Just like with anything that requires a password, Office 365 password reset is a common issue for a wide range of industries. Office 365 and Outlook Web App (OWA) provide email services to multitudes of end-users every day. As you may or may not know, Office 365 is a cloud-hosted application suite provided by Microsoft, while OWA is installed and maintained on-site by local IT professionals. The decision to have this service on or off premises has a lot to do with the size of a company, the size of the IT staff, and of course the budget, but I digress. This article is not about whether to go cloud or local for your email support nor is it a discussion on whether to choose Office 365 or OWA. No, today we will simply be discussing Office 365 Password Reset issues, and how Self-Service Password Reset is painfully lacking in either of those fancy Microsoft inventions.
Email Access – Still a Modern Necessity
Office 365 and OWA provide a tremendous service to the world today – being utilized by private citizens, schools, colleges, businesses, and organizations alike. With so many people around the globe logging in on a daily basis to retrieve their email, don’t you think just a few of them are going to forget their account password and end up unable to check their email?
I mean, it’s just email, right? Wrong! I neglected to check my email one morning and my youngest son had to stand alone on the soccer field for an hour and a half before his irresponsible father could come to pick him up after work. Had I read through my email that morning, I would have known that practice was canceled at the last minute. Now my son will never get that hour and a half of his short life back.
So, we can all agree – being able to get to your email in a timely fashion, whether it’s for personal or professional reasons, is very important.
Office 365 Password Reset – The Vacation Situation
Now, as good as Office 365 and OWA are at what they do, what happens when you fall victim to a similar scenario as this:
You have just returned from a two/three-week vacation and realize that not only is it a typical, gloomy Monday, but you can’t seem to remember your email password. You changed it just before vacation and forgot to add it to your password vault in your rush to get out the door. Now, low and behold, you cannot get into anything.
This is a forgotten password that we are talking about – chances are that you won’t be the only one who needs help getting back into an email account. This can cause even more issues because the bigger the company that you work for, the longer the wait will be for your friendly IT helpdesk to get to your request for a password change.
Does this sound familiar to anyone else?
Now, wouldn’t it be a godsend if you had the magical powers to do an Office 365 password reset (or an OWA password reset) right there at the login prompt? Honestly, why is it so difficult to bring self-service to Office 365 Password Reset or OWA Password Reset?
Those are rhetorical questions.
The Resolution
I’m sure there are plenty of good reasons why Self-service Password Reset is not a default function in Office 365 or OWA. However, the point I’m trying to make is that there is help for this small oversight.
The first step is to find a solution that provides its own Identity Provider (IdP). The IdP takes over the login process and allows end-users to use a single login account for many disparate web applications – creating possible solutions for even more end-user issues that IT typically has to handle. Web applications “federate” with the IdP and the users only see the login from the IdP requesting their credentials. Once the credentials have been approved by the IdP, it will signal to the web application that they can trust this user and serve them the resource they are requesting.
As such, Office 365 password reset or OWA password reset can be realized by employing an IdP. Not only would an IdP provide central authentication, but the login dialog will have a “Password Reset” link or button that can be used by the end-user to simplify these trivial issues from the comfort of their own seat. The returning vacationer can reset his/her own password with a few keystrokes and some button clicks, and IT gets some free time back to boot.
In addition, the Office 365 Password Reset feature can employ a variety of ways to “alternatively authenticate” a user before allowing them to specify a new password. The most popular methods are either by requiring answers to pre-enrolled questions or by requiring the user to enter a One Time Password (OTP) provided by the IdP through a text message sent to the user’s cell phone.
If your organization employs Office 365 or OWA for email access, you would be doing many users a tremendous service by looking into and implementing Office 365 Password Reset or OWA Password Reset in your environment. Who knows, it could be you or a close colleague who is the next victim of a forgotten password that can make for an even longer Monday.
