There are three ways to register users in PPM Express:
- Office 365/GSuite Sign-Up: Users from the same Office 365 or GSuite tenant can automatically join the PPM Express tenant.
- Invitations: The PPM Express Administrator or other users can invite new users to the tenant via email.
- Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) Sync: Users can be synchronized from Entra ID (formerly Azure AD).
In this article, we will review the third way: How to synchronize users to PPM Express tenant from Entra ID (formerly Azure AD).
The Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) Synchronization option allows synchronizing users from Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) groups to the PPM Express People Management page.
Also, using this option, the license type is applied in bulk, and the default set of PPM Express permissions can be set for all users from the selected Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) group according to their license. To create a default set of permissions, open the People Management page -> Default Permissions and set permissions for each license type as required.
When users are synchronized, the permissions can be edited manually for each user separately, if required.
To synchronize users from Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) to PPM Express, perform the following:
1. Open the Tenant Settings and select your organization under the Azure AD Synchronization section. The organizations appear in the list for synchronization as soon as the connection is established between PPM Express and Microsoft 365. This can be done if you add one of the following connections to PPM Express:
- Planner connection (when importing or linking Projects/Programs/Resources)
- Teams connection (Work Together option)
- Office 365 group connection (Work Together option).
2. Select the Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) group for the User license (the User license will be applied to all users from this group). Select the Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) group for the Team Member license (Team Member license will be applied to all users from this group). These groups should be created in Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) in advance, or any existing group can be used, if it works for this case.
3. Set up the Daily synchronization schedule.
To launch an on-demand synchronization, use the Synchronize Now option below.
4. Decide if users will receive invitations on user synchronization and how they appear on the People Management page.
If there is a need to change the license type for users, it is required to change their group in Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) (from Team Member to User or vice versa). After synchronization, the license type will be changed in PPMExpress. The display name and users' email should also be changed via Entra ID (formerly Azure AD). If there are Guest users in Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) for whom there is a need to edit email, the original user email should also be edited similarly. Otherwise, the Guest user will be added as a separate user to PPM Express.
The Last Sync option shows the date and time of the last synchronization.
If the synchronization fails, a corresponding notification will be sent to the emails provided in the Recipients field of the Data Synchronization settings.
