channelcentral Blog

Facilitating secure business interactions

Hidden connections between a CPQ application and an eCommerce platform are now commonplace in the IT Channel, facilitating a vast number of transactions daily.  channelcentral has worked hard to create a seamless, yet ultimately secure, integration process for its customers and their users using SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language). SAML is fast becoming an industry standard for for communicating identities across the internet.

How does this work?

It’s complicated, but put simply – SAML handles authentication negotiations between three separate parties:

• An Identity Provider, in this example a CPQ Host (e.g. a Distributor).
• A SAML Service Provider, in this example a CPQ application plugin provider (i.e. channelcentral)
• A User – an employee or customer of the Identity Provider (Distributor or Reseller).

The authentication process is as follows:

1. The user is presented to the CPQ plugin provider (channelcentral in this case) when they click a link.
2. Assuming the user request was valid, the plugin provider sends a token back to the user (invisibly).
3. The token is routed automatically to the CPQ Host (Distributor) for confirmation of validity.
4. The CPQ Host either declines (in which case the user is prevented from accessing the CPQ application e.g. iQuote, PowerQuote, Market Pro) or successfully authenticates the user and issues a new token.
5. The new token is received by channelcentral and user is granted access.

Distributor control

So, what are the main benefits of introducing SAML authentication into the login process?

• The CPQ Host, i.e. the Distributor, controls who accesses what. If the Distributor withdraws a service, access can be prevented, even if links still exist in their eCommerce store (or an old email that someone has found).
• Importantly, it also prevents people/competitors spoofing the Distributor’s users to see their pricing/stock.
• Improved deployment speed – being a widely-accepted standard, SAML allows interoperability between the highest possible range of back-end systems within the IT Channel.

Does your CPQ provider take user authentication as seriously as channelcentral, when plugging applications in to external eCommerce?  For more information on CPQ user authentication contact us at marketing@channelcentral.net

Watch the video summary here: