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Tutorial: Microsoft Entra integration with Help Scout

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In this tutorial, you'll learn how to integrate Help Scout with Microsoft Entra ID. When you integrate Help Scout with Microsoft Entra ID, you can:

  • Control in Microsoft Entra ID who has access to Help Scout.
  • Enable your users to be automatically signed-in to Help Scout with their Microsoft Entra accounts.
  • Manage your accounts in one central location.

Prerequisites

To configure Microsoft Entra integration with Help Scout, you need the following items:

  • A Microsoft Entra subscription. If you don't have a subscription, you can get a free account.
  • Help Scout single sign-on enabled subscription.

Scenario description

In this tutorial, you configure and test Microsoft Entra single sign-on in a test environment.

  • Help Scout supports SP and IDP initiated SSO.
  • Help Scout supports Just In Time user provisioning.

To configure the integration of Help Scout into Microsoft Entra ID, you need to add Help Scout from the gallery to your list of managed SaaS apps.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.
  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > New application.
  3. In the Add from the gallery section, type Help Scout in the search box.
  4. Select Help Scout from results panel and then add the app. Wait a few seconds while the app is added to your tenant.

Alternatively, you can also use the Enterprise App Configuration Wizard. In this wizard, you can add an application to your tenant, add users/groups to the app, assign roles, as well as walk through the SSO configuration as well. Learn more about Microsoft 365 wizards.

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO for Help Scout

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Help Scout using a test user called B.Simon. For SSO to work, you need to establish a link relationship between a Microsoft Entra user and the related user in Help Scout.

To configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with Help Scout, perform the following steps:

  1. Configure Microsoft Entra SSO - to enable your users to use this feature.
    1. Create a Microsoft Entra test user - to test Microsoft Entra single sign-on with B.Simon.
    2. Assign the Microsoft Entra test user - to enable B.Simon to use Microsoft Entra single sign-on.
  2. Configure Help Scout SSO - to configure the single sign-on settings on application side.
    1. Create Help Scout test user - to have a counterpart of B.Simon in Help Scout that is linked to the Microsoft Entra representation of user.
  3. Test SSO - to verify whether the configuration works.

Configure Microsoft Entra SSO

Follow these steps to enable Microsoft Entra SSO.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.

  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > Help Scout > Single sign-on.

  3. On the Select a single sign-on method page, select SAML.

  4. On the Set up single sign-on with SAML page, click the pencil icon for Basic SAML Configuration to edit the settings.

    Edit Basic SAML Configuration

  5. On the Basic SAML Configuration section, If you wish to configure the application in IDP initiated mode, perform the following steps:

    a. Identifier is the Audience URI (Service Provider Entity ID) from Help Scout, starts with urn:

    b. Reply URL is the Post-back URL (Assertion Consumer Service URL) from Help Scout, starts with https://

    Note

    The values in these URLs are for demonstration only. You need to update these values from actual Reply URL and Identifier. You get these values from the Single Sign-On tab under Authentication section, which is explained later in the tutorial.

  6. Click Set additional URLs and perform the following step if you wish to configure the application in SP initiated mode:

    In the Sign-on URL textbox, type the URL: https://secure.helpscout.net/members/login/

  7. On the Set up Single Sign-On with SAML page, in the SAML Signing Certificate section, click Download to download the Certificate (Base64) from the given options as per your requirement and save it on your computer.

    The Certificate download link

  8. On the Set up Help Scout section, copy the appropriate URL(s) as per your requirement.

    Copy configuration URLs

Create a Microsoft Entra test user

In this section, you'll create a test user called B.Simon.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a User Administrator.
  2. Browse to Identity > Users > All users.
  3. Select New user > Create new user, at the top of the screen.
  4. In the User properties, follow these steps:
    1. In the Display name field, enter B.Simon.
    2. In the User principal name field, enter the username@companydomain.extension. For example, B.Simon@contoso.com.
    3. Select the Show password check box, and then write down the value that's displayed in the Password box.
    4. Select Review + create.
  5. Select Create.

Assign the Microsoft Entra test user

In this section, you'll enable B.Simon to use single sign-on by granting access to Help Scout.

  1. Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.
  2. Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > Help Scout.
  3. In the app's overview page, select Users and groups.
  4. Select Add user/group, then select Users and groups in the Add Assignment dialog.
    1. In the Users and groups dialog, select B.Simon from the Users list, then click the Select button at the bottom of the screen.
    2. If you are expecting a role to be assigned to the users, you can select it from the Select a role dropdown. If no role has been set up for this app, you see "Default Access" role selected.
    3. In the Add Assignment dialog, click the Assign button.

Configure Help Scout SSO

  1. In a different web browser window, sign in to your Help Scout company site as an administrator

  2. Click on Manage from the top menu and then select Company from the dropdown menu.

    Screenshot shows the Manage menu with Company selected.

  3. Select Authentication from the left navigation pane.

    Screenshot shows Authentication selected.

  4. This takes you to the SAML settings section and perform the following steps:

    Screenshot shows the Single Sign-On tab where you enter the specified information.

    a. Copy the Post-back URL (Assertion Consumer Service URL) value and paste the value in the Reply URL text box in the Basic SAML Configuration section.

    b. Copy the Audience URI (Service Provider Entity ID) value and paste the value in the Identifier text box in the Basic SAML Configuration section.

  5. Toggle Enable SAML on and perform the following steps:

    Screenshot shows the Single Sign-On tab where you enable SAML and add other information.

    a. In Single Sign-On URL textbox, paste the value of Login URL.

    b. Click Upload Certificate to upload the Certificate(Base64) downloaded previously.

    c. Enter your organization's email domain(s) e.x.- contoso.com in the Email Domains textbox. You can separate multiple domains with a comma. Anytime a Help Scout User or Administrator who enters that specific domain on the Help Scout log-in page will be routed to Identity Provider to authenticate with their credentials.

    d. Lastly, you can toggle Force SAML Sign-on if you want Users to only log in to Help Scout via through this method. If you'd still like to leave the option for them to sign in with their Help Scout credentials, you can leave it toggled off. Even if this is enabled, an Account Owner will always be able to log in to Help Scout with their account password.

    e. Click Save.

Create Help Scout test user

In this section, a user called B.Simon is created in Help Scout. Help Scout supports just-in-time user provisioning, which is enabled by default. There is no action item for you in this section. If a user doesn't already exist in Help Scout, a new one is created after authentication.

Test SSO

In this section, you test your Microsoft Entra single sign-on configuration with following options.

SP initiated:

  • Click on Test this application, this will redirect to Help Scout Sign on URL where you can initiate the login flow.

  • Go to Help Scout Sign-on URL directly and initiate the login flow from there.

IDP initiated:

  • Click on Test this application, and you should be automatically signed in to the Help Scout for which you set up the SSO.

You can also use Microsoft My Apps to test the application in any mode. When you click the Help Scout tile in the My Apps, if configured in SP mode you would be redirected to the application sign on page for initiating the login flow and if configured in IDP mode, you should be automatically signed in to the Help Scout for which you set up the SSO. For more information about the My Apps, see Introduction to the My Apps.

Next steps

Once you configure Help Scout you can enforce session control, which protects exfiltration and infiltration of your organization’s sensitive data in real time. Session control extends from Conditional Access. Learn how to enforce session control with Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps.