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BuyBay · 2022

Connecting HR to identity so onboarding stops being manual

At a 150 to 200 person return-processing scale-up, HR changes reached IT by hand. We integrated the HR system with Azure Active Directory and Microsoft 365.

beforeHRemail, by handITlate accounts, stale access, double entryafterHRidentity & accessMicrosoft 365joiners, movers, leavers: automatic and auditable
Before: HR changes reached IT by hand. After: the HR system drives identity and access automatically.

The problem

BuyBay sorts, grades and resells returned goods, with close to 98% of items finding a new owner. With 150 to 200 employees and a tight labour market, people joined, moved and left constantly. Every one of those changes lived in the HR system first, and reached IT by email or by hand. Accounts were created late, access was not removed on time, and the same data was typed twice. Each of those is an error waiting to happen, and under the GDPR each is a risk.

What I did

As Manager IT & Architecture I owned the problem and the decision. We asked the HR vendor for integration partners, evaluated three, and selected one. I set the scope: the HR system becomes the single source for who works here, identity follows automatically into Azure Active Directory and Microsoft 365, and the IT team keeps visibility of what the integration does. I steered the project with our systems administrator, who ran the day-to-day with the partner.

The result

  • No more duplicate entry between HR and IT.
  • Joiners, movers and leavers reflected in identity and access automatically, so fewer access errors.
  • Easier to demonstrate GDPR compliance, because the record of who has access and why now follows the HR record.
  • Employees get to the information relevant to them without IT in the middle.

This case was published by the integration partner, which named me as ICT manager. Exact time saved was not measured, and I am not going to invent a number.

Why it is here

It is not an AI case, and it is deliberately not presented as one. It is here because it shows the groundwork every AI ambition depends on: one source of truth for people, automated identity, and access you can audit. The same organisation then went on to replace its warehouse and transport systems, and that groundwork made it possible.

What I would do differently

Start from the employee experience, not from the integration. We saw during the project that the real prize was an employee platform where HR, IT and the shop floor meet. We got there in thinking; next time I would scope it that way from day one.