Using an outsourced service provider

In general, an organisation may outsource service provision to an external organisation without reference to the federation operator. However, in cases where the entityID proposed for the SP entity contains a domain name which does not belong to the external organisation, the owning organisation must grant permission for this use of the domain name, which should be notified in writing to the federation operator.

Note that:

  1. The purpose of this notification is to ensure that a domain name is used in an entityID only with the express permission of the domain owner.
  2. The domain owner need not be a member of the UK federation but the external organisation providing the outsourcing service must be.
  3. The notification letter must use the owning organisation's letterhead and be written by a staff member with sufficient seniority to act on its behalf.

The notification must contain the following information:

  1. The name of the domain owner (e.g. "EasyLib Publishers").
  2. The name of the service being outsourced (e.g. "EasyJournal").
  3. The name of the external organisation providing the outsourcing service (e.g. "FedSolutions Inc.").
  4. The name and email address of a contact person within the external organisation.
  5. The entityID of the service provider which the external organisation proposes to use on behalf of the domain owner. (The external organisation should be consulted to obtain this information.)
  6. An explicit statement by the domain owner approving the use of the entityID by the external organisation.

Here is a sample form of the letter required.