Syncing your Onboarding Corporate Structure using the Integration Center – Part One

When implementing Onboarding, syncing the corporate structure always seems to come up.  The implementation guide advises “Do not sync the Corporate Structure information, because the sync only brings the label and code information, which can result in information loss”.  I’ve been stuck in that manual maintenance nightmare before and it ends up becoming a full time job to keep up with your company’s ever-changing corporate structure.

Existing Standard Corporate Sync

The corporate structure sync can be done through the foundation import or an adhoc report. Some limitations to these methods include:

• Integration issues
• Information loss/ formatting issues
• Limited to only 3 levels of an organizational hierarchy as there is only an import file for division, department, and location

With Integration Center, our savior, you’re able to:

• Sync code and name as separate fields
• Sync more than three levels
• Sync relationships
• Sync additional corporate structure details

The below example will walk you through the steps for modifying the foundation import and foundation import mapping files, creating location and department integration center reports, and modifying the LocationImport XSLT file.

Determine Corporate Structure Levels

In Onboarding, go to Onboarding > Reference Files > Corporate Structure

OR

In Super Admin, go to See Also > Corporate Structure

Create the Integration Center Reports

The following reports will be setup similar to the adhoc reports but will have generic field names and a new Org Level column which will determine which corporate structure level the file belongs to.

1. Go to Admin Tools > Company Settings > Integration Center and select click My Integrations
   
2. Click the Create button and then select Scheduled Flat File Output Integration 
   
3. Search for “Location” and select Location (FOLocation)
4. Select Location Code (externalCode) and Location Name (name)
5. Uncheck Start Date
6. Click Select                                                     
   
7. Enter Integration Details
   1. Integration Name: Onboarding Locations Export
   2. Output File Type: csv
   3. Header Type: Simple
8. Click Next                                                        
   
9. Click Location Code and change the label to ClientID
10. Click Location Name and change the label to Name
    
11. Click Location Code and select Insert Field > Insert Fixed Value Field (You can create a calculated field to calculate count but for demo purposes, we will use a fixed value field)
    1. Label: Count(User Sys ID)
    2. Default Value: 5
12. Click OK
    
13. Repeat steps to create OrgLevel
    1. Label: OrgLevel
    2. Default Value: Your Location Level (In this demo, it’s 4)
14. Click OK
    
    Your report should now look like this:
    
    
15. Click Next
16. Expand the Advanced Filters section and click Browse
17. Search and select ‘Status (status) in Location (FOLocation)’
18. Click Change Association to “Status”

    

19. Enter A in the Value field to only include Active Locations
20. Click Next

    

21. Enter Destination Settings
    1. Enter SFTP Server Host Address, username, and password
    2. File Name Prefix: <case sensitive Company ID>_Location_Sync
    3. Date Suffix Format: yyyyMMdd
    4. File Extension: csv
    5. File Folder: /ONB/Inbound
22. Click Save

    

**Repeat steps to create department report.

• Starting Entity: Department (FODepartment)
• Fields: Count(User Sys ID), ClientID, OrgLevel, Name
• File Prefix: <case sensitive Company ID>_Department_Sync.csv

Modify the Import Files

Location Import File

**This file will be used to import all corporate structure levels versus having one import file per level. It is very important that all of the field names match exactly or the sync will fail.**

1. In Super Admin, Go to Integration > Import/Export Settings
2. Under the Integration section, export the ImportLocation file.
3. Save a backup of the file
4. Update the xslt file to the following code.
   
5. Save as a new file
6. Return to Import/Export Settings in Super Admin and import the new location import file

Foundation Import File

1. In Super Admin, Go to Integration > Import/Export Settings
2. Under the Integration section, export the FoundationImport file.
3. Save a backup of the file
4. Change the department import file to ImportLocation and modify the field names
   
5. Save as a new file
6. Return to Import/Export Settings in Super Admin and import the new foundation import file

Foundation Import Field Mapping File

1. In Super Admin, Go to Integration > Import/Export Settings
2. Under the Integration section, export the FoundationImportFieldMapping file.
3. Save a backup of the file
4. Modify the fields under Department and Location
   
5. Save as a new file
6. Return to Import/Export Settings in Super Admin and import the new foundation import field mapping file

Run the Integration Center Reports

1. In Provisioning, go to Manage Scheduled Jobs
2. Find your Location Sync Report and select Run Now from the Actions drop down
3. Repeat for your Department Sync

Check Import Status in Onboarding Audit Report

1. Once your report has been picked up from the ftp site, the file should no longer be listed in the inbound folder.
2. Other than checking your corporate structure, you can determine the status of the import by going to Onboarding > Settings > Audit Report
3. Select the blank option from the Type drop down, enter INTEGRATION in the Event Code text box and click filter
4. Find the import file and see if it is complete

Once your report runs successfully and is processed by Onboarding, your corporate structure will be available in Onboarding.

I hope this post will make managing your Onboarding Corporate Structure a little easier. Please stay tuned for parts two and three on syncing relationships and additional attributes.