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Will Webberley Josh Barnett
By Will Webberley and 1 other
• 8 articles

Setting up SSO: Login with Microsoft

This article describes how SSO (via Microsoft OpenID Connect OAuth2) can be achieved to power authentication and authorisation for your users with the SimplyDo platform. Whilst most SimplyDo functionality can (and usually will) be set-up for you by your account manager during onboarding, it may be worth taking a look through this guide in case there are other options you may wish to take advantage of. This document covers the SimplyDo setup in addition to settings you may wish to change on your Microsoft tenant. 1. Introduction SimplyDo has an app registered and verified with Microsoft Azure. This means that if your organisation already uses services like Office365 and Microsoft Teams, then there is usually very little to do other than provide your users with the ability to grant consent to connect to the SimplyDo app - or, alternatively, allow a Microsoft Entra ID administrator to grant consent on behalf of your tenant. Login with Microsoft is available to all SimplyDo organisational accounts. The Login with Microsoft OpenID Connect OAuth2 flow involves the following steps: - The user arrives at the SimplyDo platform (web or mobile app); - The user is redirected automatically to login with your tenant on a Microsoft login page; - Upon successful login, the user provides consent that allows SimplyDo to access their basic profile information (this only occurs during the first login if consent is not already granted); - The user is redirected back to the SimplyDo platform with a special code; - SimplyDo exchanges the authorization code for an access token; - SimplyDo accesses the Microsoft Graph API, using the access token, in order to read the user’s basic profile information (leveraging the User.Read permission); - The user is then logged-in to SimplyDo and is returned to the web or mobile app they started from. These steps are handled automatically in concert between SimplyDo and Microsoft systems. 2. Useful information The following information may be useful when configuring your systems to work with SimplyDo OAuth2 authentication (e.g. granting consent to staff). Application ID: dbf692fe-35c1-4511-9178-9131e6511712 Callback URL: https://login.simplydo.co.uk/auth/oauth/microsoft/login/callback 3. Enabling Microsoft authentication in SimplyDo This section describes how the SimplyDo platform can be configured to allow Microsoft authentication for your organisational account. Please note: these steps will likely be carried out by your account manager on your behalf. 3.1. Turn on Login with Microsoft In your SimplyDo account navigate to the Sign-on tab of your organisational Settings. Here toggle on the option for “Microsoft”. Login with Microsoft OAuth2 single sign-on is now enabled for your organisation. When visitors arrive at your login page on SimplyDo they will now be given the option to “Login with Microsoft”. 3.2. Set-up auto-login (optional) SimplyDo can automatically redirect visitors to your chosen login system. This means that they can bypass the SimplyDo login selection screen and be taken straight to the Microsoft login page. To do so, navigate to the Sign-on tab of your organisational Settings (as above). On this tab, choose “Login with Microsoft” in the Auto sign-on dropdown. 3.3. Configure Microsoft authentication (optional) SimplyDo supports a number of additional configurations and tweaks to tailor Microsoft login for your organisation’s particular needs. For example, you can configure the set of API permissions requested of your users, create attribute mappings, and more. To access these settings, first navigate to the Sign-on tab of your organisational Settings (as above). Once here, select the “Manage” link next to the “Microsoft” option. On this tab a number of options are presented, as described below. 