Understanding single sign-on for Contact Center

<body>
<p id="docs-hc-snippet" style="display: none;">Contact Center is embedded in the Zendesk platform and uses a Zendesk-managed federation flow to help users access the Contact Center environment.</p>
<div class="article-banners">
<div id="docs-wmp-link">
<a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5411234991258-plan" rel="noopener" target="_blank">What's my plan?</a>
</div>
<div class="article-banner" id="addon_contact-center">
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<strong>Add-on</strong>
</td>
<td>Contact Center</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</div>
<div id="docs-ai-summary">
<p id="docs-ai-summary-toggle">Summary: <span id="up-triangle">◀</span><span id="down-triangle">▼</span></p>
<p id="docs-ai-summary-content">You can use single sign-on (SSO) to access Contact Center by authenticating through your corporate identity provider, then signing in once to the platform. This reduces password management and provides a consistent sign-in experience. The system manages access to AWS services like Amazon Connect and Cognito. For configuration, provide identity provider details and role needs to support access to these services.</p>
</div>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Contact Center is embedded in the Zendesk platform and uses a Zendesk-managed
federation flow to help users access the Contact Center environment.</p>
<p class="p">In this flow, users first authenticate with your organization’s corporate
identity provider, then sign in to Zendesk. Zendesk brokers access to the AWS-backed
services that power Contact Center, such as Amazon Connect and Amazon Cognito, so users
can access Contact Center with fewer sign-in steps.</p>
<p class="p">This article assumes you have already determined how users will sign in to Zendesk and
configured access to the Zendesk platform using the guidance in <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5380943678106-Giving-users-different-ways-to-sign-into-Zendesk" target="_blank">Giving users different ways to sign into
Zendesk</a>.</p>
<p class="p">Zendesk recommends using <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408887505690-Enabling-SAML-single-sign-on" target="_blank">Enabling SAML single sign-on</a> for the best
experience because it:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_a2r_yvc_njc__ul_gcl_bwc_njc">
<li class="li">
<p class="p">Centralizes authentication in your corporate identity provider</p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<p class="p">Gives users a consistent sign-in experience</p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<p class="p">Reduces password management overhead</p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<p class="p">Supports a cleaner access flow for Contact Center</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p class="p">Zendesk manages the federation flow that connects Zendesk authentication to the
Contact Center environment.</p>
<p class="p">This includes the AWS-backed services used by Contact Center, such as:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_a2r_yvc_njc__ul_hcl_bwc_njc">
<li class="li">
<p class="p">Amazon Connect</p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<p class="p">Amazon Cognito</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p class="p">When you’re ready to configure access to the AWS services supporting Contact Center,
contact <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408843597850-Contacting-Zendesk-customer-support" target="_blank">Zendesk Customer Support</a> with the following
information:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_a2r_yvc_njc__ul_icl_bwc_njc">
<li class="li">
<p class="p">IAM Identity Provider name (<code class="ph codeph">ZendeskSAMLProvider</code> by default) </p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<p class="p">Cognito Identity Provider name (<code class="ph codeph">Zendesk</code> by default)</p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<p class="p">An indication if you need an AWS Console role to be configured.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<script id="docs-schema-markup" type="application/ld+json">{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "TechArticle",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/10879182740506-Understanding-single-sign-on-for-Contact-Center",
"url": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/10879182740506-Understanding-single-sign-on-for-Contact-Center",
"headline": "Understanding single sign-on for Contact Center",
"description": "You can configure single sign-on for Contact Center by using your corporate identity provider to authenticate users and manage access to the AWS services that support Contact Center through a federation flow.",
"articleSection": "Product help",
"datePublished": "2026-06-08T14:53:28.317855+00:00",
"dateModified": "2026-06-08T14:53:31.311520+00:00",
"inLanguage": "en-US",
"mainEntityOfPage": {
"@type": "WebPage",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/10879182740506-Understanding-single-sign-on-for-Contact-Center"
},
"author": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Zendesk",
"@id": "https://www.zendesk.com"
},
"publisher": {
"@type": "Organization",
"name": "Zendesk",
"@id": "https://www.zendesk.com"
},
"isPartOf": {
"@type": "WebSite",
"name": "Zendesk Help",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/"
},
"about": {
"@type": "SoftwareApplication",
"name": "Zendesk",
"@id": "https://www.zendesk.com",
"softwareAddOn": {
"@type": "SoftwareApplication",
"name": "Contact Center",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/sections/9248688983706"
}
}
}</script><script id="ai-summary-script">
//<![CDATA[
const ai_summary_style = document.createElement('style');
ai_summary_style.innerHTML = `#styled-article-body{padding:0 0 0}#article-body #docs-ai-summary{background-color:#f3f3f3;border:1px solid #d3d3d3;padding:10px 10px 6px;margin-bottom:16px}#article-body #docs-ai-summary #docs-ai-summary-toggle{font-size:.9em;font-weight:700;margin-bottom:4px;cursor:pointer;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center}#article-body #docs-ai-summary #docs-ai-summary-toggle #up-triangle{margin-left:auto;padding-right:10px;display:none}#article-body #docs-ai-summary #docs-ai-summary-toggle #down-triangle{margin-left:auto;padding-right:10px}#article-body #docs-ai-summary #docs-ai-summary-content{font-size:.9em;padding-left:25px;padding-right:25px;margin-bottom:12px}`;
document.head.appendChild(ai_summary_style);

const toggleAISummary = () => {
const summary = document.getElementById("docs-ai-summary-content");
const upTriangle = document.getElementById("up-triangle");
const downTriangle = document.getElementById("down-triangle");
if (summary.style.display === "none") {
summary.style.display = "block";
upTriangle.style.display = "none";
downTriangle.style.display = "inline";
} else {
summary.style.display = "none";
upTriangle.style.display = "inline";
downTriangle.style.display = "none";
}
};

document.getElementById("docs-ai-summary-toggle").addEventListener("click", toggleAISummary);
//]]>
</script>
</body>