What is a service account?
To secure your apps during the onboarding process, we need you to provide us with a temporary ‘service account’ on your email system (ex. Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace). Setting this up is an easy 5-minute process however it needs to be done by someone that has admin access to your mail system:
If you have admin access to your mail system – Please click the links in the “how is it done” section below and follow the simple steps. If you don’t have time, let us know by email now and we can do this for you on a screen share meeting.
If you don’t have admin access to your mail system – Please forward this article to the relevant colleague, IT department, or your external IT provider requesting that they set it up for you. Copy us in on the email so they have our details in case they have questions directly.
How is it done?
You can find the simple steps to set this up here:
- Microsoft/Office 365 Email, click here
- Google Workspace (Formerly G Suite) Email, click here
- If you have a local or privately hosted exchange server, this needs to be discussed thoroughly, so please advise your IT to contact us.
Why do we need it?
We need this access so that we can do the heavy lifting without impacting on your time. Here’s what we will do:
Mail Redirection – To prevent unauthorized resetting of passwords via app websites, we centralize all password reset emails to re-route to the nominated password admin in your firm. We do this by changing a setting on your email system called ‘mail transport rules’.
App Reset – To secure your apps we reset passwords for all nominated apps during user onboarding. This is a time-consuming process that we complete using a service account to minimize the requirement for your password admin’s time.
Email Integration– This is a cloud security technology that protects your firm against brute force attacks. Practice Protect allows you to leverage these features. This is especially important for email and file storage apps. We will let you know if and what we will federate in your firm.
Frequently Asked Questions
Confidentiality –We provide a confidentiality agreement at the point of sale to provide additional comfort to your firm in the delegation of this access. We do not access or view your company email outside of password reset emails.
How long do you need it for? – For mail redirection and app reset we require a service account for the duration of the onboarding process only. If email protection is a requirement, a service account is needed to provide this integration on an ongoing basis. Alternatively, if a service account is not something that can be provided by your IT for security reasons, we can assist them in configuring it with given instructions or through a remote session.
Is there an additional cost? – Microsoft/Office 365 does not charge for additional service accounts as it doesn’t need to have a Microsoft license. G-Suite Service accounts require a fee depending on your license.