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SciQuest Joins InCommon Canadian Access Federations
SciQuest, an online procurement provider focused on academic, healthcare, and research organizations, has joined the InCommon Federation and the Canadian Access Federation (CAF) in an effort to improve standards and interoperability for customers in the United States and Canada.
"The mission of the InCommon Federation is to create and support a common framework for trustworthy shared management of access to on-line resources in support of education and research in the United States," according to information released by the organization. It is operated by Internet2 staff with oversight and recommendations provided by a steering committee and technical advisory committee composed of higher education professionals from around the U.S.
CAF is a joint initiative of the Canadian University Council of Chief Information Officers (CUCCIO) and Canada's Advanced Research and Innovation Network (CANARIE). "Federated access management eliminates the need for researchers, students, and instructors to maintain multiple, password-protected accounts or for identity providers to distribute identity information; instead the federation supports user access to protected resources based on a user's status and privileges as presented by his or her home institution," according to information on CUCCIO's website.
"SciQuest joined the InCommon Federation and the Canadian Access Federation in direct response to feedback from our higher-learning institution customers," said Max Leisten, market director for Higher Education, SciQuest. "By supporting these federations, we are helping our customers reduce the costs associated with building and maintaining a single sign-on for SciQuest. SciQuest continues to develop key industry relationships and product innovations that help our customers more quickly realize spend savings."
More information about SciQuest is available at sciquest.com. Visit incommon.org for more information on the InCommon Federation. Further information about CAF can be found at cuccio-cdpiuc.ca.
About the Author
Joshua Bolkan is the multimedia editor for Campus Technology and THE Journal. He can be reached at jbolkan@1105media.com.