Case Study
Built Intelligence powers the UK’s top government agencies with SuperTokens SSO
April 06th 2023 • 10 minute read
B2B SaaS
Enterprise SSO
users
users
30+
Total savings
£50k+
per year
Minimal maintenance and
setup for each customer
setup for each customer
About
Based in the UK, Built Intelligence provides online training and support tools for construction professionals. With customers like the UK’s Environment Agency, Built Intelligence’s needs include advanced auth features for servicing enterprise-level organizations, notably SSO. They expect to sign and onboard multiple enterprise accounts per month in 2023 to double their business in the next 12 months.
Overview
1 Problem
Built Intelligence received a 6x billing increase from Auth0. Downgrading crucial enterprise functionality to avoid the hike was not an option
2 Process
The team stood up an entirely new authentication flow with SuperTokens - in less than four weeks.
3 Results
After a smooth migration to SuperTokens, Built Intelligence is set with SSO and multi-tenancy functionality, onboarding several enterprise customers per month on their path to double the business in the next year.
The Premise
Built Intelligence originally implemented their authentication using Auth0.
Auth0 offered the features they needed, until they switched their pricing structure - limiting each user to only three enterprise connections - something which BI’s customers relied on heavily.
Restoring all the broken connections meant upgrading tiers and increasing their yearly bill from £6,000 to £40,000+.
With the sudden 6x+ price hike, the BI team sought a more sustainable authentication solution for the long-run. Adrian, Technical Director at Built Intelligence, led the effort to find and evaluate a provider that would meet their customers’ requirements without breaking the bank.
Adrian was able to get started quickly using the SuperTokens documentation and rely on support to answer questions specific to BI’s implementation.
Auth0 offered the features they needed, until they switched their pricing structure - limiting each user to only three enterprise connections - something which BI’s customers relied on heavily.
Restoring all the broken connections meant upgrading tiers and increasing their yearly bill from £6,000 to £40,000+.
With the sudden 6x+ price hike, the BI team sought a more sustainable authentication solution for the long-run. Adrian, Technical Director at Built Intelligence, led the effort to find and evaluate a provider that would meet their customers’ requirements without breaking the bank.
Adrian was able to get started quickly using the SuperTokens documentation and rely on support to answer questions specific to BI’s implementation.
“The support personnel were able to answer our technical questions in-depth, with instant email responses whether it was 6AM or 7PM. We were impressed with the support and willingness of the team to get us up and running. Rishabh and Satvik have been absolute diamonds for us.”
Adrian
Technical Director at Built Intelligence
The Process
Built Intelligence evaluated multiple providers and shortlisted down to open source providers. According to Adrian, SuperTokens emerged as the winner due to:
1. “Very good and simple documentation”
2. Excellent Support
Migrating to another provider also came with security concerns. Auth0, was a large tried and test incumbent and hence could be relied on. However, SuperTokens satisfactorily addressed all of Adrian’s security security concerns with ample content in the form of whitepapers, docs and blogs posts - which provided answers to critical questions.
After a technical consultation with the SuperTokens’ team, BI tested their migration with a single customer.
With easy-to-follow documentation and support from the SuperTokens team, Adrian’s team was able to implement their new identity flow in record time. At first, his QA team thought authentication was marked as complete in error - but indeed, it was ready for deployment within just a single two-week sprint cycle.
1. “Very good and simple documentation”
2. Excellent Support
Migrating to another provider also came with security concerns. Auth0, was a large tried and test incumbent and hence could be relied on. However, SuperTokens satisfactorily addressed all of Adrian’s security security concerns with ample content in the form of whitepapers, docs and blogs posts - which provided answers to critical questions.
After a technical consultation with the SuperTokens’ team, BI tested their migration with a single customer.
With easy-to-follow documentation and support from the SuperTokens team, Adrian’s team was able to implement their new identity flow in record time. At first, his QA team thought authentication was marked as complete in error - but indeed, it was ready for deployment within just a single two-week sprint cycle.
“Including the learning curve, from start to finish - it took us 2-4 weeks to get the POC up and running, with an entirely new identity flow. To implement similar with another provider it would have taken 2 months, and it originally took us 1 month for Auth0 plus a learning curve, with more difficult documentation.”
Adrian
Technical Director at Built Intelligence
After success transferring their first account, Adrian says it was straightforward to do the rest:
"After we got it up and running for the first customer, it was easy to transfer all the other customers and new customers as well."
BI’s customers wanted peace of mind with the knowledge that migration wouldn’t mean a decrease in security compared to the previous security provider. However, it was easy for Adrian to reassure them of SuperTokens’ diligence around security by sharing the whitepaper, website documentation, and level of support provided by the team.
Since switching most of their customers over to SuperTokens, authentication is no longer a major concern for Built Intelligence and their support team can focus on more critical business-related tasks.
Since switching most of their customers over to SuperTokens, authentication is no longer a major concern for Built Intelligence and their support team can focus on more critical business-related tasks.
“No news is good news. The ability to fully offload auth without worrying about it makes our lives so much easier. Other than some comments after migrating our users over, we’ve seen no support tickets regarding authentication.”
Results
With customers migrated, Built Intelligence has seen a 10x decrease in auth costs, all while gaining precision over their auth implementation.
Because their Auth0 implementation required extra middleware, BI was paying an additional 12k yearly for Azure instances, which they needed to spin up for each individual customer. With SuperTokens’ flexibility, Adrian’s team were able to introduce their own native middleware that fluidly integrates with SuperTokens. Without the extra Azure middleware instances - even more time and cost savings.
Full control over the UI elements meant they could finally make their sign in feel at home with the rest of their site.
Because their Auth0 implementation required extra middleware, BI was paying an additional 12k yearly for Azure instances, which they needed to spin up for each individual customer. With SuperTokens’ flexibility, Adrian’s team were able to introduce their own native middleware that fluidly integrates with SuperTokens. Without the extra Azure middleware instances - even more time and cost savings.
Full control over the UI elements meant they could finally make their sign in feel at home with the rest of their site.
“It just looks a lot more like it comes from Built Intelligence”
Many of Built Intelligence’s existing and new enterprise customers have requested Single Sign-On (SSO) and multi-tenancy. Both features were quite costly to support with the original Auth0 pricing. With SuperTokens, authentication is no longer a tradeoff between features and price.
“Most of our enterprise customers have moved to SSO. With 35 active enterprise customers and adding three new accounts per month, we expect to double over the next twelve months.”
👇 Dont take our word for it - hear what Adrian had to say in 2 minutes
To watch entire case study discussion video please click here
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