3.3.1. Tenant ID Enter your Microsoft Tenant ID into the Tenant ID field to take users directly to the branded version of your organisation’s login screen. 3.3.2. Permissions scope In the Permissions scope field you can enter a number of Microsoft Graph permissions to request of the user during the login process. This forms part of the user login consent process. The permissions are documented on the Microsoft Graph permissions webpage. The SimplyDo defaults should be sufficient in most cases, but if you want to include more, they can be added in this field space-separated. For example, if you want to use the User.Read and User.ReadBasic.All permissions, then enter these as “User.Read User.ReadBasic.All”. Please note that in all cases SimplyDo will also request the openid, email, and offline_access permissions, which are required as a minimum to allow sign-in. 3.3.3. Attribute mappings In most cases, you will not need to change these. However, in some cases, Microsoft Entra ID Directories are setup such that user profile attributes (and email addresses) are presented with different keys. For example, if your users have several email addresses associated with their Microsoft Entra ID profiles, and are included in an “emailAddress” field (rather than the default “mail”) in Microsoft Entra ID, and the required email is the one ending in @company1.com then you could set this up as follows. Please note that any number of additional and custom mappings can also be included. This might be useful for allowing SimplyDo to understand your organisational structure in order to automatically assign roles, and more. Please speak to your account manager for more information on this. 4. Managing the SimplyDo app in Microsoft Entra ID You can configure the SimplyDo app in Microsoft Entra ID according to your needs. To get started, you need to find the app in your Microsoft Entra ID tenant. In the Azure portal, navigate to your tenant and then find the Enterprise applications link. On the Enterprise applications page, find the “Simply Do” app in the list or by filtering by application name. Click on the application name link to open up its management panel. Please note: if the SimplyDo app is not listed in your Enterprise applications page, you may first need to “trigger” the app to appear by initiating a login from SimplyDo first. Please get in touch with your account manager if you need support with this. From the app’s management panel, a number of options are available depending on the needs of your organisation and IT and information security teams. Below we include instructions on some example configurations. 4.1. Grant admin consent (optional) By default, users accessing SimplyDo for the first time via Microsoft login will be asked for consent to access their work profile via the Microsoft Graph API. You may wish to grant consent to all users by default on behalf of your organisation, so that users themselves do not need to do so. To grant admin consent, navigate to the Permissions tab of the SimplyDo management panel, and click the “Grant admin consent for ” button. 4.2. Configure app properties (optional) On the Properties tab, a number of other options are available. The Enabled for users to sign-in toggle can be used to enable or disable the SimplyDo app for your organisation. The Assignment required toggle can be used to limit the application to specific users or groups in your organisation. If this is set to “Yes”, then you will need to choose specific groups or users by visiting the Users and groups tab in the app’s management panel. The other settings on this tab allow you to change the name, logo, and other information to be presented to users at sign-on time. 5. Conclusion In this document we have outlined the process for configuring SimplyDo single sign-on via Microsoft authentication. If you have any questions or problems with this setup, please just get in touch with your account manager.

