One IdP provider for all cluster schools
There are some good reasons to select the together as a group the same IdP provider:
- Collaboration: As a cluster you are learning to work together and this is ine are where you can. SSO is new to all of you so no schools have any existing investment, meaning there is little to lose in collaborating on this decision.
- Shared services: It is possible that at some stage you will want to share an instance of a service (i.e multi-tennanted). For SSO to work for this service for users from any school it is highly desirable that you have the same IdP operator.
- Efficiency: It is cheaper for a provider to deal with a group of (proximate) schools that are already working together than to deal with the same number of individual, disparate schools.
- Mutual support: You can ask questions of each other, have your own expert users and generally build an internal capability.
- Ministry funding: The Ministry has some ability to subsidise SSO for groups of at least 10 schools making a joint decision to move to a single IdP operator.
How to access the Ministry subsidy for SSO
As written earlier, the Ministry has some ability to subsidise SSO for groups of at least 10 schools making a joint decision to move to a single IdP operator. Although 10 is not imutable the intent is to get increased efficiency from the subsidy and this is only possible if the unit of funding is a group of school, the more the better.
The subsidy is to stimulate the uptake of SSO and will most likely be used to fund/subsidise the set-up costs (i.e. those paid to establish a working SSO service). I reccomend that schools budget to pay the ongoing costs from their own funds.
The process is that schools decide together on an IdP provider, contact the provider to negotiate a deal. This phase will include working out how many and what services you get "mapped" and understanding the set-up/one-off and ongoing./operational costs of the SSO service. You (together with the provider) approach the Ministry. This can be done by email (mle.project@minedu.govt.nz) or on the phone (04 463 7666). The subsidy will be paid to the provider and therefore "deducted" from the price negotiated with the provider.