Departments and naming

Before you start

• To change departments, your role must let you manage users (or manage personas, together with viewing users). People who can only view users see the list but not the buttons. In the built-in set, members of the “IT”, “Human Resources” and “HR Managers” groups can manage personas and view users; only administrators can manage users.
• To change the naming convention, your role must let you manage security settings. In the built-in set, administrators have that permission. The “security_analyst” role has it too; no group carries it, so an administrator gives it to a person by hand, as Roles, groups and permissions shows.

Manage departments

1. 1

   Step 1: Open the page

   Go to AdministrationDepartments. Each row shows the department, how many people are in it, and whether it is “Governed” or “Synced / in use”.

2. 2

   Step 2: Add a department

   Click “ADD DEPARTMENT”, type the “Department name” and click “Add”. Capital letters do not matter: a name that only differs in upper or lower case from an existing one is refused.

3. 3

   Step 3: Rename one

   Click the “Rename” button on its row, enter the “New name” and confirm. The new name is applied to everyone in the department, and to the access-review schedules and role auto-assign rules that point at it.

   Job postings, devices, and review cycles or surveys that are already set up keep the old name until someone edits them. Past records are not rewritten.

   To adopt a “Synced / in use” department into the governed list, click “Rename” on its row, leave the name as it is and click “Adopt”.

4. 4

   Step 4: Merge duplicates

   Click “Merge into another department” on the one you want to get rid of, choose the target under “Merge into” and click “Merge”. Everyone moves to the target, and the old department is removed. This cannot be undone.

5. 5

   Step 5: Retire an empty one

   Click the retire button on a department with nobody in it and confirm “Retire”. It is removed from the list; you can add it again later. A department that still has people must be merged or emptied first, and only “Governed” departments can be retired.

Set the naming convention

1. 6

   Step 6: Open the tab

   Go to Security & ComplianceSecurity SettingsNaming, in the “Directory & Access” group. The panel is called “System Naming Conventions”.

2. 7

   Step 7: Choose the username format

   Under “PRIMARY IDENTIFIER TEMPLATE”, pick a “Username Format”. There are six, shown with an example for John Doe: jdoe, john.doe, john_doe, j.doe, doe_j and johnd. A new instance starts on john.doe.

3. 8

   Step 8: Set the email domain

   In “Email domain”, enter the part after the @ for new work addresses. Leave it blank to use your company domain. The “PREVIEW” box shows the address John Doe would get.

4. 9

   Step 9: Choose what happens when a name is taken

   Under “CONFLICT RESOLUTION”, click one: “Strategy: Incremental Numeric” adds a number (jdoe, jdoe1, jdoe2). “Strategy: Middle Initial” uses more letters of the first name (jdoe, jodoe, johdoe).

5. 10

   Step 10: Save

   Click “SAVE SETTINGS” at the bottom of the page. Zonitix may ask you to confirm it is you first.

What you should see

If something goes wrong

The retire button is greyed out

Hover over it. Either the department still has people in it (merge it or move them first), or it is not a governed department yet (rename it, keeping the name, to adopt it).

There is no ADD DEPARTMENT button

Your role lets you view the list but not change it. Ask someone whose role lets them manage users.

A CSV import says "Unknown department"

The spelling in the file does not match the governed list. Add the department here, or correct the file.

Still stuck? See When something goes wrong, or Contact Zonitix support.

Where next

• Add users
• Use the org chart
• Onboard your first hire
• Custom fields and managed lists