SCIM (System for Cross-domain Identity Management) is a powerful protocol that facilitates synchronizing users and groups between two systems.
Why use SCIM?
If you are an organization with a large number of employees and would like to minimize the manual effort needed to implement a new software, this article is for you. In fact, to reduce the manual effort in administering our deskbird solution for companies with many users, we recommend implementing automatic user (de-) provisioning via SCIM.
SCIM stands for 'System for Cross-domain Identity Management' and allows you to keep your users within deskbird always in sync with their data (e.g. team, profile picture, etc.).
Benefits of implementing SCIM:
- Automatic provisioning of users triggered within your active directory
- Automatic user group synchronization
- Updating user data in real-time with the active directory (e.g. internal department change)
- Automatic de-provisioning of users when they leave your company
Automatic (de-)provisioning works with various active directories, including Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) and Okta.
How does it work?
In the context of deskbird, SCIM consists of two key components: a provider and a client. The deskbird platform acts as the SCIM client, with a dedicated SCIM route (/scim) on the backend.
The provider needs specific configurations before provisioning can be enabled.
When provisioning is enabled between a provider and deskbird, the SCIM provider will query the deskbird system for resources that should be provisioned.
- If a resource is not found, it will be created by deskbird.
- If a resource is found but differs in some regard, it will be updated.
If errors occur during the provisioning process, the providers will attempt to restart provisioning of the failed objects multiple times.
💡 Note: After setting up SCIM, the first sync may take 1–2 hours.
💡 Accounts provisioned through SCIM or imported via CSV will not trigger an email invitation. Invitation emails are exclusively sent to users who are invited manually.
⚠️ Provisioning objects must only include users and/or groups that require access to deskbird. Any objects included in the sync will be provisioned automatically.
Required Permissions
As SCIM works on a push principle, deskbird will never need to directly retrieve any information from Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD). Therefore, no permissions are required.
Setup Process
See:
Please note that this feature is only available for the deskbird Enterprise plan. For any questions about SCIM, please contact your dedicated Customer Success Manager.