An alternative solution could be to deploy client and server certificates. All well known web browsers support client certificates and the authentication process can take place without any enduser involvement. The client certificate can be used against any number of webservers which makes it a single signon mechanism. Certificates are digitally signed to a root authority

Some references:

• Read here to learn more about these public key certificates
• CACERT is a root authority organization that delivers client- and server certificates worldwide at no charge
• Apache webservers have built in support for certificates and certificate based authentication. To finetune it to your needs you can optionally write a small (mod)perl program that uses the ID information provided by Apache to decide if the user will be entitled access

Like with most single signon technologies the registration process is the most challenging part as it involves the enduser to interact, submit passphrases etc, and to accept/install their client certificate.
Now this is probably true for any single signon mechanism that does not rely on a physical token. Once the client certificate is installed it works like a charm.

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