ThirdSpace get the VIP treatment at Microsoft’s B2C training in Seattle

Last month, our consultant, Harsha Doddamane, swapped Swansea for Seattle on an action-packed Azure AD B2C training course.

The course lasted three days and there were over 70 delegates attending from all over the globe. The event proved to be an excellent opportunity to hone our skills and to build relationships with Microsoft’s core B2C team.

We also got an early look at some important new developments within the B2C solution, and had the opportunity to get under the hood with the technology and provide some innovative insights.

Sharpening up on all things B2C

The training covered all aspects of the Azure AD B2C solution, including:

• Using Microsoft’s built-in user flows to customise the user journey for sign-up or sign-in
• Using advanced/custom policies to build a flexible and more complex user journey that enables single sign-on
• Learning JavaScript integrations that enable A/B split testing at various parts of the customer/user journey – allowing organisations to test and improve the user experience
• Detailed discussions around Microsoft’s recommendations for configuring tokens and sessions within B2C tenants – featuring an exercise to use Auth Code with PKCE
• New Microsoft Graph API functionalities which allow policies to be uploaded onto B2C tenants

First look at an exciting new feature

Whilst at the event, the delegates were taken through Microsoft’s most recent feature announcement for B2C. At the time this was under NDA, but it has recently become generally available.

Harsha was able to get the inside track on the new password-less authentication features enabling customers and/or members login journeys to now support biometric password capabilities, (either through facial recognition or fingerprint) or the use of a FIDO2 key (think Citrix key fob).

This solution is already available within Azure for handling employee authentication, but broadening the password-less functionality to customers, creates some great opportunities for organisations to eliminate customer help desk tickets generated by forgotten passwords. Also, it genuinely makes life easier for customers by not having to remember so many passwords.

An innovative and leading B2C partnership

During the event we were also selected to be part of a crack team of 15 consultants and developers for some experimental testing and training on the new Azure B2C features currently in private preview – including a sneak peek around the new Azure Portal in development.

This ‘Private Preview’ session for B2C is still open to ThirdSpace, and the team are currently troubleshooting and reviewing all the new features.

Harsha also introduced Microsoft to our own piece of IP, the ‘TSMonitor’ Application – designed in the support team as a B2C environment monitoring tool rolled-out for a selection of our managed support clients. Microsoft were so impressed at the solution innovation shown by ThirdSpace that they have requested a full TSMonitor demo to see how to tool can be used in a broader setting.

Commenting on the training, Harsha said, “ThirdSpace really were given VIP treatment – The Microsoft B2C team were really engaged. It was great to put a face to so many names and formulate a closer working bond. I think our collaborative approach to the training, and the Microsoft B2C team in general, has really helped re-enforce the ThirdSpace brand as a key partner for this solution.”

Great work Harsha! It looks like everything went seamless in Seattle.