Unlock SaaS growth with enterprise-ready identity

If you’re building a SaaS product for the enterprise market, identity can no longer be an afterthought. It needs to be an essential part of your product strategy. In this post, we’ll walk through how the identity landscape is shifting and what enterprise buyers are demanding. We’ll also cover how you can use secure, standards-based integrations to help land more deals, scale faster, and stand out in a crowded market.

Why identity security is the new competitive advantage

Enterprises now use an average of 247 apps (Okta Business at Work, 2025), creating a complex web of users, permissions, and systems that expands the attack surface. Identities have become the #1 target of cyberattacks, with over 80% of breaches linked to compromised credentials (Verizon Data Breach Investigation Report 2025). It’s no surprise that identity and access management (IAM) has become one of the most scrutinized parts of the SaaS buying process, and a core requirement for any product targeting this market.

According to a 2025 Okta survey of 1,000 enterprises, 96% of technology buyers say they include IAM requirements in their request for proposals for SaaS. And those requirements have evolved well beyond basic authentication. Buyers want to protect a sprawling SaaS ecosystem with fine-grained access controls, centralized lifecycle automation, no-code workflows, and real-time threat mitigation.

Why? Because enterprises want to go beyond simply authenticating users. They want to enforce security at scale — before, during, and after login. They want to prevent breaches proactively, and they expect their security controls to work seamlessly across all business-critical apps.

For SaaS builders, this shift introduces new challenges. Building enterprise-grade identity features in-house is expensive, time-consuming, and often distracts from core innovation. But ignoring these requirements can cut you off from the very market you want to reach. Deep identity integrations are the key to meeting enterprise expectations without diverting time and resources from your core product value.

Protect customer data and meet enterprise security demands

Enterprises today think beyond the login box. They want identity security that actively protects them from threats, simplifies operations, and integrates directly with their IT and HR systems.

They’re looking for:

• Single sign-on (SSO): Centralized, secure login experiences that reduce password fatigue and support advanced authentication methods like FastPass and phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication (MFA).
• Lifecycle management: Automated provisioning and deprovisioning to eliminate orphaned accounts and prevent unauthorized access.
• Entitlements management: Granular control over who gets access to what, and when.
• Workflows: No-code automation to handle identity tasks like onboarding, offboarding, and suspicious activity alerts.
• Universal Logout: Immediate session termination across all apps when threats are detected through shared signals.
• Identity security posture management: Continuous risk monitoring and enforcement of identity security policies.
• Privileged access management for SaaS: Vaulting, rotation, and monitoring of credentials for non-federated access.

According to Okta’s 2025 survey, three in four enterprise buyers prioritize advanced identity security when choosing SaaS tools. Without these capabilities, you're not just behind, you may not even be considered.

This isn’t just about authentication. It’s about earning trust by providing integrations that offer real protection and efficiency — and positioning your product as the secure, enterprise-ready choice.

Want to dig deeper into how identity security can drive faster, more secure growth? Explore how to accelerate your SaaS business with identity security.

Reach more enterprise buyers through the Okta Integration Network

Getting the right features into your app is one thing. Getting enterprise customers to notice is another.

The Okta Integration Network helps solve that. Greater than 19,000 enterprise customers rely on Okta Integration Network integrations to manage identity and access across their tech stack (Okta, 2025). By publishing your app to the Okta Integration Network, you gain instant exposure to a massive and security-conscious customer base. Even better, customers can connect to your app in just a few clicks, with no extra effort from your engineering team.

If you want to know what enterprises are asking for, just look at what they already trust. Okta’s Secure Identity Integrations represent the gold standard — deep, out-of-the-box integrations for popular enterprise SaaS apps, including Google Workspace, Salesforce, Microsoft, and ServiceNow. These integrations don’t stop at SSO and MFA. They include built-in support for automated lifecycle management, no-code workflows, Universal Logout, and real-time threat response — features enterprise CISO buyers map to their Zero Trust strategies and expect to see in security-ready SaaS products.

Simplify development with open standards and built-in tools

The good news is that you don’t need to build all these integrations from scratch. Okta offers pre-built frameworks, developer tools, and open-standard protocols to help you build and launch secure identity integrations quickly, with minimal lift. 

With Okta, you can leverage:

• Open identity standards: Follow protocols like OIDC and SCIM to simplify integrations and increase buyer confidence. According to Okta’s 2025 survey, 90% of SaaS buyers now prioritize standards-based apps.
• Guided resources and sandbox environments: Access developer resources and other programs that provide rich resources to get you started.
• Built-in automation: Eliminate custom code with native workflows, identity orchestration, and reusable security policies.
• Future-proof architecture: Build once, deploy anywhere. Your integration works with any identity provider, not just Okta.

Identity is the center of security and a sales strategy

If you’re an enterprise SaaS builder aiming to win in the enterprise market, it’s time to stop thinking of identity as a back-end feature and start thinking of it as a front-line differentiator. 

With AI accelerating demand for secure, seamless data access, getting identity right has never been more critical.  Enterprise buyers are watching. Give them the security they expect and win their business.

Want to see how other B2B SaaS builders are using secure identity integrations to accelerate growth and land more enterprise customers? Learn how companies like Cerby, Kandji, and OLOID build deep, security-first integrations that meet enterprise demand—and gaining real value from it.