Managing diverse job titles within an organization and ensuring they sync correctly across business tools can be a difficult task, especially when dealing with different types of titles and roles. This synchronization is crucial for automated processes such as group onboarding in platforms like Google Workspace, where each job type might require access to different resources.

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‍Inflexible data synchronization

Google Workspace often does not provide enough variables to differentiate between various roles effectively, like managerial roles. This limitation can result in the need for manual data entry for each role type, which is not only time-consuming but also prone to human error.

Relying on manual processes to assign and manage access for different role types includes several key drawbacks:

• Manual entry for each employee’s role consumes considerable administrative time
• Manual data management increases the likelihood of inconsistencies and errors
• As the organization grows, the manual effort required to manage these distinctions becomes increasingly unmanageable.

The ideal scenario would involve a system that automatically recognizes and categorizes different roles, applying the correct access rights in Google Workspace without manual intervention. This setup would save time, reduce errors, and scale effectively with the organization.

Imagine being responsible for onboarding managers in a large organization where "Quality Manager", "Production Manager", and "Account Manager" are just a few of the roles needing distinct access rights in Google Workspace. Manually updating these roles would be a nightmare, especially as new managers join or roles change. This scenario likely resonates with many teams facing similar challenges.

Utilizing Okta for data standardization

Okta is a great tool to standardize data across multiple applications, ensuring consistency and accuracy in the provisioning process. By creating standardized attributes in Okta, such as job titles or departments, your team can greatly reduce the need for repetitive data entry, and make sure that the data flowing to downstream apps like Google Workspace is uniformly applied.

For example, you can use Okta to map these standardized attributes directly to Google Workspace. By navigating to the Provisioning settings in Okta and accessing the attribute mappings for Google Workspace, administrators can ensure that each user’s data is correctly synchronized. Job titles in Okta can be mapped to corresponding fields in Google Workspace, automatically assigning the appropriate access and permissions based on these attributes.

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This mapping process not only saves time but also ensures that each user is provisioned accurately, aligning their access rights with their specific roles and responsibilities.

To follow this tutorial, you will need to have Google Workspace added as an application in your Okta instance and have provisioning enabled. If you haven’t done so, please follow the Okta Docs on how to Add an app integration to Okta, and then Configure provisioning for an app integration.

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Utilizing Okta expression language for dynamic role management

Creating conditional variables in Okta

Using Okta Expression Language (EL), we can set up conditional mappings based on the user.jobTitle attribute to handle different types of managers efficiently. Using the ternary operator [Condition] ? [Value if TRUE] : [Value if FALSE] (you can find more examples here), this approach allows us to define a single variable that maps differently based on the job title:

user.jobTitle.contains("Quality Manager") ? "QManager" : 
user.jobTitle.contains("Production Manager") ? "PManager" : 
user.jobTitle.contains("Account Manager") ? "AManager" : null

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Use case: Automating group onboarding in Google Workspace

With the conditional variables set, the Okta administrator could leverage the dynamic mapping to automatically categorize each manager type into a corresponding Google Workspace group during the onboarding process, for example. This automation ensures that every manager receives the appropriate resources and permissions based on their specific role.

Step-by-step implementation

1. Identify which Okta attribute contains the job title: Navigate to Directory > Profile Editor in Okta and find which attribute contains the job title of the employee. Normally it would be user.jobTitle. If it’s not mapped, you can Add Attribute as a string variable and map it from your source of truth.

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2. Configure conditional expressions: Use OEL to create your custom expressions that categorize different managerial roles, like the example above.
3. Map to Google Workspace: Navigate to Directory > Profile Editor > Google Workspace User > Mappings. 

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In the pop-up window, change the tab at the top to “Okta User to Google Workspace”. Find the GWorkspace attribute you’d like to map to, change the variable state to “Create and Update”, and edit the field by pasting the OEL expression you created.

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After mapping the OEL expression to the desired field, you can Preview a user’s mapping or click Save Mappings at the bottom of the page.

Done! From now on, every user being provisioned to Google Workspace will have a conditional attribute mapped into their Google Workspace profiles, allowing for further customization or automation on the GWorkspace’s end.

Benefits of this approach

• Efficiency: Automates the assignment of resources, reducing the administrative burden
• Accuracy: Reduces errors associated with manual data entry
• Scalability: Easily accommodates organizational growth without increasing workload

By leveraging Okta Expression Language to handle diverse managerial roles, organizations can significantly streamline the management of user identities and access in Google Workspace. This solution not only saves time but also enhances data accuracy and operational scalability, making it an essential strategy for modern IT.