Allocating and Managing App Usage by Departments

Overview

If you're a Department Manager, Finance Stakeholder, or Procurement Specialist, you've likely encountered the challenge of gaining deeper insights into departmental spending and usage. You're often seeking answers to critical questions such as:

• How can we accurately forecast budgets and right-size software contracts?
• Are we allocating costs to the correct departments?
• Which teams are effectively utilizing our suppliers?

Through supported integration sources such as NetSuite, Okta, Google, or HRIS, the Allocating App Usage to Departments feature provides insights into departmental access to applications. Okta and Google provide data on who has been granted access to applications and how often they are used. This information helps organizations optimize their license allocation and make more informed spending decisions.

Note:  For optimal results, it is recommended that your department structure in NetSuite mirrors the structure in your usage source, such as Okta or Google. If NetSuite does not contain your full roster of employees, consider sourcing departments from Google or Okta instead, as they are associated with the integration.

One-to-one mapping

In a one-to-one mapping, each department from your integration source is matched with a single corresponding department in Tropic. For instance, if you have Engineering, Product, and Design & Arts departments in your Bamboo HR system, you can map each of these to a corresponding Engineering, Product and Design & Art department in Tropic. 

Example:

• Design & Arts in Bamboo HR -> Design & Arts in Tropic
• Product in Bamboo HR -> Product  in Tropic
• Engineering in Bamboo HR -> 'Engineering' in Tropic

One-to-multiple mapping

On the other hand, one-to-multiple mapping allows you to match multiple departments from your integration source to a single department in Tropic. This is especially useful when the departments in your source are too granular or specific, and you want to consolidate them under a broader department or cost center in Tropic.

Example:

If you have separate Product and Engineering departments in your Bamboo HR system, you might map both to a single 'Product' department in Tropic.

• Product in Bamboo HR -> Product in Tropic
• Engineering in Bamboo HR -> Product in Tropic

This way, both your Product and Engineering departments from Bamboo HR are consolidated under the Product department in Tropic

Mapping Process

For Existing Customers (Some Departments Already Set Up):

• Initiate Setup: Navigate to Settings --> Department --> Setup —> Click Add Source.
• Select Integration: To synchronize your existing departmental data with Tropic, choose the integration source (NetSuite, Okta, Google, HRIS) that best represents your organization structure.
  
  • Note: If you decide not to use an integration, you can select Manage Manually to return to the main department page and continue with your existing configuration. However, please be aware that without an integration, the Department Allocations feature, including detailed departmental analytics reports, will not be available.

Note: For customers using NetSuite, some organizations may not have all employees as records in NetSuite. In this case, you might need to integrate with another source, such as HRIS, to fully populate your employee roster in Tropic.

• Sync Departments: When you select a source like Bamboo HR, Tropic will initiate the synchronization process. It will automatically detect and import the departmental data from Bamboo HR. This allows your department structure in Tropic to mirror that in Bamboo HR, ensuring consistency across platforms.

• Review Mapping: Review the imported departmental data and ensure that it aligns with your existing departments within Tropic. Integration and Tropic departments that have a 1:1 naming match will auto map. Any Integration departments that do not auto map will need to be manually set. 
• Adding New Tropic Departments (Optional): If you would like to create a new Tropic Department, this can be done from the select box. Type in the new Department Name and you can create a new department.

• Adjust Mapping (If Necessary): If any discrepancies or mismatches are found, make necessary adjustments to the mapping to ensure accurate synchronization. Click Map and Continue.

• Validate and Confirm: Verify the mapped departments and ensure that they accurately reflect your organizational structure. Confirm the mapping to finalize the synchronization process. Click Confirm & Finish.

For New Customers (No Departments Already Set Up):

If there are no existing departments in Tropic, the system will pull in the departments from your integration source and automatically populate the Tropic departments to mirror the integration departments. These departments will not be created until you reach the confirmation screen, but the auto-fill feature ensures that you don't need to manually input this information.

• Initiate Setup: Navigate to Settings --> Department --> Setup —> Click Add Source.
• Select Integration: Choose the integration source (NetSuite, Okta, Google, HRIS) to synchronize your departmental data with Tropic.
• Sync Departments: Tropic will automatically detect and import the departmental data from your selected integration source.
• Adding New Tropic Departments (Optional): If you would like to create a new Tropic Department, this can be done from the select box. Type in the new Department Name and you can create a new department.
• Adjust Mapping (If Necessary): If any 1:many mapping connections are preferred, make necessary adjustments to the mapping to ensure accurate synchronization. Click Map and Continue.
• Review Mapping: Ensure the auto-filled departments align with your organizational structure.
• Validate and Confirm: Confirm the mapping to finalize the synchronization process.

Mirror 

The Mirror button in the Department Mapping process is used when you want to create a new department in Tropic that exactly matches a department from your integration source. For instance, if you have a department named 'Exec Mgt' in your integration source and you want to create an identical department in Tropic, you can select 'Exec Management' and then click the Mirror button. This will create a new department named 'Exc Management' in Tropic if it does not already exist.

Remap Department

With the Remap function in Tropic, you have the power to adjust your department mapping without starting over from scratch. Whether your organization undergoes structural changes, or you switch integration sources, Remap lets you keep your mapping up-to-date effortlessly. Simply choose to mirror the structure from your integration source or make manual adjustments as needed. Remap as many departments as you want without affecting the others, ensuring your mapping accurately reflects your organization's structure for meaningful analysis.

Switch Source 

You can use the Switch Source function to change the integration source of your departmental data. This feature is particularly useful when you transition to a new system or platform for mapping your departments. However, it is important to note that switching the data source resets the department mapping, so you'll need to update department mappings to keep your data aligned accurately.

Detach Source

With the Detach Source function, you can disconnect a specific integration source from your department mapping. When you choose to detach a source, you are effectively removing the link between Tropic and that particular integrated system in regards to Departments. This action does not uninstall or delete the entire integration from Tropic; rather, it only removes the mapping of departments associated with that source.

Viewing Employee Supplier Usage

If you're a Department Manager, Finance Stakeholder, or Procurement Specialist, the Suppliers page in Tropic helps you easily monitor departmental spending and employee usage.

On the Suppliers page, focus on two key metrics:

• Employees with Access: Number of employees who accessed the supplier within the last 90 days (via Google login).
• Active Employees: Number of employees actively using the supplier in the last 90 days.

These metrics help you forecast budgets, allocate costs accurately, and identify active supplier engagement.

Additional Resources

For learn more about Departments please refer to:

• Add Departments 
• Best Practices about Users and Departments