• Key benefits of integrating Workday with Active Directory
  • How to integrate Active Directory with Workday manually
  • Why integrate Workday and Active Directory using ADManager Plus?

If you’ve ever managed employee data across Workday and Active Directory, you know how quickly things can get complicated. Employees change roles, departments shift, and access needs to be updated constantly. Without synchronization between the two systems, each update becomes a time-consuming manual task.

The disconnect doesn’t just impact IT—it’s a security concern, a productivity drain, and a frustration for HR teams trying to keep everything aligned.

By integrating Workday with Active Directory, you can automate these updates and eliminate the chaos. IT gets its time back, HR sees fewer errors, and your organization operates with far greater efficiency and security. This blog will explore the key benefits of this integration, walk you through different approaches for setting it up, and show how ManageEngine ADManager Plus simplifies the integration process.

Here are the four key benefits for this integration

1. Effortless onboarding and offboarding

With integration, new employee details added to Workday automatically generate a corresponding AD account. Access permissions, security groups, and application credentials are set up instantly. Similarly, when an employee departs, their AD account is disabled alongside their Workday record, minimizing the risk of lingering access.

2. Centralized identity management

No more juggling between platforms to keep user data aligned. IT administrators can manage user data through one platform, ensuring consistency and significantly reducing operational overhead.

3. Improved security

Mismatched systems can leave gaps, like outdated permissions or active accounts for former employees. Integration closes those gaps, ensuring user data is consistent and updated in real time, reducing risks.

4. Scalability for growing organizations

Whether you’re onboarding five employees or 500, an automated process scales easily, ensuring IT can keep up without sacrificing accuracy or security.

How to integrate Active Directory with Workday manually

The goal is clear: ensure data synchronization, from new hires and terminations to role updates. While this process is achievable using Workday's APIs, it comes with its share of challenges that demand a careful, methodical approach.

Here’s a streamlined look at the integration process:

1. Establish Workday API access

Workday uses a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) architecture for its APIs, unlike the REST structure many applications adopt today. To get started, you’ll need to set up an integration system user (ISU) in Workday. This user acts as the gateway for API communication.

Creating an ISU involves:

  • Assigning specific permissions at the field level.
  • Configuring security groups to control data access.
  • Testing to ensure the ISU can access required data.

While this step ensures a secure foundation, configuring permissions at such granular levels can be tedious, especially if you're unfamiliar with Workday's structure.

2. Retrieve data from Workday

Next, extract employee data from Workday using SOAP-based API requests. Responses are returned in XML format, requiring specific steps:

  • Use endpoints like Get_Workers to fetch relevant data.
  • Filter the data to include only what’s needed (for example, active employees, specific departments).
  • Parse XML to extract key fields such as employee IDs, roles, and email addresses.

Parsing XML can be tricky, especially if you're managing large datasets. It requires knowledge of data transformation tools or programming to handle the structured format efficiently.

3. Sync data with Active Directory

Once you have Workday data, you’ll need to sync it with AD. On-premise AD relies on tools like PowerShell or LDAP for two-way communication. Here, you’ll need to map fields between Workday and AD, such as matching Workday’s Worker ID to AD’s SamAccountName.

4. Automate and monitor

Once the setup is complete, task schedulers and scripts can help maintain regular updates. However, you’ll need error handling and monitoring systems to manage failures like API timeouts or data mismatches.

Simplifying Workday and Active Directory Integration with ADManager Plus

While integrating Workday and Active Directory manually is possible, it’s far from straightforward. Each step demands technical expertise and ongoing maintenance, which can stretch resources thin. A solution is needed to simplify user management while addressing integration challenges, and that’s exactly what ADManager Plus delivers.

Why integrate Workday and Active Directory using ADManager Plus?

Automated user management

ADManager Plus automates bulk user creation, modification, and deletion in Active Directory using Workday data. With no PowerShell scripts required, IT administrators save time and reduce errors.

Comprehensive action support

Beyond basic user creation, ADManager Plus supports a wide range of actions, including:

  • Attribute modification using templates.
  • Group membership updates.
  • Password resets and account unlocks.
  • Managing Microsoft 365 licenses and mailboxes.

Seamless attribute mapping

Field-level mapping between Workday and AD is made simple with ADManager Plus. Attributes like employee ID, last name, and job role are easily synchronized, ensuring data consistency across systems.

Customizable workflows

Implement business workflows to act as checkpoints for approvals or conditions that must be met before executing user management tasks.

Error-free execution

With built-in checks and automation, ADManager Plus minimizes human errors, ensuring that every change is accurately implemented across systems.

Streamline your Workday-AD integration today. Start your free trial of ADManager Plus or explore our Marketplace for more powerful integrations.