HR to ITSM
Oracle HCM to Zendesk integration: employees as users and tasks on hire and termination
With an integration between Oracle HCM Cloud and Zendesk, every employee from Oracle is a user in Zendesk, in their employer's organisation, and a hire or departure in Oracle sets up a task for the internal service desk. Oracle itself provides a sample recipe in Oracle Integration that creates Zendesk users; KoppelHet comes in when changes, departures and tasks must follow as well, or when you do not have Oracle Integration.
What the integration does
Organisations that also use Zendesk as internal service desk for IT or HR and have Oracle HCM Cloud as HR system often only see employees in Zendesk once they email themselves. People who have left can then keep opening tickets for months, and onboarding runs through separate emails from HR.
- Oracle adds a new hire to the newhire feed as soon as HR records them.
- KoppelHet creates or updates the Zendesk user with the person number as external_id, without a verification email.
- The user joins their employer's organisation; a task with the start date goes to the group that handles onboarding.
- A transfer to another employer adds the new membership and removes the old one.
- A termination produces an offboarding task; after the end date KoppelHet suspends the user.
What to watch for with Oracle HCM Cloud and Zendesk
- Oracle publishes a recipe in Oracle Integration that creates Zendesk users from Oracle employees on a schedule, optionally only for those created after a given moment. It requires Oracle Integration 21.4.3 or higher and an administrator account in both systems. Oracle does not describe updates, departures or tasks.
- Zendesk matches on email address or external_id in create_or_update. KoppelHet puts the Oracle person number in external_id, so a new work email from the empupdate feed updates the same user instead of creating a second one.
- A hire is often in the Oracle newhire feed weeks before the start. KoppelHet creates the Zendesk user with skip_verify_email, so the new colleague gets no email from the service desk before they have started.
- Each legal employer from Oracle becomes an organisation in Zendesk. Overwriting the organization_id field removes all other memberships, so on a transfer within the group KoppelHet uses the memberships API and the person number stays the same.
- A suspended user can no longer sign in to Zendesk, and their new tickets are suspended too. KoppelHet only suspends a leaver after the end date from the termination feed, so they can still ask a question until their last day.
- If a candidate withdraws or someone does not show up, the Oracle cancelworkrelship feed says so. KoppelHet then suspends the user and adds a comment to the onboarding task; we do not delete, because a deleted user cannot be restored in Zendesk.
- Zendesk allows five requests per minute per user on create_or_update. A correction in Oracle sometimes produces several entries for the same person in the feeds; KoppelHet merges them into one update.
This integration is also part of joiner, mover, leaver.
How we build and run it
- The integration runs on the KoppelHet platform, hosted in a data centre in the EU.
- Every sync and every error is visible in the functional log; on an error your administrator is notified.
- A change that cannot go through is not half-applied but queued for another attempt.
- KoppelHet is ISO 27001 certified. Data travels encrypted and stays on the platform no longer than needed.
- After go-live we manage the integration and adjust it when your process changes.
- The integration fits next to your existing integration layer. Only the fields in the design are transferred; the platform keeps no register of its own.
Implementation and price
This is not an app you switch on. We build the integration for your organisation on our platform, with building blocks we reuse on every project. So it is custom work that does not start from scratch.
A consultant prepares the intake and analyses both systems. We then record the mapping and exceptions field by field, test in the test or acceptance environment and go live at a moment you choose. Costs are a one-off amount for the setup and a monthly amount for platform, monitoring and support.
Frequently asked questions
Why not Oracle's recipe?
According to the documentation it only creates users and requires Oracle Integration. Departures, transfers and tasks need more.
Will our external customers see these employees?
No. Employees are added as end users in their employer's organisation; what is visible is set up in Zendesk with organisations and groups.
What if someone returns after leaving?
Oracle reports a rehire in the newhire feed. KoppelHet finds the suspended user by person number and reactivates them.
Technical details for IT
For those who want to know how it works under the hood: APIs, fields and sources used.
- Oracle HCM Cloud through the Atom feeds newhire, empassignment, empupdate, termination and cancelworkrelship, then the worker through the HCM REST API, with a read-only integration user.
- Zendesk through the Users API (create_or_update with external_id and skip_verify_email; suspended; first load with create_or_update_many), the Organization Memberships API for employers and the Tickets API with type task, due_at, group_id and external_id. Create Or Update User is limited to five requests per minute per user.
Which fields are transferred
The key fields. The full mapping is agreed per customer.
| Field in Oracle HCM Cloud | Field in Zendesk | Notes |
|---|---|---|
PersonNumber | external_id | Unique per account, case-insensitive |
DisplayName | name | |
WorkEmail | email | |
Legal employer | Organisatielidmaatschap | |
Job en Department van de primaire assignment | user_fields | |
Location (tijdzone) | time_zone | |
Startdatum of laatste werkdag | Taak met due_at | |
Termination | suspended | After the end date, not deleted |
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