End-User Computing | Avantcio

Integrating Microsoft and Google Workspace

Wed, 14 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A quick guide for integrating Google Workspace with Microsoft 365 — useful whether you’re standardizing identity across platforms or just want to use both ecosystems without friction.

The Reality of Identity in Growing Companies

Launching a startup, most teams start with Gmail and Google Apps. So it’s no surprise that Google login dominates for web applications. As applications mature, Microsoft support tends to get added — often gated behind enterprise or premium tiers.

That said, plenty of startups launch on Microsoft 365. Founders from enterprise backgrounds, existing Microsoft integrations, or partner requirements can all point you in that direction.

So if you want to use Google apps while also authenticating via your Microsoft 365 identity — you’ve come to the right place.

Getting Started: Microsoft 365 + Google Workspace

The setup is straightforward. Google has solid documentation, and the process is non-destructive as long as you follow the steps carefully.

Key note: This will not change your email from Outlook to Gmail. And when validating your domain in Google, be careful not to overwrite existing DNS records (especially your MX records).

1. Set up Google Workspace for your M365 Domain

First, provision Google Workspace for your company domain:

Set up Google Workspace

2. Set up user provisioning and single sign-on

You’ll need to configure two Enterprise Applications in your Microsoft 365 Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) tenant:

Enterprise Applications in M365

Provisioning app: Syncs user data from Microsoft to Google (not email — just identity and profile data).

SSO app: Lets users authenticate to Google Workspace using their Microsoft credentials. Follow the instructions carefully — the Microsoft UI wording occasionally diverges from Google’s documentation.

Full step-by-step guide:

Set up SSO and provisioning

3. Add Google Apps to Microsoft 365 Apps

To surface Google Apps inside M365, configure an Enterprise Application for each Google app:

Set up Google Apps as Microsoft Enterprise Applications

Wrapping Up

The whole setup typically takes 1–2 hours depending on your familiarity with Entra ID and Google Workspace admin. Do it in a focused window without interruptions.

Nothing in this process is destructive — the only thing to watch is the DNS validation step in Google Workspace. Stick to domain verification only and don’t apply Gmail-over-Outlook settings, and you’ll be fine.

One final note: you’ll likely need to purchase Google Workspace licenses to access Meet, Chat, and full storage. Docs, Sheets, and Slides are available on a free tier. Pricing details:

Google Workspace Pricing

Questions? Reach out — happy to walk you through it.

What is SSO?

Fri, 02 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

What is SSO and Why Does It Matter?

What is SSO?

SSO in IT stands for Single Sign-On. In the simplest terms, it means that you log into your organization’s systems with one user identity. Many people might have experienced SSO-like functionality when using social sites as their identity providers, such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Twitter/X, etc.

Why Is It So Important?

Why is this important for building scalable organizations? It’s the glue that connects your various SaaS and IT systems. It’s what lets you get employees onboarded quickly. It’s what reduces the potential for having your systems compromised by poor password hygiene.

SSO also underpins the necessary infrastructure for graceful tool integration and information sharing. When you have a bunch of systems and applications with different login names and passwords, getting them to talk to each other is impossible. This is one of the first obstacles organizations face when they need to start scaling.

Little Pain Now or Big Pain Later

I won’t lie… getting your head around SSO upfront might feel like a distraction or a burden. However, it’s going to be a lot worse if you do it one or two years later. When you have to mangle user identities, write complicated migration scripts, reset applications, and deal with all the conflicting data to automate a process or system. Having a clear SSO strategy in place as you add applications to your technology stack will be an excellent tool to help choose the right tools for the business now and in the future.

My Feedback to SaaS Vendors: STOP Placing SSO in Your Top Tier Offerings Only

I’d like to now take a rare moment to get on my soapbox.

What I really don’t agree with, however, is vendors who put SSO in the highest tier of their offerings, usually the “enterprise” tier. The customer is forced to buy features they don’t need, To those doing this, STOP IT 🙏 PLEASE

This practice reduces the opportunity to create more secure environments. Ideally, SSO should be included in all offerings. However, as a vendor who is a responsible member of the global technology community, SSO should always be available as a standalone feature for anyone who asks for it.

It also raises big red flags when a vendor can’t offer SSO in its lower tiers. Is that because of poor architecture? Inflexible billing platforms? SSO should be like an airbag: a standard feature on all models.

SSO for Everyone

Your business should have an SSO strategy. Having it in place now will save so much pain later. If you have any questions about this and want to understand it better, reach out and book 30 minutes with me to get an understanding of how this can help your organization!

What is a fractional CIO?

Thu, 14 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Senior technology leadership, sized to fit

A fractional CIO brings senior technology leadership to your organization without the full-time price tag. You get the strategic vision of a technology executive — part-time, on-demand, exactly when you need it.

At AvantCIO, that leadership has a focus: the digital employee experience. The devices, identity, applications, and security your people touch every day — what the industry calls end-user computing. It’s the part of technology that most directly shapes whether your team is productive and glad to be at work, and it’s the part most often left to chance.

Growth is an execution problem

In our experience, the recurring lesson from organizations that stall isn’t a bad plan — it’s execution. Companies that can execute quickly keep a real competitive edge. And execution problems are hard to spot from the inside, because it’s rarely the goal that’s wrong; it’s a bottleneck somewhere in how the work actually gets done.

A fractional CIO’s job is to find and clear those bottlenecks. We bring an outside perspective and proven experience so that strategy doesn’t just get planned — it gets implemented, and it holds up as you scale.

The “n” challenge

One of the trickier problems organizations face is what we call the “n” challenge: scaling operations without everything getting harder at once. Going from 1 to 2, or 2 to 3, is simple. Going from 3 to “n” — real, compounding growth — is where the complexity shows up, especially around how information is shared and how a growing pile of tools work (or don’t work) together.

This is squarely an end-user computing problem. Most teams start with a handful of SaaS apps and add more as they grow. Without a deliberate strategy for identity, provisioning, and integration, you end up with tool sprawl, data locked in silos, and an employee experience that feels like a fragmented collection of logins instead of one coherent workplace.

What a fractional CIO actually does

For a growing company, a fractional CIO helps you:

Design the digital workplace — a coherent environment for devices, identity, collaboration, and security that your people find effortless.
Deploy and manage endpoints — zero-touch device deployment so a new hire is productive the moment the box is opened.
Get identity right early — single sign-on and automated provisioning that reduce cost and risk while making everything feel connected. (See What is SSO?.)
Adopt new capabilities responsibly — including AI tools like Copilot, integrated where they genuinely help rather than added as expensive shelf-ware.
Transfer knowledge — build your internal team’s ability to run and evolve the environment, so you’re never locked into a vendor or a consultant.

Critical, but not always full-time

Hiring an experienced CIO full-time is expensive and hard to justify for many growing companies. And let’s be honest — the full-time CIO can sometimes be a glorified network admin with a title. Either way the organization takes on real risk: a large salary that isn’t tied to outcomes, or an inexperienced hire who misses something critical.

A fractional CIO resolves that. We engage deeply enough to understand the business, help you right-size the technology support you actually need, and — importantly — we know when the organization is in good shape and our involvement isn’t required for now. Success is measured in outcomes, not hours.

The bottom line

Not every organizational challenge belongs to a CIO. But in a world where the digital workplace is where work happens, getting it right is often the difference between a team that’s held back by friction and one that moves. A well-designed end-user computing strategy makes the transition from a small team to a larger, more complex organization feel seamless. A fractional CIO gives you the vision — and the execution — to get there without carrying a full-time executive before you need one.

Ready to give your people a workplace they’ll love? Let’s talk.