How it works
From Slate import to provisioned accounts and SIS writeback, automated
No custom integrations. No Slate API access. No scripts to maintain. Here's exactly how OnboardConnect turns an admissions event into student accounts across Active Directory, Microsoft Entra, and Google Workspace — then writes the results back to your SIS.
Configure your Slate Connection
OnboardConnect connects to Slate through Query Web Services. You configure the connection once in the OnboardConnect tenant portal, choose which fields to map, and the platform handles everything from there.
- No Slate API developer credentials or custom Slate development required
- Query Web Services: OnboardConnect queries Slate directly for real-time student data on a schedule
- Works with every Slate license tier — no professional services engagement needed
Build your workflow
In the OnboardConnect dashboard, drag and drop the whole onboarding pipeline into one workflow — filter, transform, provision, write back, and notify. Steps are ordered and branchable, with On Success and On Failure lanes so the run does the right thing whether a step passes or fails. Provisioning Settings controls exactly how accounts are built — username format, password policy, OU placement, and group membership — all configured with field-based conditional rules.
- Trigger on any Slate lifecycle event: Enrolled, Deposited, Accepted, or custom status values
- Directory steps for On-Prem AD, Microsoft Entra, and Google Workspace: create, update, activate/deactivate (suspend on Google), set password, groups, OU/distribution lists, license, delete
- SIS Read and SIS Upsert steps to write back to Ellucian Ethos (Banner/Colleague), Oracle PeopleSoft, or Workday
- Filter Rows to route a segment by condition, Transform Fields to normalize values, and Idle / Wait to pause between steps
- On Success / On Failure lanes plus continue-on-error and chunked processing for large imports
- Notifications: Email, SMS via Twilio, Chat via Slack or Microsoft Teams, and Webhook to any system you configure
- Read from and write back to Slate as part of the same run
- Slate file transfer — download a file from Slate to your on-prem OC Agent, or upload a file into Slate via a Source Format, over HTTPS (no SFTP, large PDFs and documents supported)
OnboardConnect processes incoming data
When student data arrives — whether from a Query Web Services result or a scheduled workflow — each record is evaluated against your provisioning rules. Records that match a trigger condition are queued for the appropriate directory action. The platform deduplicates against existing accounts, handles errors gracefully, and retries transient failures automatically.
- Scheduled workflows run on any interval you configure — hourly, daily, or on demand
- File deduplication — the same export delivered twice will not double-provision
- Row-level deduplication — a student already provisioned will not get a duplicate account
- Failed records are held in a retry queue with detailed error messages
- Supports incremental data (only new or changed records) or full snapshots
Provision across your directories and write back to the SIS
Each step runs against the platform it targets: On-Prem Active Directory through the OC Agent (so credentials stay on campus), Microsoft Entra via Microsoft Graph, and Google Workspace via the Google Admin SDK. Accounts are created, updated, or deactivated — placed in the correct OU, assigned to groups — and then the same run writes student data back to your SIS. On Failure lanes catch problems, and notifications go out to your team. Run on demand from the builder and watch every step in real time.
- On-Prem AD: commands execute via the OC Agent over an encrypted WebSocket relay — no inbound firewall rules
- Microsoft Entra: direct provisioning via Microsoft Graph; Google Workspace via the Google Admin SDK
- SIS writeback to Ellucian Ethos (Banner/Colleague), Oracle PeopleSoft, or Workday — routed through the on-prem OC Agent
- On Success / On Failure lanes route the run automatically when a step passes or fails
- See the data flowing between steps — record counts and the actual rows passed, with passwords masked
- Notify on completion or failure via Email, SMS, Slack/Teams, or Webhook
- Every run kept in full history with a live run view and written to the audit trail
Configure your search experience
Once your directory connections are in place, IT staff get a purpose-built student directory inside OnboardConnect — no shared admin credentials, no separate tool. Configure which attributes are searchable, which columns appear in results, and how actions route to each connection.
- Configure searchable attributes and result columns per connection
- Searchable attributes drawn directly from your live directory connections — no manual attribute entry
- Result columns, side panel, and full detail page are all configurable per institution
- Action routing: assign search to one or more connections, and exclusive actions to a single connection
- Search Settings is role-restricted — only Admin and Owner users can modify it
Technical details
Supported directory platforms
OnboardConnect provisions to on-premise Active Directory, Microsoft Entra ID, and Google Workspace for Education — together or separately.
On-Premise Active Directory (LDAP)
The OnboardConnect desktop agent is a lightweight Windows service that installs on any Windows Server inside your network. It connects outbound to OnboardConnect over HTTPS — no inbound firewall rules or VPN configuration required. The agent executes LDAP operations against your domain controller on behalf of the cloud platform.
- Windows Server 2012 R2 and later
- Single-domain and multi-domain forests
- No inbound firewall rules required
- Agent runs as a dedicated service account with least-privilege permissions
- Agent auto-updates silently in the background
Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD)
For cloud-only or hybrid Entra environments, OnboardConnect provisions accounts directly via the Microsoft Graph API. You grant the OnboardConnect service principal the minimum required permissions, and provisioning happens without any on-premise agent.
- Microsoft Entra ID / Azure AD (cloud and hybrid tenants)
- Uses Microsoft Graph API — no legacy AAD connector required
- Least-privilege app registration: User.ReadWrite.All and GroupMember.ReadWrite.All scopes
- Read, create, update, activate/deactivate, set password, license, security groups, delete
- Compatible with Conditional Access and MFA policies
Google Workspace for Education
For Google-first institutions, OnboardConnect provisions accounts directly via the Google Admin SDK — no on-premise agent required. Grant the OnboardConnect service account the minimum required scopes and provisioning runs Worker-side.
- Google Workspace for Education tenants
- Uses the Google Admin SDK Directory API
- Create, update, activate, suspend, set password, and group membership
- Domain-wide delegation with least-privilege scopes
- Provision Google alongside AD and Entra from the same workflow
Lifecycle events
Supported Slate lifecycle triggers
Each row in your Slate export has a status or lifecycle value. You map those values to provisioning actions in OnboardConnect.
| Lifecycle event | Description |
|---|---|
| Enrolled | Student has completed enrollment. Most common trigger for account creation. |
| Deposited | Student has paid an enrollment deposit, indicating strong intent to attend. |
| Accepted | Student has been accepted but may not yet be enrolled. Useful for early account setup. |
| Withdrawn | Student has withdrawn. Triggers account disable or deprovisioning workflow. |
| Custom status | Any Slate status value in your export file can be mapped to a provisioning trigger. |
Account naming
Username format options
Choose from common username formats or build a custom template using any field in your Slate export. OnboardConnect automatically handles duplicates by appending a numeric suffix.
firstname.lastname
e.g. jane.smith
f.lastname
e.g. j.smith
firstnamelastname
e.g. janesmith
flastname
e.g. jsmith
lastname.firstname
e.g. smith.jane
custom template
e.g. Combine any fields with separators
{field_name} token syntax
e.g. Custom templates support any field from your Slate export using {field_name} token syntax
Duplicate usernames can be resolved by appending a counter: jane.smith, jane.smith2, jane.smith3, etc.
See it in action with your own data
Request access and connect a test Slate export in minutes. We'll set up your environment together.
90-day free trial — no credit card required.