HR to ITSM
Zoho People to ServiceNow integration: users from the employee form and offboarding alongside the IT clearance
With an integration between Zoho People and ServiceNow, every employee from Zoho People becomes a user in ServiceNow, with location, department, job title and manager, and KoppelHet orders an onboarding item as soon as a date of joining is set. When a Date of Exit appears in Zoho People, an offboarding item follows, and the user becomes inactive around the moment Zoho People disables the login.
What the integration does
Organisations that use Zoho People for HR and ServiceNow for IT often handle an employee's departure through the clearances in Zoho People. IT however works in ServiceNow, so the IT clearance falls outside its own queue and a moved last working day does not reach the service desk.
- Every fifteen minutes KoppelHet requests the employee records added or changed since the previous run.
- Through an import set KoppelHet updates location, department and user in ServiceNow.
- For a new employee KoppelHet orders the onboarding item with the date of joining.
- On a Date of Exit the offboarding item follows; if that date moves, KoppelHet adjusts the open item.
- After the last working day KoppelHet sets the user inactive in ServiceNow.
What to watch for with Zoho People and ServiceNow
- By default Zoho People disables a leaver's login at 8:30 in the morning on the day after the last working day. KoppelHet sets the user in ServiceNow inactive on the same day, so someone who can no longer get into Zoho People also cannot submit requests in ServiceNow.
- Zoho People can have up to ten clearances per resignation process, with IT, HR and Admin as standard. KoppelHet orders the offboarding item in ServiceNow, so IT has the work in its own queue; HR ticks off the IT clearance in Zoho People when the item is closed.
- When the Date of Exit appears is set by the Zoho People administrator: on approval of a resignation, on submission of a termination, or only on the last working day. Only with the first two does the offboarding item reach ServiceNow in advance; we record that setting at the start.
- If HR changes the last working day, Zoho People recalculates the clearance dates. KoppelHet then also adjusts the date on the open offboarding item in ServiceNow, instead of ordering a second item.
- Zoho People locks an environment for five minutes at more than four hundred requests per minute, and returns at most two hundred records at a time. KoppelHet only requests records changed after the previous run, so a run usually costs one request and other Zoho integrations are not locked out.
- In Zoho People a workflow can call a custom function when an employee's status changes. If the organisation wants a departure in ServiceNow within minutes, such a function can alert KoppelHet directly; the fifteen-minute run then remains as a safety net.
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
Does ServiceNow have a Zoho People integration?
We found none from ServiceNow or Zoho; only generic automation platforms. KoppelHet builds on the APIs of both sides.
Does the IT clearance in Zoho People remain?
Yes. HR still sees in Zoho People whether IT is done; the work itself is in ServiceNow.
Technical details for IT
For those who want to know how it works under the hood: APIs, fields and sources used.
- Zoho People API with OAuth 2.0 (Authorization Zoho-oauthtoken, scope ZOHOPEOPLE.forms.READ): GET /people/api/forms/employee/getRecords with sIndex, limit (maximum 200, otherwise error code 7021) and modifiedtime in milliseconds; SearchColumn EMPLOYEEID or EMPLOYEEMAILALIAS for a single employee. 400 requests per minute, then a five-minute lock. Check the internal field names of the employee form per environment.
- ServiceNow through the Import Set API (insertMultiple with run_after for cmn_location and cmn_department before sys_user, coalesce on employee_number) and the Service Catalog API (order_now with sysparm_quantity, variables and sysparm_requested_for). A moved date through the Table API on sc_req_item.
Which fields are transferred
The key fields. The full mapping is agreed per customer.
| Field in Zoho People | Field in ServiceNow | Notes |
|---|---|---|
EmployeeID | employee_number | Coalesce key |
First Name en Last Name | first_name en last_name | |
Email address | email | |
Designation | title | |
Location | location (cmn_location) | |
Department | department (cmn_department) | |
Reporting To | manager | |
Date of Joining | Onboardingitem | |
Date of Exit | Offboardingitem, daarna active op false |
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