User provisioning overview
User provisioning is how people and their profile information get into Interact and stay current. This section covers the methods and helps you choose between them.
Why provisioning matters
Interact relies on accurate user profiles to drive personalisation, targeting, permissions and search. Provisioning keeps those profiles in step with your source of truth — your HR system, directory or identity provider — so you are not maintaining people by hand.
Provisioning covers three things: creating and updating users, maintaining groups and their membership, and syncing profile fields such as department, location, manager and expertise.
How provisioning works
Interact offers three mechanisms. Most organisations use one, though you can combine them. The key difference is who initiates the sync — your systems push data to Interact, or Interact pulls it from a directory.
SCIM (push). Your identity provider sends changes to Interact in real time using the SCIM v2.0 standard. This is the recommended approach for new integrations: provisioning happens as it occurs, with rich field mapping and group support. Because SCIM is an open standard, any SCIM 2.0-compliant system can provision to Interact — including a client you build yourself. Guided setup is documented for Microsoft Entra ID and Okta. See SCIM v2.0.
Directory connectors (pull). Interact connects to your directory and reads profiles from it on a schedule. This applies only to the two directories Interact can reach into directly: on-premise Active Directory and Microsoft Entra ID.
File upload (push). For any other source — for example SuccessFactors, or a spreadsheet exported from your HR system — you generate an XML file describing your users and push it to Interact through the General Profile Sources API. Interact does not connect to these systems; your script sends the data. See General Profile Sources and the page for your source.
Tip: If your identity provider supports SCIM, prefer SCIM v2.0 — it provisions in real time. Use a directory connector or a file upload when SCIM is not available.
Profile pictures
Profile pictures are handled separately from the core profile fields. You can sync them from Microsoft 365 or upload them in bulk. See Profile pictures.
Where to start
- Real-time provisioning from any SCIM 2.0 identity provider: SCIM v2.0. Guided setup is available for Microsoft Entra ID and Okta.
- Scheduled pull from your directory: Active Directory connector or Microsoft Entra ID connector.
- Push from another system: General Profile Sources, then the page for your source — for example Generate an XML file from an Excel spreadsheet.
- Mapping your fields correctly: SCIM field mapping or Profile source field mapping.