Why 1Password is an integral layer of Intercom’s IAM stack

Building trust through strong customer relationships is more important than ever, but the scale and nature of online business can make it challenging to create and nurture those connections. In 2011, the four founders of Intercom set out on a mission to change that for good, and “make internet business personal.”

Today, Intercom’s Conversational Relationship Platform helps over 30,000 businesses worldwide build better customer relationships through personalized experiences. With the likes of Shopify, Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, and Sotheby’s relying on their service, every tool the team uses must align with their company values, including 1Password, which provides the foundations for Intercom’s security infrastructure.

“Intercom’s mission to make internet business personal may sound like a broad statement at first,” says Joao Fernandes, IT Systems Engineer at Intercom. “But it’s deeply ingrained in our culture.” The team strives to make every interaction within the company as personable as possible – including the tools they use.

“Any tool that, like 1Password, we deploy to every person and every user endpoint at Intercom has to be something we are confident people will be able to use easily.”

It’s something that weighs in on many of the decisions the company makes when considering its infrastructure. “User-friendliness of a tool is a key driver when we evaluate them,” Fernandes says.

On their first day at Intercom, every new team member is onboarded to 1Password, so they’re ready to work securely from the get-go. A 1Password account is automatically provisioned to every employee through Intercom’s identity management system, as well as to every managed endpoint and browser through its MDM (Mobile Device Management) system.

"And it goes further than just onboarding with IT, where you essentially set up your login and are shown the basics on how to use it. It's part of the internal onboarding process for many teams at Intercom."

For Intercom, using 1Password is about more than the immediate impact on business security. “It's part of the culture of many teams, and the company in general to an extent," Fernandes says.

"We believe our teams are responsible and security-minded, and part of that is trust, but the other part is knowing we're giving them the right tools for the job. Behind the curtain, it's also having trust in the tools that we provide and the level of control we have over them," he says.

The robust security architecture of 1Password, paired with granular controls, makes it the perfect fit for Intercom. And with custom reporting, the company has complete oversight of how its teams are using 1Password.

For teams, sharing through 1Password is a daily occurrence – whether it's a login, secure note, or everything a team needs for a specific project.

"1Password has seeped into the day-to-day of our work here at Intercom. Looking at our IT tech stack, we look at it as having an impact on par with our identity management and MDM systems," says Fernandes.

1Password overcomes some of Intercom’s most significant security challenges by providing a secure way for teams to generate and use strong passwords, and share everything they need to work together safely.

Day-to-day security is now effortless, reducing the load on IT support. "When you don't have to remember or come up with a complex, multi-character password, it takes away the pressure from the team setting these rules, reducing the number of password-related support requests that IT needs to handle," says Fernandes.

As a result of reducing this friction, not only are there fewer support requests, but people use more secure passwords, elevating the company's security infrastructure.

1Password has become an integral layer of Intercom’s security stack, paving the way for better security behaviors, more efficient workflows, and a culture with security built-in.