Historically, IT staff has relied on manual methods for employee identity lifecycle management, which involved creating, updating, and deleting employees using methods such as uploading CSV files or custom scripts to sync employee data. However, these provisioning processes have proven to be error-prone, insecure, and hard to manage.
To address these challenges, Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) provides a user provisioning service that integrates with cloud-based Dynamics 365 Human resources. This service enables IT staff to automate the identity lifecycle management of employees, and contingent workers.
By leveraging Azure AD’s user provisioning service, IT staff can streamline the creation, updating, and deletion of identities, resulting in a more secure and efficient process. This integration also ensures that employee data remains up-to-date, reducing the risk of errors caused by manual data entry.
What is Azure active directory
Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) is Microsoft’s cloud-based identity and access management service. It provides a comprehensive set of capabilities to manage user identities and access to resources across cloud and on-premises environments. Azure AD serves as the backbone for authentication and authorization in Microsoft cloud services such as Microsoft 365, Azure, and Dynamics 365, as well as a wide range of third-party applications.
Azure AD uses this integration to enable the following cloud Dynamics 365 HR application (app) workflows:
- Provision users to Active Directory: Provision selected sets of users from a Dynamics 365 HR app into one or more Active Directory domains.
- Provision cloud-only users to Azure AD: In scenarios where Active Directory isn’t used, provision users directly from the Dynamics 365 HR app to Azure AD.
- Write back to the Dynamics 365 HR app: Write the email addresses and username attributes from Azure AD back to the Dynamics 365 HR app.
Enabled HR scenarios
The Azure AD user provisioning service enables automation of the following HR-based identity lifecycle management scenarios:
- New employee hiring: Adding an employee to the cloud HR app automatically creates a user in Active Directory and Azure AD. Adding a user account includes the option to write back the email address and username attributes to the cloud HR app.
- Employee attribute and profile updates: When an employee record such as name, title, or manager is updated in the cloud HR app, their user account is automatically updated in Active Directory and Azure AD.
- Employee terminations: When an employee is terminated in the cloud HR app, their user account is automatically disabled in Active Directory and Azure AD.
- Employee rehires: When an employee is rehired in the cloud HR app, their old account can be automatically reactivated or reprovisioned to Active Directory and Azure AD.
For whom is this integration most appropriate
The integration between the cloud HR app and Azure AD user provisioning is best suited for organizations that meet the following criteria:
- Seek a ready-to-use, cloud-based solution for Dynamics 365 HR user provisioning.
- Need to directly provision users from the Dynamics 365 HR app to Active Directory or Azure AD.
- Depend on data obtained from the Dynamics 365 HR app to provision users.
- Require synchronization of users who are joining, moving, and leaving between one or more Active Directory forests, domains, and OUs based on changes detected in the Dynamics 365 HR app.
- Utilize Microsoft 365 for email services.
Solution architecture
The following example describes the end-to-end user provisioning solution architecture for common hybrid environments and includes:
- Authoritative HR data flow from cloud HR app to Active Directory. In this flow, the HR event (Joiners-Movers-Leavers process) is initiated in the cloud HR app tenant. The Azure AD provisioning service and Azure AD Connect provisioning agent provision the user data from the cloud HR app tenant into Active Directory. Depending on the event, it might lead to create, update, enable, and disable operations in Active Directory.
How DynamicsPlus can help you to integrate Azure AD solution
DynamicsPlus, as an Azure solution, can indeed help you integrate Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) into your systems. Azure AD is Microsoft’s cloud-based identity and access management service, and integrating it with your applications and infrastructure can provide a range of benefits, including centralized user management, single sign-on (SSO), and enhanced security.