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CIPD

Membership Organisations | Okta Single Sign on (SSO) Integration

CIPD’s digital estate had grown beyond its original scope. While its bespoke membership, authentication and role provider had served a single website well, it was not designed to support multiple web applications and services operating across different domains - all of which needed to share a consistent authentication and authorisation layer. ClerksWell partnered with CIPD to design and implement Okta Single Sign On (SSO) as a central authentication solution across its applications.

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The Challenge

As CIPD expanded, the limitations of the custom solution became increasingly clear. The organisation required an industry standard, secure and scalable identity platform that could be rolled out across its wider digital ecosystem while delivering a consistent, user-friendly experience for members.

 

  • A bespoke authentication solution tightly coupled to a single website 

  • Growing complexity as new applications and services were introduced

  • Inconsistent login and registration experiences across domains 

  • Increased risk and maintenance overhead as the estate scaled 

CIPD needed a future proof approach that would support growth, strengthen security and simplify how users registered and accessed services. 

The Approach

The project was delivered using an Agile methodology, allowing ClerksWell and CIPD to maintain strong focus on quality, usability and continuous improvement throughout. 

 

This included: 

 

  • Daily standups to maintain momentum and transparency 

  • Backlog planning and prioritisation to focus on user impact 

  • Regular reviews and retrospectives to refine delivery and outcomes 

This approach enabled rapid iteration, reduced risk and ensured the solution consistently met both technical and user experience requirements. 

The Solution

ClerksWell implemented Okta SSO as a shared authentication and authorisation layer across CIPD’s digital platforms.

 

This provided: 

 

  • A standardised, recognisable login and registration journey 

  • Centralised identity management across multiple applications 

  • Improved security using an industry trusted identity provider 

  • A scalable foundation capable of supporting future services and domains 

The solution ensured CIPD members could seamlessly access services through a single, consistent user journey, regardless of which application they were using. 

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The Outcome

CIPD now benefits from a simplified, secure and future‑ready identity solution that improves the member experience while reducing technical complexity. By decoupling authentication from individual applications and introducing a scalable identity platform, CIPD has established a strong foundation to support ongoing growth and digital evolution.

Industry Perspective

“As always the support is first class. ”

Ben Goulding

Senior Product Manager, CIPD

Related Work

Examples of projects where we’ve delivered similar outcomes across different organisations.

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