Most of our clients are either using SharePoint or are considering it. Naturally, we are hearing questions about how our products work with SharePoint, but we are also learning some cool ideas about how GroupID can be used to easily solve some common SharePoint problems.
I thought that I might share some of those here.
Getting your user data right
We had an interesting request come in recently. A large hospitality organization with multiple locations and Active Directories was looking for a way to get user data into a central Oracle database which was going to be used by SharePoint. Synchronize provided a solution to move the data which was easy to implement and maintain. Plus, our licensing model allowed them to add instances without additional cost.
Using automated Active Directory groups
For those organizations who use Active Directory groups as SharePoint site groups, or who use Active Directory groups for site permissions automation is a logical choice. It keeps those group memberships up to date dynamically, which mean that the SharePoint administrator isn’t having to re-invent the wheel that the Active Directory administrator already has built. It provides the end user quicker access to their sites and improves security by making sure that when a user moves within the organization or is terminated, their site group access changes with them. We have a client of 20,000 users who manages their SharePoint sites in just this way.
Using GroupID Automate also allows you to email enable the security group that you are using for SharePoint. Add that email enabled group to a permissions group and you can send emails to the SharePoint group! We are seeing a lot of questions around that feature these days.
Delegating to end users
Our Self Service module is a web based front end to Active Directory. It allows users to update their own Active Directory attributes as well as manage their group membership. It turns out that it provides some neat additional functionality to SharePoint.
It probably occurred to many of you reading this that SharePoint 2010 allows users to update their own attribute information in Active Directory. Some organizations find that implementing our solution as a webpart in SharePoint is much easier (and less costly) than building and maintaining the required connectors, data stores and metaverses. Self Services enables end users to write changes straight to Active Directory, or through a workflow.
Plus, it allows end users to view SharePoint site group membership , provided that you are using a security group to grant site access.
Self Service Password Reset
This one is easy! Placing a link to GroupID Password Center on an intranet site makes it easy for end users to change their password before they get locked out. By installing it as a client, it makes it so that they can get to SharePoint (or anywhere else they need to) without having to call the helpdesk for support. Power to the people!
If you are already using Imanami, think about how we might help your SharePoint team. If you are using SharePoint, think about how Imanami can make your life easier!
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.