With External User Manager, your enterprise is essentially split into three groups: Requesters, Guests, and Approvers.
Requesters - Submit a request to invite a guest into a specific Space. Depending on how the onboarding process is set up, they might have to fill certain Metafields before actually submitting the request.
Guests - Go through the Onboarding process to receive the right to join a particular space. They might have to fill a variety of Metafields, read documents, or watch a video, before providing a signature or checkbox approval. The number of steps will depend on your Onboarding setup.
Approvers - Go through these requests and decide whether or not the guest actually gets accepted into the organization. They're able to view and export all information provided by both the requester and the guest, including Metafields and signed documents.
Let's go through the request submission process and create an Approver Group together to fully understand how this dynamic works in real-world scenarios.
📥 Requester
As an average employee, whenever you decide that you need to add an external collaborator to your Space, you'll need to submit a Request for it.
Navigate to Requests > Add a request in External User Manager to get started.
Fill in the Mail field with the email address of the Guest you're trying to invite.
Complete any Metadata fields specified by the admin.
Select the Spaces that you'd like your future Guest to have access to.
Leave a comment with any relevant information that could aid the Approval decision.
Once the Requester sends their Guest's email and additional information, the Approver(s) will decide whether or not to actually grant the Guest access.
✅ Approver
The Approver gets to decide which Guests actually make it into the requested Spaces and which ones get rejected.
Navigate to Requests > Add a request in External User Manager to view active Requests.
Click on the checkmark icon under the Approval section of the list.
You'll be presented with a detailed view of all the information related to the Guest, including the invitee's email, the Spaces they're getting invited to, the identity of the Requester, and any Metafields that they've filled.
You can also leave a Comment with any additional information that might be deemed relevant before clicking Approve to allow the Guest access.
💡 Depending on your Onboarding Configuration, the guest themselves might also need to fill in Metafields, sign or checkmark a document, or watch a video before proceeding.
👥 Adding Approvers
By default, the current External User Manager admin is the only person able to approve new Guests on the tenant. If you want to delegate the approval process to other individuals, you can simply add them to the Default Approver Group.
Navigate to Settings > Approval in External User Manager to view Approval options.
Approve team requests - Extends the ability to approve Guests to Team Owners.
Enable Microsoft Entra ID security group as approvers - Allows you to select Microsoft Entra ID security groups as approvers.
Auto remove user - Automatically removes the guest from Microsoft Entra ID once they're no longer a part of any active Spaces.
Block default Microsoft message on tenant invite - Removes the default notification from Microsoft upon the addition of an external user to a Space.
Right below the Approval options, you'll be able to add users to the Default Group, which the System Administrator should be the sole member of.
Once you've added the desired user to the Default Group, they'll have access to all Active Requests and will be able to Approve them.
💡 There's also a separate approver group for Organizations (when enabled) that operates on the exact same principle as this one.
If you want to learn more about the Guest side of the invite flow, feel free to read our article on how to Establish an Onboarding Process.
👣 Next Steps
Now that you fully understand the request and approval flow, you can start configuring onboarding modules.
We recommend starting here:
⛑️ Need more help?
Get further assistance with Teams Manager through our support chat widget within the app, or reach out to us at [email protected].