Advances in provisioning and authentication technologies at Harvard don’t just make user access safer and more secure — they also offer an important opportunity to unify and streamline user experience at every step along the lifecycle of University affiliation. That’s why we’re introducing HarvardKey.
A unified credential that will unlock access to applications and services spanning the entire Harvard Community, HarvardKey will give users a single identity for life — accompanied by simple, self-service onboarding, the ability to change personal details with only a few clicks, and a seamless user experience when access rights change.
"HarvardKey represents a fundamental change and improvement in how Harvard manages identity and access across the entire University community, and we're very excited to be able to offer our users the benefits of this added convenience and security," says Jason Snyder, Managing Director of Architecture & Engineering for HUIT's Identity and Access Management (IAM) program.
As rollout begins in fall 2015, the HarvardKey portal — which will be located at key.harvard.edu — will be home to a self-claiming app for new Harvard users, a self-service portal for existing Harvard Community members, and an immediately recognizable login interface for systems accepting HarvardKey credentials. Features will include the following:
- Easy onboarding: New Harvard users visit key.harvard.edu to verify their identity, set up a password for their HarvardKey, and get the onboarding process started.
- Self-service portal: Over the life of a user’s membership in the Harvard Community, he or she can visit key.harvard.edu at any time to easily change his or her password or other personal details.
- Unified login interface: Users will see HarvardKey login screens whenever they access University applications and services, reinforcing that personal data is safe and secure.
Users across the Harvard Community will receive information via email, their existing login interfaces, and other channels as the rollout progresses, including how to activate their new HarvardKey credentials. For more information about the transition, please contact Gretchen Grozier, IAM Community Program Manager.
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