Norway's largest travel agency secures and streamlines login with Auth0 by Okta

On stage at Radar Summit 2025 in Oslo, Arne Vedø-Hansen, IAM Architect at Cloudworks, is joined by Robert Grefsted, Head of Software Development at Berg-Hansen.

Growing requirements for security and ISO certification

More than 80 percent of all bookings at Berg-Hansen are made online. This means a customer’s journey effectively begins the moment they log in. With 640,000 active users booking or changing travel across time zones, even small interruptions are quickly noticed.

Over time, the existing login solution became increasingly difficult to maintain and could no longer support all use cases. Corporate customers expected Single Sign-On (SSO) integrated with their own multi-factor setup, while customers in the education sector needed Feide login (Norway’s national login solution for the education sector). In parallel, the need for secure authentication of APIs continued to grow.

At the same time, security requirements tightened further, especially in public-sector tenders. To demonstrate a consistently high security standard, Berg-Hansen therefore initiated work toward ISO 27001 certification.

Security is becoming increasingly important, and we wanted a standardized platform capable of handling all of our login scenarios.

 

– Robert Grefsted, Head of Software Development at Berg-Hansen

The conclusion was clear: they needed a unified identity platform for their customers. One that improved the end-user experience while simplifying daily operations. This became the starting point for selecting and implementing a Customer Identity & Access Management (CIAM) solution in partnership with Cloudworks.

Auth0 as a standardized solution with flexibility

Berg-Hansen chose Auth0 by Okta as a centralized platform for customer identity and access management. Their goal was to implement a solution that could accommodate customers with unique requirements while also reducing the need for ongoing internal maintenance.

We wanted a platform from a leading vendor that could streamline processes, minimize internal maintenance, and ensure that we didn’t have to allocate significant resources to upkeep or further development.

 

– Robert Grefsted, Head of Software Development at Berg-Hansen

Improved security and user experience in one CIAM solution

Many still assume that stronger security inevitably results in more complicated login flows. At Berg-Hansen, the experience has been the opposite. As Robert Grefsted notes:

After the new solution was implemented, the login experience became noticeably smoother for end users, and customer inquiries have dropped significantly.

For Berg-Hansen’s largest corporate customers, Single Sign-On (SSO) was essential. They now authenticate using their existing MFA in the same login flow, preserving familiar security steps without introducing extra friction. At the same time, many login-related inquiries have shifted to the customers’ internal support teams, who already know their users, environments and access policies.

From an operational standpoint, the platform has made a clear difference. API authentication is now easier to handle, and the centralized administration interface gives better visibility and makes day-to-day management more straightforward.

As Grefsted puts it, the transition showed how stability and a great user experience naturally go hand in hand when CIAM is implemented correctly:

Even with 640,000 active users on the platform, the transition went so smoothly that support volumes remained unchanged.

A large-scale migration completed with minimal friction

Moving hundreds of thousands of users to a new platform is a significant task. Thanks to a detailed project plan and close, ongoing dialogue with customers, the transition was carried out in a controlled and predictable way.

The migration was completed in two phases. First, the user database – containing usernames and passwords – was moved to the new platform. This went surprisingly smooth given the scope. The next phase focused on corporate customers using SSO. Here, each customer setup was carefully adjusted both on their side and internally, and existing links and bookmarks were redirected to the new Auth0-based booking solution to ensure a seamless experience.

The technology stack across the involved systems also shaped the rollout: newer components could be integrated quickly, while the long-established web-based booking solution required a bit more care, effort, and thorough testing.

In total, the migration covered around 140 major corporate customers and 640,000 users. With targeted configuration and close coordination across systems, everything was completed in just four months – and the platform has been running smoothly ever since.