National Restaurant Association Serves Up a Unified Digital Experience

Objective

As the largest foodservice trade association in the world, the National Restaurant Association’s goal was to simplify how members interact with their vast array of digital resources. They aimed to create a unified National Restaurant Association Identity that would allow members to transition seamlessly between educational resources, advocacy tools, and certification programs (like ServSafe).

Challenge

The Association’s digital landscape was highly siloed, consisting of dozens of disparate websites—many resulting from various partnerships and acquisitions. Members were frustrated by password fatigue, and the lack of a central identity store made it impossible for the Association to gain a 360-degree view of member activity or provide personalized content.

Solution

The Association deployed PingFederate to serve as the central hub for their identity infrastructure. This allowed them to federate identities across their internal systems and third-party SaaS applications. By using open standards like SAML and OAuth, they created a secure identity bridge that supports both web and mobile access, ensuring that a single set of credentials works across the entire restaurant.org ecosystem.

Results

The transition to a unified identity platform transformed the Association's digital member service. They successfully eliminated the need for multiple logins, leading to a more professional and cohesive brand experience. The IT team now spends less time on manual credential management and more time on high-value digital initiatives, while the Association can now better track and reward member engagement across all their touchpoints.