Signing up for first time
After clicking on the Sign in button found at the top right of the screen you'll be prompted to pick a method to sign in.
Click on the Sign in with Microsoft button.
You can use any Microsoft account, for example:
- A personal Microsoft account (this might be an outlook.com, outlook.co.nz, hotmail.com, live.com, etc account or a Microsoft account using a custom domain.
- Your organisational Microsoft account. Depending on your organisation this might be called your "Office365", "Microsoft365", or "Microsoft Cloud" account or something similar, and often (not always) you will sign in with your work email address.
Organisational users
If you are an organisational user then signing in with your organisational Microsoft account is strongly preferred so that we can give you access to any organisational resources.
Microsoft sign in process
What happens next in the sign in process depends on how you use your Microsoft account. If you've used your Microsoft account to access other non-Microsoft services you'll likely be familiar with how this works already as this is a common process offered by Microsoft.
If your browser is already signed in to your Microsoft account
If you are already signed in to a Microsoft account in your browser and only have one Microsoft account then you may not be asked to complete the Microsoft sign in process and the browser will attempt to sign you in automatically when you click on the Sign in with Microsoft button.
If you have multiple Microsoft account details stored in your browser you may be asked to select one of the accounts. If you are already signed in to the account you select you may not be asked to complete the Microsoft sign in process.
You organisation may control this behaviour and require you to sign in to your Microsoft account every time, or to confirm to the sign in process.
Signing in to your Microsoft account
If you are not already signed in to a Microsoft account in your browser then you will be redirected to the Microsoft sign in page. This should look like your normal Microsoft sign in page and will follow the normal Microsoft sign in process (for example this often includes multi-factor authentication step).
Once signed in your account with us will be created automatically. If you have used an organisational account and we have additional content for you then this will be available under the My Organisation section from the home page or left-hand navigation.
Depending on your settings (or your organisation's settings) you won't need to sign in every time you visit the page, but you may be prompted to sign-in from time to time (especially if you haven't visited the site recently).
Permissions requested
The first time you sign in with your Microsoft account you may be asked to grant Zendesk permissions. The prompt will look similar the following:
The prompt may not look exactly like this. For example: Your version may have your organisation logo instead of the Microsoft logo; you may not have the option to accept on behalf of your organisation; and the details of the permissions requested may only show the summary line.
Organisational users
In many organisations your IT team control these permissions so they can review the application against your organisation's security and privacy policies. You may see a version of this prompt titled Approval required or Need admin approval or similar, and you might see the Accept button replaced by a Request approval button.
You may also need to log a request with your IT service desk to have them review the Zendesk application and allow these permissions on behalf of your organisation. You may find it useful to give them the link to this page for reference.
Why are these permissions necessary?
We need this so we can identify you when you use your Microsoft account to sign in.
The permissions requested are a well-recognised minimum set of permissions to allow you to use your Microsoft account to sign in to other services. Specifically this is just your name, profile picture (if any), and your user name (typically this is your email address).
You can (via your Microsoft account or your organisation) revoke these permissions at any time, however you will not be able to use the the Sign in with Microsoft option if these permissions are not granted.
Who or what is Zendesk? Why am I granting Zendesk these permissions?
Zendesk is the platform we use to host this site. The sign in process uses their standard functionality to enable Microsoft, Google, Facebook and email/password based authentication.
If you want to know more about how Zendesk use your data they have a comprehensive Privacy and Data Protection site. For reference we are using the Zendesk Guide and Zendesk Support products on this site.
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