Last updated on Dec 10, 2024

Setting up SSO: SAML2

This article describes how SSO (via SAML2) can be achieved to power login for your users with the SimplyDo platform. Whilst most SimplyDo functionality can (and usually will) be set-up for you by your account manager during onboarding, it may be worth taking a look through this guide in case there are other options you may wish to take advantage of. This document covers the SimplyDo setup in addition to settings you may need to configure your SAML2 identity provider. 1. Introduction SimplyDo has inbuilt support for handling login flows via the SAML2 (Security Assertion Markup Language) protocol. Setting-up SSO via SAML2 involves configuration changes on both sides: the Service Provider (in this case, SimplyDo) and the Identity Provider (your organisation’s SAML2-compliant identity provider system). This document covers the set-up on both sides, where possible. Login with SAML2 is available to all SimplyDo organisational accounts. The Login with SAML2 flow involves the following steps: - The user arrives at the SimplyDo platform (web or mobile app); - The user is redirected automatically to login with your organisation’s identity provider, along with a SAML request generated by SimplyDo; - Upon successful login, your identity provider generates a SAML response and redirects the user back to SimplyDo.; - SimplyDo parses and validates the SAML response and extracts the necessary data; - The user is then logged-in to SimplyDo and is returned to the web or mobile app they started from. These steps are handled automatically in concert between SimplyDo and your identity provider’s systems. 2. Alternatives If you use Microsoft Entra ID (for example, if your organisation already uses Microsoft Teams or Office 365) then we would recommend instead that you use SimplyDo’s Login with Microsoft facility, which leverages the more modern OpenID Connect (OAuth2) protocol. This is generally much easier and quicker to setup, and allows for additional extensibility (e.g. integration with other Microsoft systems). Organisations can switch between using SAML2 or Microsoft login, should this be necessary. 3. Configuring SAML2 on SimplyDo SimplyDo needs to be provided with some information in order to communicate correctly with your identity provider. This section describes how the SimplyDo platform can be configured to allow users to login to SimplyDo via SAML2. Please note: these steps will likely be carried out by your account manager on your behalf, if you are able to provide the necessary details. 3.1. Complete the SAML2 SSO setup In your SimplyDo account navigate to the Sign-on tab of your organisational Settings. Here click “Manage” next to the SAML SSO option. You will then be presented with the SAML2 settings for SImplyDo. On this screen you will need to provide: - Sign-on URL (the URL that SimplyDo will direct users to with the SAML request) - Sign-out URL (the URL that SimplyDo will direct users to upon logout) - An X.509 certificate (in PEM format) for validating the assertions You may also wish to provide attribute mappings. These represent the attribute names (or OIDs) used to contain user profile data in the SAML assertion from your identity provider. Some examples are shown in the image above, and they will between identity providers, but we recommend supplying attribute mappings for: - Email address (this is required) - First name - Last name On this screen you may wish to also provide Authorisation settings. Here, SimplyDo can approve/reject login attempts based on an attribute’s value. For example, if SimplyDo should only be available to users in the “Finance” department, which is supplied in an assertion attribute called “department”, then you could use “department” as the Attribute name and “Finance” as the Pattern to match, as shown in the image below. 3.2. Switch on SAML2 login Once the setup has been completed as explained in section 3.1, SAML2 can be turned on for your organisational account. To do so, navigate to the Sign-on tab of your organisational Settings. Here, enable the toggle for SAML SSO. Users visiting the sign-on page for your organisation can now choose to Login via single sign-on. 4. Setting-up your identity provider Your identity provider (IdP) will need to be provided with some information in order for it to be able to communicate properly with SimplyDo. 4.1. Find the necessary details in SimplyDo Generally, your account manager will be able to provide the SAML2 connection details to you. Additionally, all of the information needed should be available from within SimplyDo. To find these details, navigate to the Sign-on tab of your organisational Settings. Here, click the “Manage” link next to “SAML SSO”. At the bottom of the next screen, you will see some details displayed in the Configure your provider section. Make a note of these details in order to configure your identity provider later. 4.2. Create a SimplyDo service provider for your identity provider The next stage is to provide the necessary information to your identity provider. Depending on the particular SAML2 software used for your identity provider, the interface will vary. However, the key concepts should remain the same. To start, open up the management console for your organisation’s identity provider. In the console, find the section called Connected apps (this may be called Service Providers or Apps, depending on your software). In the Connected apps section, choose the option to Register a new SP (this may be called Create app or Register Service Provider, depending on your software). In the Register a new SP flow, provide the information you noted from SimplyDo earlier in section 4.1. Please note the following: - The Friendly name (or App name) can be anything. We recommend using “SimplyDo”. - For the Service URL (or App URL) use the Sign-on URL (noted from SimplyDo) - For the Entity ID we recommend using the Metadata URL (noted from SimplyDo). - For the ACS URL (or Assertion URL) use the ACS URL (noted from SimplyDo). If your identity provider allows you to select an HTTP method for making login assertions, please make sure to use POST requests. Once you’re happy with the settings, complete the setup, and you should see the SimplyDo app listed as a service provider. 4.3. Configure your identity provider’s attribute mappings Earlier, in section 3.1, we provided some attribute mappings to SimplyDo. You should ensure these are correctly configured in your identity provider so that the data can flow seamlessly between the identity provider and service provider. Depending on your identity provider software, these steps might be different, but the concepts should remain largely the same. In your identity provider console’s Settings or Users area, find the appropriate configuration for managing your attributes. Here, you should be provided with options to check or change the SAML2 mapping for specific attributes. In the example below, we are inspecting the information about the “Group” attribute, which has a default value of “staff” (which can be overridden on a per-user basis) and has a SAML2 mapping of “group”. Repeat the process for the attributes for the user’s email address, their first name, and their last name, and ensure they match against what was configured earlier in SimplyDo: Once configured correctly, and the relevant settings are enabled on your particular identity provider, single sign-on via SAML2 will now be ready for use. 5. Conclusion In this article we have outlined the process for configuring SimplyDo single sign-on via the SAML2 login flow. If you have any questions or problems with this setup, please just get in touch with your account manager.

