PanTerra Networks Introduces Single Sign-On and Advanced Billing Capabilities

By Clayton Hamshar
Contributing Writer

PanTerra (News - Alert) Networks, provider of the WorldSmart family of unified cloud services, has announced the addition of two new enterprise-grade features for its SmartBox and SentraCloud platforms: single sign-on (SSO) support and advanced billing capabilities.

SmartBox is a comprehensive cloud file-sharing service that includes built-in communications functionality and advanced features such as multi-level sub-folder sharing, independent local sync, two-way organizational tools, customizable tiers of share privileges, powerful share attributes, event notifications, a Microsoft (News - Alert) Outlook plug-in, file versioning and file locking. The product’s robust array of tools give companies the ability to manage their shared files with unprecedented flexibility.

PanTerra’s SentraCloud product provides fully managed cloud services that enable companies to outsource key IT infrastructure components to the cloud, namely unified communications (UC), unified storage and unified mobility. Connectivity with the company’s SmartBand service ensures reliable, secure and high-performance managed bandwidth is delivered to each and every location of a business. The solution includes installation and configuration of SmartCPE on-premises communications networking equipment with an unconditional warranty and complete training for all end users.

Employees of companies that use a unified cloud service provider typically have two authentication systems: an Active Directory (AD) or third-party identity service to access company services and an authentication system for the unified cloud services. In addition to increasing overall complexity, this raises the risk of employees reusing login credentials for different services and potentially compromising security. PanTerra’s SSO capabilities support AD and third-party identity providers — for now just Onelogin and Okta — to let users log into a single identity portal in order to access company services as well as SmartBox and SentraCloud features.

Furthermore, PanTerra now provides advanced billing support to ensure accurate assigning, tracking and invoicing financial infrastructure costs as well as the ability to use multiple billing methods across multiple locations. The company’s flexible billing options are comprised of three models. With a distributed franchise model, each location receives an individual invoice and can use the payment method of its choice while corporate headquarters receives a unified statement containing the subtotal of each invoice. The centralized headquarter model subtotals each location onto a single invoice and sends it to corporate while each location receives its own billing statement. A hybrid model allows these two methods to be mixed, granting companies the ability to effectively manage IT infrastructure costs under a Software as a Service (SaaS (News - Alert)) model.

SSO and advanced billing capabilities are now available as an included component in licenses for PanTerra’s SmartBox and SentraCloud products.