Introducing: Workflows for Any Identity Use Case

Diya Jolly , October 13, 2021

The pressure to innovate and deliver incredible digital experiences has only continued to increase over the past couple of years. While the barriers to achieving those transformations range from organizational change management challenges, to resourcing, to technology limitations, one that stands out is this: 85% of IT leaders report that integration challenges are hindering their digital transformation efforts.

When we announced Okta Workflows, our identity automation and orchestration platform service, as a part of Okta Lifecycle Management in March of 2020, we were focused on solving critical employee access and productivity challenges using the power of automation. This allowed our users to harness powerful integrations, across tools, to simplify mover, joiner, and leaver processes. Since then, Workflows has grown tremendously in terms of its adoption and use. We expanded support for Customer Identity use cases and we’ve heard from customers that they want to use Workflows for an even wider range of identity automation and orchestration needs across their businesses. 

That’s why today we’re proud to announce that we’re making Okta Workflows available as a standalone offering, enabling customers to use Workflows for any identity use case. In doing so, we’ll help customers address a broadened set of identity automation use cases beyond Lifecycle Management, including security orchestration as well as DevOps processes. New pre-built connectors and pre-configured templates in addition to a new, no-cost option for up to five flows enable customers to realize the benefits of Okta Workflows more quickly across both Workforce and Customer Identity use cases. With Okta Workflows serving as the extensibility toolkit for coders and non-coders alike, anyone can build and innovate with Okta.

Okta Workflows as a standalone platform offering

Okta Workflows makes it easier for organizations to manage processes such as user provisioning, aligning back-end customer data, lightweight security response, and more, at scale. With Workflows now available as a standalone offering, any customer can use Okta Workflows* to extend and harness the power of identity to deliver seamless, new customer experiences and drive organizational efficiency. 

Specifically, customers can choose between: 

  • Light Workflows (50 flow limit)
  • Medium Workflows (150 flow limit)
  • Unlimited Workflows (unlimited flow limit)

Organizations can use these Workflows for any identity type, including employees, partners, and customers. They can also choose to start with 5 flows, at no cost, to try out Workflows’ powerful platform.

*Workflows requires the purchase of Universal Directory (Workforce Identity) or One App/Enterprise (Customer Identity). The number of subscriptions purchased for Workflows must match the number of subscriptions purchased for Universal Directory or One App/Enterprise. In addition, Workforce customers must also purchase SSO licenses for each and every Workflows administrator, with at least one SSO license purchased.

An expanded library of pre-built connectors and templates

We also want to make it easier for customers to get started with Workflows, which is why we’re continuing to expand our ecosystem of connectors, most recently with connectors to Jamf and Microsoft Teams:

  • Jamf connector: Enables customers to automate actions such as user provisioning to Jamf as well as device-centric actions such as reading desktop or mobile devices in Jamf or sending computer or mobile device MDM commands
  • Microsoft Teams connector: Enables customers to automate actions such as user provisioning to Microsoft teams as well as messaging activities such as sending a message to a user on your team

In addition, downloadable Templates for Okta Workflows can be used as-is, or modified for their organization’s unique needs, making these integrations even more plug-and-play. We’re continuing to roll out new templates throughout the year, including: 

  • Suspicious activity alerts: Okta enables end-users to note any unrecognized activity as “suspicious activity” and report it to their organization’s admins. Quick investigation of suspicious activity, reported in a timely manner, is critical for preventing and deterring fraud. When suspicious activity is reported, this template provides an example for automatically noting the issue through an incident response tool such as PagerDuty.
  • Conditional access after document signatures: ​​Many organizations use apps like DocuSign to control agreements that may dictate which resources users can access. Examples include Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs), Lease Contracts, and Terms of Service (TOS). This template leverages DocuSign webhooks to capture when a user signs a document, which then determines which systems a user can access.
  • Personalized, omni-channel experiences with progressive profiling: Marketers can use Okta Workflows in combination with the features of Okta Progressive Profiling and OneTrust Preference Management to deliver personalized, omni-channel customer experiences. The easily extensible Workflows template synchronizes Okta Universal Directory’s user attributes to OneTrust’s Preference Center.

How to get started with Okta Workflows

We all understand that innovation cannot exist in a silo, and our customers have led the way in how Okta Workflows has evolved. Customers leveraging Workflows are automating highly complex, identity-centric business processes, and include some of the world’s leading brands. Notably, Sonos, Peloton, Slack, Intercom, and Bain & Company have all saved time, increased operational efficiency, and elevated their customer-facing experiences using Okta Workflows.

To learn more about Okta Workflows and how customers like these are using Workflows today, please visit: www.okta.com/platform/workflows/. Okta Workflows will be available as a standalone offering beginning in November 2021; new connectors and templates will also be rolling out this fall.