SaaS Application Automation

Introduction:

As part of Electric’s continued investment in the IT Hub, we have a number of SaaS applications we integrate with for automated onboarding and offboarding.
As a customer of both the application and Electric, you can integrate the two applications in order to expedite the creation and deactivation of employee accounts.
Additionally, making a connection between the applications allows for full access visibility within the application access tab to support license management.

Management Options:

Choose the configuration that fits your organization's security requirements and resources. You can mix and match these options per application as desired as well.

Automated Access Management – Electric handles all user provisioning and deprovisioning automatically after connection. Reduces administrative workload – tasks only notify a person if automation fails.
Manual Access Management – Designated “app champions” manage user access through the external application. Tasks are created in IT Hub in addition to an email for each access request to track completion.
External Access Management – For organizations using SSO providers, HR systems, or other mechanism to manage accounts. Add applications to IT Hub for application and license management visibility without using IT Hub's access request management features.

Benefits:

Automating the creation and deactivation of employees improves efficiency and security. It eliminates manual processes, reducing human error and ensuring employees have timely access to applications needed to do their jobs.
Automation supports a departing employee’s access being promptly revoked from applications in order to support mitigating security risks.
It streamlines onboarding and offboarding, saving time for employees to get back to more strategic tasks in the day instead of manually managing application access for their coworkers.
Instead of relying on costly third-party audit tools or manual audits, admins can leverage their existing app integrations in IT Hub to gain real-time visibility into employee access.

Scope of the Current Integrations (Automations) in Each Application:

New account creation via email address
Selection of additional preferences – “Settings” – for Google, Microsoft, Slack, and Zoom.
Existing account suspension/deactivation/deletion via email address (exact mechanism of removal will depend on the technology of the application itself)
Automation is enabled for only customers utilizing the Pro plan with IT Hub.
User listing per application found via the integration compared to what employees are managed in IT Hub.

Note: Electric is dependent on the restrictions set by each individual application, including factors like additional payment, specific plans, security access, or the “sso tax” to unlock the above features. Contact our product support for application-specific questions.

Watch a Video Demo:

This example uses the application Calendly, however the process is the same for making the connections for the majority of the integrated applications.

How to Set Up Automation:

Prerequisite:

Make sure you are an “admin” user within both the Electric IT Hub and the SaaS Application for your company to complete this process in just a few minutes.
If you do not have an admin role in both applications, you’ll need to partner with that person at your company to complete the set up.

Step 1:

Add Applications: Go to my.electric.ai/applications and follow the modal instructions to add applications to IT Hub.

Step 2: Check Integration Status

After adding applications, check the status in the table:

After adding your application(s), the table will communicate the availability of the integration.
The possible statuses are: Integration not available, Integration available, Connected
Inactive label will indicate that an automation is possible, but needs to be connected.

Step 3: Connect Applications

Click into each application's settings page
Click the Connect button in the application settings box
Follow the prompts in the connection window (instructions vary by application)
Once the application is successfully connected, you’ll be returned to the application settings page and the window will close.

Step 4: Configure Settings for Google, Microsoft, Slack, Zoom

For these applications, additional settings ensure complete provisioning without manual steps:

Navigate to the Settings tab after clicking in to the application
Configure available options from the dropdowns:
- Slack: Channels
- Google: Org Units, Groups, Calendars, Removal Method
- Zoom: Zoom One Type, User Type
- Microsoft: License SKU (multi-select available), Removal Method

Optional: MDM Application Distribution

For streamlined onboarding, IT Hub can automatically install applications on employee devices through MDM. Available applications include:

Adobe Creative Cloud
Asana
Google Chrome & Drive
Microsoft Office Suite
Notion
Slack
Zoom
Threatdown (Malwarebytes)
Perimeter 81

Contact your Customer Success Manager or Product Support team to enable this feature. Self-service setup will be available in a future update.

How to Trigger Automation

Automations are triggered through onboarding and offboarding forms in IT Hub. An admin must complete the form for each employee to activate the automation.
Automations are triggered when employees are moved between groups with applications. A modal will pop up to an admin to confirm the requests for the application will be generated.
Note: Individual access requests don't use automation yet and still require app champions to handle manually despite the preference indicated in set up. Automation for one-off requests will be available in a future release.

How to Confirm Automation Success

In IT Hub: Check the Tasks page for completed tasks assigned to Electric with the automation sparkle icon indicating success.
In the Application: Navigate to the user management section to verify the employee's account status (location of this varies by specific application).

FAQs:

What happens when automation fails?

Common causes include no available licenses, email mismatches, disconnected integrations, or communication timeouts.
When this occurs, IT Hub notifies the app champion via email and creates a task for manual completion.

How do employees access new applications?

Employees receive setup emails directly from the application itself after successful account creation.
They should follow the email instructions to complete their account setup as it will be unique per application.

Can I schedule account creation for specific times?

No, all automation happens immediately upon form submission.
IT Hub prioritizes Google email or Microsoft email creation first so other automated applications can use the new email address.

How do I request new application integrations?

Email product-support@electric.ai with your application request.

What does the BETA tag mean?

BETA applications haven't been fully tested due to plan-level restrictions (often requiring Enterprise+ plans). Contact product-support@electric.ai if you encounter issues.

Where can I see all available integrations?

Visit Settings from top right menu > Integrations for a complete view of automation-capable applications.

What is Nango?

Electric uses Nango's technology for some application connections. You may see Nango branding during the connection process. Learn more at https://www.nango.dev/