Last updated on Dec 06, 2024

Using a custom email server

This article describes how you can configure SimplyDo to transmit emails (such as notification emails and announcements) via a mail server of your choice. Whilst most SimplyDo functionality can (and usually will) be set-up for you by your account manager during onboarding, it may be worth taking a look through this guide in case there are other options you may wish to take advantage of. 1. Introduction By default, SimplyDo transmits all email through our dedicated mail provider, Sendgrid. However, we understand that some organisations would prefer to maximise their data sovereignty and reduce the number of suppliers and sub-processors that have access to personal data (names and email addresses). As such, SimplyDo offers the facility to configure a custom email server - perhaps one operated or owned by your own organisation - through which all outbound SimplyDo mail will be transmitted. SimplyDo’s email connections are handled via SMTP, the widely-used protocol for handling email. SimplyDo offers a number of settings to help you tailor the connection details according to your needs. 2. Configuring a custom SMTP server on SimplyDo Email server connections are handled through the administrator settings for your organisation. To start, navigate to the Email tab of the administrator console Settings page. Enable the setting by toggling on the Send email from another domain through my mail server setting. A number of additional options will become available. They can be completed as follows: - SMTP Host: The IP address or host name of the SMTP server to connect to. - SMTP Port: The port number to connect to on the SMTP server. - Encryption: Choose the encryption scheme expected by your SMTP server. The options are: - No encryption - SSL - STARTTLS - From name: Choose the name that will be displayed in the “from” field in emails sent. - From email: Choose the email address that will be used to send the emails. - SMTP username: The username to authenticate against the server. - SMTP password: The password to use to authenticate against the server. When you have finished setting-up the mail server, remember to click Save settings. Emails to users in your organisation will now be sent using this new connection. 3. Revert back to using SimplyDo’s default mail settings If you would like to revert to using the default SMTP settings for SImplyDo, simply toggle-off the Send email from another domain through my mail server option on the Email tab of your administrator settings (as described above). 4. Conclusion In this article we have outlined the process for configuring SimplyDo to use a custom SMTP email server for your organisation’s outbound mail. If you have any questions or problems with this setup, please just get in touch with your account manager.

Last updated on Mar 15, 2024

Syncing Entra ID Tenant Directories and Groups

SimplyDo enables administrators to set-up a one-way automatic synchronisation from a connected Microsoft Entra ID directory. This feature allows for the automatic provisioning and updating of user accounts based on a source directory, and is useful for pre-creating user accounts in the platform before the user has directly engaged with SimplyDo. For example, this could be for associating users into groups ahead of time, or for including them in announcements. Turning on the sync feature Important: Before continuing, please ensure that your Microsoft account has the required Directory.Read.All permission on the source Entra ID tenant. The connection to SimplyDo will be made on behalf of the connecting user. On SimplyDo, your account will need the relevant permissions to change settings on the organisation account. The settings to manage this feature can be found by navigating to Admin -> Settings -> Sign-on -> Manage ("Microsoft"), as shown in the image below. Near the bottom of this page, click the "Connect to Microsoft Entra ID" button, and go through the steps to authenticate using your Microsoft account. Once back on SimplyDo, slide the toggle to enable the sync, and then select whether you'd like to sync the entire directory, or a group within your directory. Notes Once enabled, the automated sync will take place each evening. Any new accounts encountered during the sync will be created in SimplyDo, and any accounts with updates (e.g. a new name or email address) will be automatically updated. SimplyDo will not automatically remove accounts. However, stale SimplyDo accounts can be automatically deleted according to rules you set in the Administration settings. Attribute mappings configured will be respected during the sync process.

