To manage Active Directory user accounts; that’s quite a statement. It evokes an image of constantly working on a user account, ensuring its accuracy, checking on its well being, and probably calling the user herself every once in a while to see how life is going. It is also one of the phrases that brings people into our website and I’m not sure we do it justice.
There are quite a few steps to managing this Active Directory user account:
- Provision the user into Active Directory and get them an Exchange email account
- Provide web-based Active Directory self-service and incent the user to update any attributes that you weren’t able to get from HR (and you might as well synchronize that back to HR)
- Provision that user into the appropriate security groups and distribution lists to better manage user access and communication
- Constantly monitor authoritative sources such as HR for changes to that user accounts’ status (department, title, etc) and synchronize that database to Active Directory
- Use those changes to update Active Directory group membership dynamically to keep access and communication current
- De-provision the Active Directory user account when the employee leaves the company
There is a lot more that IT has to do with a user outside of Active Directory, but that simple statement to “manage Active Directory user accounts” means a lot more than meets the eye. You need to have a full set of solutions to ensure that the user account (err, I mean employee) is a productive member of your company.
This does not have to be a complicated software helping you manage all of these processes. In fact, it can be some scripts, some software and even some manual processes. I would just recommend having these pieces in place.
Jonathan Blackwell
View ProfileSince 2012, Jonathan Blackwell, an engineer and innovator, has provided engineering leadership that has put GroupID at the forefront of group and user management for Active Directory and Azure AD environments. His experience in development, marketing, and sales allows Jonathan to fully understand the Identity market and how buyers think.