User account management is crucial in every event scheduling environment. These accounts are how organizations control who can request their spaces. The ability to grant different levels of access to rooms, resources, and services is essential, and doing that for a handful of users is no problem.
The task is bigger and more challenging in busy (sometimes hectic!) higher education environments. There, you’ve got to be able to manage user accounts at scale. The large campus population means you might have hundreds or even thousands of users, and the ongoing turnover as students graduate and new classes arrive means account management is a never-ending job.
The good news is that Mazévo simplifies and automates managing user accounts to save time and reduce errors. Let’s take a look at how we do that.
TL;DR Key Takeaways:
- User account creation is a resource-intensive, ongoing task on higher education campuses.
- Mazévo simplifies the process of creating user accounts and associating them with organizations.
- Mazévo uses single sign-on functionality to grant access based on the person’s campus credentials and automatically creates a user account.
- The Mazévo API facilitates integration with third-party systems that store information for associating users with organizations.
- Integrations are managed by university IT teams or Mazévo partners like 7 Point Solutions.
Understanding Mazévo User Account Creation
As with most things in life, there are multiple ways to do things. When creating user accounts in Mazévo, you have the manual and automated methods. Let’s look at the manual way first before looking at how the process is automated.
You create accounts manually like this:
- A user requests access to your Mazévo system.
- A Mazévo administrator reviews the request and grants the appropriate permissions.
- The administrator manually associates the user to the correct organization(s).
- The process is repeated for every new account request.
While this method provides the control and oversight necessary to manage access to your Mazévo system, it can be quite labor-intensive when dealing with a large volume of user accounts. Let’s now look at how Mazévo leverages widely used system access technology and processes to streamline user account management and make it a faster, more efficient, and better experience for everyone involved.
How Mazévo Automates User Account Creation
To clarify our discussion, it is helpful to categorize Mazévo users into two groups: administrative users and requesters. Administrative users manage the scheduling system and approve events submitted through Mazévo. In contrast, requesters are the users who submit these events. The number of requesters in an organization typically exceeds the number of administrative users, which is why automating the account creation process for requester accounts is beneficial. It's important to note that while administrative accounts can also be created through this process, another Mazévo administrator will need to elevate the account's privileges manually.
Mazévo streamlines user account creation using a three-step process:
Step 1: Account creation leveraging single sign-on (SSO)
The Single Sign-On (SSO) process for creating a user account begins when a new user attempts to log in. The user will be prompted to enter their organizational email address. Once the email is submitted, Mazévo checks its system to see if the email address is already associated with an existing user account. If a matching account is found, the system recognizes the user and logs them in immediately, skipping the need for additional account setup.
If the email address does not match an existing user, Mazévo will create a new account for the user on the fly. The system takes the user's name and email address, which were provided during the SSO process, and uses that information to automatically generate a new user account in the system. This seamless process ensures that users can quickly access Mazévo without manually creating an account or remembering additional login details. Once the account is created, the user is logged in and can start using Mazévo right away.
Step 2: Automatic security policy assignment
This step is part of the account creation process mentioned earlier, but it's helpful to view it as a distinct step. The level of access a user has to request space within your organization is determined by a Mazévo Security Policy. This policy defines which rooms a user can request and when they can do so.
Suppose your organization has different groups of users with varying access levels for requesting spaces (which is common in most organizations). In that case, Single Sign-On (SSO) can provide Mazévo with important information to assign the appropriate security policy. SSO transmits user attributes that indicate the user's role, such as student, faculty member, or staff, which are then used to assign the correct policy.
You can override the automated security policy assignment if appropriate. We want to make your job easier, but the final determination about system access is up to you, of course!
Step 3: Automatic organization association
In Mazévo, users must be linked to organizations to make requests on their behalf. That linking is managed using an API that can connect Mazévo to data that resides within other systems in your organization. The Mazévo API is explained below.
Keeping Organizational Association in Sync
In a university environment, updating Mazévo with the current list of student organizations and the officers authorized to make requests on their behalf can be very beneficial for those in the reservations office. In addition, it may also be useful to keep Mazévo updated with university departments and associated staff.
These associations are typically maintained in other third-party systems, including student engagement platforms (e.g., Anthology Engage, CampusGroups, etc.) and human resources (HR) or enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The Mazévo API securely integrates with those systems, enabling them to push updates to Mazévo automatically. This synchronization is typically scheduled once per day.
Not every campus has the technical resources to develop these API integrations, but we can help. Mazévo partners with trusted providers like 7 Point Solutions for API integration and ongoing data synchronization. Let us know if you would like us to connect you with them to learn more.
The Many Benefits of Automating User Account Creation in Mazévo
It only takes a little effort to set your system up to automate user account creation, and the payoff is significant, including:
- Time savings. Manual account setup and permission management become things of the past.
- Improved accuracy. Users automatically receive the correct access and associations.
- Enhanced security and risk management. Automated user account management ensures that only authorized users can make event requests.
- Seamless user experience. New users can log in and start making requests immediately.
When you consider these benefits across a large number of new users each year, the advantage of automating user account management becomes clear.
Simplify User Account Creation on Your Campus!
Through SSO and the Mazévo API, we make a necessary but labor-intensive process much easier for everyone involved. System integration streamlines user account creation and the association of new accounts with organizations. As a result, people get the right level of access faster, and scheduling pros can stay focused on other tasks.
If you aren’t capitalizing on automated user account creation in Mazévo, we encourage you to explore this capability to save time and improve the user experience! Please contact us for further information.