Last updated on Dec 19, 2025

Configure Organisational Branding

Organisational branding controls the colour scheme displayed across the platform and the logos and icons displayed in the navigation bar, browser tabs, and emails. To configure organisational branding, your user needs the "manage settings" organisational permission. Configure the colour scheme and logos 1. Start on the Admin Dashboard (using the "Admin" button in the top navbar). 2. In the left-sidebar navigate to "Settings" and then choose the "Branding" tab. 3. On this page you can change the following items (please note that all are optional): 1. The "Logo": a primary logo shown on the navbar and other areas across the platform. 2. The "Icon": a more square-shaped image, shown as a browser tab icon and by default in emails. 3. "Colour scheme": a primary and secondary colour to apply to buttons, links, and other content. This enables you to maintain consistent brand identity from other organisational media. 4. "Welcome text": some introductory text displayed on the login and registration pages. 5. "Homepage text": text shown on the homepage of all users. 6. "Helpful links": additional links added to the navbar (e.g. to your own website). Configure email branding Emails are sent with the colour scheme and icon you set on the "Branding" settings tab. You can also configure an email "banner image" (via the "Email" settings tab), which will add a custom banner image to the top of every email sent. Configure the name of your organisation Your organisation name provides identity to your organisation as users interact with the platform. It is the "container" that holds its users, challenges, and ideas. Usually, it is named after the company or organisation using the platform, but it can also be named something else (e.g. a brand name delivering innovation services). The organisation name can be changed by visiting the "General" tab on the Admin settings page. Please note that the organisational "code" (i.e. the bit that comes before the ".simplydo.co.uk" when accessing the platform) cannot be changed by administrators. If you need to make a change to this, please reach out to your account manager.

Last updated on Dec 19, 2025

Setting up SimplyDo for Microsoft Teams

This article is designed for administrators or users wanting to install and setup the SimplyDo app for Microsoft Teams. It assumes that the Teams user belongs to an Entra ID tenant that is already registered with SimplyDo (e.g. for powering single sign-on). Prerequisite: Get a SimplyDo organisational account If you do not yet have a SimplyDo organisational account, or if you aren't yet using Microsoft Entra ID single sign-on for your existing organisational account, please reach out to support@simplydo.co.uk for more information and set-up help. Step 1. Install the SimplyDo app For information, the App ID for the SimplyDo app for Teams is: dbf692fe-35c1-4511-9178-9131e6511712 In Microsoft Teams, find the option to "add an app". This might be achieved using the "+ Apps" button in the sidebar (as shown in the image below), or via the "Get more apps" button in the "Manage your apps" screen. Use the search facility to find "SimplyDo" and tap the "Add" button. On the following screen, review the app details and tap "Add" when you're ready to proceed. The app will now be installed. Once installed, you'll be prompted to choose an installation location. You can choose to just open the app, or add to one of your channels. For now, we recommend just opening it. Step 2: Access the SimplyDo app for Teams Once installed, you can find the SimplyDo app from the sidebar, as shown in the image below. Just tap the app to open it. You can also choose to "Pin" it so that it stays visible in your sidebar. Once open, navigate to the "SimplyDo" tab to begin using the app. The "Activity" tab will send you useful notifications and updates. For help with getting started on the app, please just reach out to your account manager. Optional: Administer the SimplyDo app for Teams If you are a Teams administrator for your organisation, you can manage the SimplyDo app by visiting the Teams administration dashboard. On this page you can: - Manage the installation of the app. - Choose which users or groups can access or install the app. - View security and compliance information. You can also manage policies on the Setup policies dashboard, which enables you to: - Pre-install the SimplyDo app for your users. - Automatically pin the SimplyDo app for your users. - Control where the SimplyDo app shows in the App Bar.

Last updated on Dec 19, 2025