation of new customer accounts and eliminates common mistakes made in account data entry, including IP ranges.

Shibboleth on demand

support staff simply select customers from the handy federation pick-list in our CRM, and LibLynx Connect handles all the technical details of Shibboleth/SAML integration. To cater for very large organizations like the UK National Health Service, our CRM can grant access to specific organizational sub-units such as hospitals.

Customizable WAYF pages

Mark Allen Group can quickly and easily configure branded Where Are You From (WAYF) pages for each of their titles, providing a familiar look and feel for users to enter additional credentials.

WAYFless URLs

Users accessing from Shibboleth-authenticated customers can link directly into a title without first having to indicate their organizational affiliation.

The Implementation: Integration of the LibLynx API

The only work required from Mark Allen Group were straightforward calls into the LibLynx Connect REST API whenever authentication or authorization decisions were needed.The implementation was carried out by their own platform team with the aid of our in-depth documentation and supporting tools.

We took care of every aspect of Shibboleth integration, including managing their registrations into all applicable Shibboleth federations.

About Mark Allen Group

Mark Allen Group is a rapidly growing independent publisher and events business based in London that focuses on healthcare, education, engineering, business and music. The group publishes over 60 titles that sell to varying degrees across corporate, individual and institutional markets.

Please contact us to explore how we can help provide your users with a one-stop service for all resources.

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