Education IT Reporter

Tools4ever, the leading provider of identity and access management solutions in education, announces a new partnership with Blackboard Inc. The partnership brings together two market-driving education solution providers, offering mutual customers an integration of Blackboard’s flagship Learning Management Solution (LMS) Blackboard Learn Tools4ever’s two flagship solutions namely, their Identity and Access Management product (IAM) and their IDaaS product HelloID. The integration facilitates user lifecycle management across the LMS, SIS, and applications, from a single point of entry.

“We are thrilled to partner with Blackboard to offer our many mutual customers seamless integration between our products,” said Dean Wiech, managing director of Tools4ever. “For more than 20 years, we have built a stronghold in the education industry so it is critical that we partner with other market leaders, such as Blackboard, who offer an exceptional education experience for students and staff.”

Blackboard Learn and IAM

Blackboard Learn is a powerful virtual teaching and learning environment.  Its capabilities extend beyond those of a traditional learning management system (LMS) by expanding online learning, increasing employee engagement and optimizing learning outcomes. IAM connects the Student Information System (SIS) and the user accounts in the network with other systems to automate user provisioning, self-service access management, helpdesk delegation and access governance processes.

The integration will allow mutual customers to extract information from any Student Information System (SIS) and synchronize it with Blackboard Learn. For example, when a student record is created, updated, or deleted in the SIS, IAM detects the change and shares this information with Blackboard Learn. This connection prevents duplicate records, ensures information in Blackboard Learn is always up-to-date, reduces risk of error, and increases efficiency by saving the IT team valuable time.

Blackboard Learn and HelloID

The integration with Blackboard Learn also extends to Tools4ever’s cloud-based Single Sign-On (SSO) product, HelloID. Both Blackboard Learn and HelloID are deployed on the cloud, offering customers a streamlined user experience.

HelloID is a customizable and user-friendly dashboard where students and staff can access all approved teaching and learning applications, including Blackboard Learn. HelloID’s dashboard can be securely accessed from anywhere, on any device, at any time. If a student does not have access to Blackboard Learn, they can request access via the dashboard with HelloID’s Service Automation functionality. The data owner can approve this request which automatically registers in the IT infrastructure, granting the student immediate access.