Objective
Our goal is to create an automated process for keeping your employee data in Actimo always up to date, based on the information you already have in your HR or IT systems.
This integration will enable you to leverage all your available employee data within Actimo, ensuring employees are accurately created and deleted as they join, move within, or leave your company.
Think of this integration as a data co-pilot 🧑✈️ that takes care of the behind-the-scenes work, allowing you to focus on effectively connecting with your employees.
Requirements
Setting up employee data integration is a powerful way to streamline your processes. We understand that every setup has unique prerequisites, and we want to ensure your integration is seamless and successful from the very beginning.
Instead of navigating complex technical requirements, we've made it easy for you to get started:
Please contact your Customer Success Manager (CSM) to initiate your employee data integration.
Your CSM is your go-to expert and will explain the process, identify your specific needs, and ensure a smooth setup.
We understand the complexity involved, and we're happy to assist with your first integration to ensure everything is set up correctly. This approach helps prevent any potential missteps and ensures your data is handled accurately.
❓ Don't know who your Customer Success Manager is?
No problem! Simply reach out to our Support team, and they'll quickly connect you with your CSM.
Case example
Let's look at a scenario to understand how this integration can work for you.
Imagine you're a retailer looking to launch an employee app for 500 employees spread across various regions, functions, and departments. While the primary goal is a native app experience, you also want the flexibility to send SMS and email communications. Your task is to integrate and automatically manage all this employee data.
With this integration, you'd achieve the following:
Import relevant data to allow your communications department to easily connect with employees and utilize Smart Groups and Feeds to tailor content for different employee segments.
Automatic updates: Ensure that new employees are added to Actimo automatically and, just as importantly, that individuals who leave the company are promptly removed.
Connect managers to employees: We'd also work to link direct managers to their employees within Actimo via the integration, simplifying communication hierarchies.
Steps to launch
Step 1: Which data is needed?
The first step is to determine which employee data you'll need to achieve your data synchronisation goals. This often involves collaborating with your HR or IT teams.
We'd recommend gathering the following key data points:
First Name
Last Name
Employee ID (or another unique identifier for each employee)
Title
Job Function
Store
Region
Country Code (for mobile numbers)
Mobile Phone Number
Email
Manager Employee ID (a column showing the ID of an employee's direct manager)
💡 Tip: Ask your HR or IT department for an example of the CSV file they can provide for employee data. This gives you a great overview of the data fields available and will be crucial later when you map these columns to Actimo contact fields.
You'll also see these column names when you run your first test integration in Actimo with example data.
Step 2: Preparing Actimo to Receive Employee Data
Once you've decided which data points you'll be transferring, you need to make sure Actimo is ready to receive them. We do this by setting up Contact Fields.
Go to Admin
Click on Contacts
You will automatically land on Contact Fields section
Actimo comes with several default fields, like Country, Employee ID, and First Name. You'll need to check if you have any data that doesn't fit these existing fields. In our case example, we'd create new custom fields for Store and Function. Once you click Save, these new fields will be ready to use and capture your incoming employee data.
❗ Another crucial step in preparing your Actimo platform is to choose your Duplicate Key setup. This ensures you never have duplicate employee entries in your platform. The chosen key must be 100% unique to each employee.
When setting up an integration, you'll need to select "Source Data" from the dropdown menu for this setting. This tells Actimo to use the unique identifier from your external data source to prevent duplicates.
Go to Admin
Click on Contacts
Click on Managing duplicated contacts section
💡 In some case you may not have an employee id, in this case you can use email.
Should you have any questions, your Customer Success Manager (CSM) is always there to help
Step 3: Connecting Actimo to Your SFTP Server
Before we can sync any data, we need to connect Actimo with your SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) server.
To do this:
Go to Admin
Click on Integrations
Click on Add External CSV
You'll then need to gather some specific information from your IT department or the person who set up your SFTP server. Look for the fields marked in red (in the screenshot below), as these are required. A detailed explanation of each field will be provided below.
Full URI Schema to CSV file: Either an sftp:// or https:// full path to the actual file. If the port is different than standard (sftp 22, https 443) then that need to be included.
Field separator: The type of delimiter used, often either semi colon (;) or comma (,).
Encoding: typically either utf8 or latin1 - defaults to utf8
File is without a header row: In CSV you normally have a first line with column names defined. If there is no definition line in the file, then this checkbox must be ticked.
Credentials (username, password, passphrase, private key):
If protocol is https, then always username and password
If protocol is sftp, then it can be username and password, or username and private key, or username and private key and passphrase, or username and password and private key and passphrase.
After filling in all the necessary information for your setup, click on 'Save' at the bottom of the page. Then, to confirm your connection, click on 'Test'.
You should now see a green confirmation message indicating a successful connection, along with an example of your data from the CSV file.
Step 4: Mapping CSV data to Contacts in Actimo
Now it's critical to ensure your incoming data is correctly mapped to the right contact fields in Actimo. This will enable you to group all employees by specific stores, regions, or job functions automatically using Smart Groups.
Go to Admin
Click on Integrations
Scroll down and click on Add Custom Field
The goal here is to link the column headers from your CSV file to the corresponding contact fields in Actimo.
For each new column in your CSV that doesn't have an existing Actimo field, click on Add Custom Field
Write the name exactly as it appears in your CSV header (e.g., "Store," "Function")
Click on Save
Map this new custom field to the appropriate field in Actimo
Then, it is just a matter of making sure you map all the CSV columns in your CSV to a field in Actimo.
Finally, you'll select which workspace you want your employee data to be imported into. We generally recommend importing into your primary workspace and sticking to just one per account unless you have a specific need for more.
Should you have any questions, your Customer Success Manager (CSM) is always there to help
Once you've finished mapping all your data, remember to click on Save.
Step 5: Syncing Data to Actimo
Once you've completed all the steps from above, is only a matter of starting the integration.
Go to Admin
Click on Integrations
Click on Sync Now
You should then see all your employees automatically populated in the Contacts section of Actimo. You will be able to see the data by clicking on contacts. It should look something like this:
Supported ciphers sFTP can use are:
aes128-ctr
aes192-ctr
aes256-ctr
aes128- gcm@openssh.com
Please contact your Customer Success Manager (CSM) for IP whitelisting if necessary.
💡 Please remember to reach out to your Customer Success Manager (CSM).
They're your go-to expert to explain the process, identify your specific needs, and ensure a smooth setup.
We know it can seem complex, but we're happy to assist with your first integration to ensure everything is set up correctly, preventing any potential missteps and ensuring your data is handled accurately.