Coming in June – A New Way to Access IRIS
As many of you know, we took steps in late February to implement enhanced security features on our IRIS system by requiring all end users to run a version of the SAP Windows desktop application that supports stronger encryption of IRIS data traveling across our networks. This was phase one of our two-phase-implementation plan to follow industry best-practices and keep IRIS data as secure as possible in this current digital age.
We are implementing the second phase during the late evening of Wednesday, June 10th. When these changes are deployed, the way you access IRIS through the Windows desktop application will change.
Starting June 11th, you will no longer be able to launch the desktop application and sign in directly using your user name and password: 
Instead, you will first logon to the IRIS Web Portal (https://irisweb.tennessee.edu) and click a link that will launch the desktop application on your machine for you and automatically pass your logon credentials through a secure, single sign-on certificate.
We know that this will be a significant change for all IRIS users, including those of us within the IRIS Department.
So why have we decided to make this change? For one, this will ensure all users are accessing IRIS using their NetID and NetID password for authentication. Secondly, this means that IRIS will be secured by the University’s Duo two-factor authentication solution for all campuses and institutes that have deployed that functionality. (If your campus/institute has not yet implemented Duo by June 10th, you will not be prompted during the Portal logon for any two-factor verification.)
Our goal is to make IRIS as secure as possible in light of current industry standards and requests from our Information Security Office. Your adoption of this change will ensure that we do that as successfully as possible.
We are striving to make this transition as smooth as we can. To that end, we will be sending out further announcements and reminders about this change in the weeks leading up to June 10th. We will also be hosting informational Zoom sessions in the coming weeks where you can ask questions while we demonstrate how this new authentication mechanism will work.
If you would like to be an early adopter, we want you to know that you can actually logon to the desktop application in this new way today. You do not have to wait until June to implement this change for yourself. We have put together a document that you can review here that will walk you through each and every step: Accessing IRIS Through the IRIS Web Portal (https://irishelp.tennessee.edu/gm/folder-1.11.9506?originalContext=1.11.1909).
As always, please feel free to reach out to the IRIS Helpdesk (irishelpdesk@tennessee.edu) if you have any questions.
