Decentralized user management

Article Summary: This guide explains how to enable and use decentralized user management in Speakap. While organizations with a centralized employee database typically rely on our automated User Sync, companies with franchises or decentralized structures need more flexibility. This solution allows Network Administrators to grant local admins the ability to invite and remove users within their specific Organization Groups (e.g., Business Units or Local Departments).

1. Introduction to Decentralized User Management

For companies with a centralized database of their employees, the User Sync feature is often all they need to manage the users in their Speakap network automatically. However, for those who don’t have such a database, or those who operate with many franchises, relying on a centralized system might not be possible.

In these cases, Speakap offers a solution that allows you to decentralize user management. This empowers local managers to directly handle the onboarding and offboarding of their own team members.

2. Configuring the Role (For Network Admins)

Before a Business Unit or Local Department administrator can manage users, a Network Admin needs to assign the correct permission to their role.

1. Go to your Network settings.
2. Select the Roles section from the menu.
3. Open the role you would like to edit, or create a new role.
4. Navigate to the Network settings tab within the role configuration.
5. Enable the Manage users and invites within managed organizational groups permission.
6. Click Save to update the role.
7. Assign this role to the appropriate local administrator(s) by going back to the Role screen: hover over the correct role > click on the settings cog on the right side > Add members > Save.

3. Inviting New Users (For Local Admins)

Once a Business Unit or Local Department administrator has been granted the proper permissions, they can invite new users directly to their group via email.

1. Navigate to your specific Organization (e.g., Business Unit or Local Department) settings.
2. Select the Invitations section.
3. Click the + Invite button.
4. Enter the email address(es) of the user(s) you want to invite. Note: You can copy and paste multiple email addresses once, separated by spaces or commas. 
5. Select the desired Business Unit and/or Local Department(s) to assign the user to.
6. (Optional) Add a personal message to the invitation email.
7. Click the Invite button to send.

Important Note: With this permission, local administrators are inviting new users to the entire Speakap network, not just the local group. This means that invited users will also be able to see and interact with messages posted to the main network timeline.

4. Removing Users (For Local Admins)

When an employee leaves your company or changes locations, you need to manage their access. As a local admin with the correct permissions, you will see two distinct options when removing a user from your Business Unit or Local Department:

• Remove from Business Unit: This removes the user from your specific Business Unit or Local Department, but does not remove them from the entire Speakap platform. The user will still be able to log in, read network-wide timeline messages, and access other groups they are a member of. Use this for employees transferring to a different location.
• Remove from Network: This completely removes the user from the Speakap network. The user will no longer be able to log in or access any company information. Use this when an employee leaves the company entirely.