Options for integrating Skills Base with other systems
Extracting data out of Skills Base
These options apply where you wish to extract data that is currently held in Skills Base, to feed or upload into other systems.
Manual export
If your needs are infrequent and of a "batch" nature, a manual export of data is a simple but effective way of importing Skills Base data into another system, which requires no setup. Skills Base offers a number of out-of-the-box CSV exports that can be found in the Reporting menu, as well as the more comprehensive "Report Builder" tool that allows construction of an export consisting of the the specific fields and filters that you require.
For more information on Data Exports see: https://support.skills-base.com/kb/articles/11000025204-data-exports
For more information on Report Builder see: https://support.skills-base.com/kb/articles/11000025203-report-builder
Scheduled export
Certain Skills Base licenses include the ability to set a schedule for a CSV export such that they will be run automatically at a predefined interval that you specify. For example, you can set up an export to run monthly, on the 15th of each month whereby each month, on the 15th day, Skills Base will generate and save the export on the server-side and send an email to the scheduler informing that the report is ready to download. Stored reports do not expire, so it's possible to download them at any time.
For more information on Scheduled Reports see: https://support.skills-base.com/kb/articles/11000032857-scheduled-reports
REST API
For fully autonomous, real-time, machine-to-machine integration needs, Skills Base includes a comprehensive REST API which provides both read and write access to virtually any data in the system. The REST API integration is ideal for circumstances where data currency is important and you require a real-time integration. You can pull data from Skills Base via the API in bulk on an interval, or pull specific records as required throughout the day. It's also possible to build tools external to Skills Base that interact directly with the data. For example, you could build a mini version of the People Finder tool which interfaces with the People Finder REST API endpoint in order to provide employees with the ability to find skilled people directly within the organization's web portal.
The REST API is only available with certain Skills Base licenses. Note that API integrations require software development/integration capabilities on your side. Skills Base does not typically provide integration services since they require specialist knowledge of and access to your organizational systems and IT landscape, however we are always glad to help where we can.
For more information on the REST API see: https://support.skills-base.com/kb/articles/11000025172-api
Pushing data into Skills Base
These options apply where you wish to push data from other system into Skills Base, such that the data will be stored in Skills Base.
Single Sign On attribute pass-through
This option provides a convenient pass-through of employee attributes at the time of sign on. When Single Sign On integration is enabled between your organization's Identity Provider (IdP) and Skills Base, it is possible for attributes (such as the employee's role, location, or even Employee ID) to be populated into their Skills Base record at the time of sign on. This can be a convenient way to synchronize your employee directory with Skills Base without requiring additional integrations or manual work. However, it's important to note that because this mechanism relies on employee sign on, the data is only updated whenever an employee signs into Skills Base. As such, any employees that have not signed in yet for any reason, or have not signed in for extended periods of time, may have outdated attributes recorded in Skills Base. One counter-measure is to have supervisors in the system review employee records from time to time, manually updating fields as required.
Single Sign On is only available with certain Skills Base licenses. For information on setting up SSO attribute pass-through, speak with a Skills Base Support member.
For more information on Single Sign on see: https://support.skills-base.com/kb/articles/11000025183-single-sign-on
Batch File integration
Skills Base can ingest data from a batch file that you upload via SFTP, and can synchronise those records to your Skills Base instance. Systems such as Workday for example support this type of integration out of the box, and batch file integrations such as this can be configured to run daily, weekly, or on any other schedule that you define. Even if your source system doesn't support batch file integration via SFTP out of the box, your IT department may have the infrastructure in place, or may be able to set something up. Batch file integration is currently limited to syncronization of people records only, however we plan to add support for further record types in the future.
If you are considering this integration option, please reach out to our customer support team, or your account manager.
REST API
For fully autonomous, real-time, machine-to-machine integration needs, Skills Base includes a comprehensive REST API which provides both read and write access to virtually any data in the system. The REST API integration is ideal for circumstances where data currency is important and you require a real-time integration. You can push data to Skills Base via the API in bulk on an interval, or push specific records or fields as required throughout the day.
The REST API is only available with certain Skills Base licenses. Note that API integrations require software development/integration capabilities on your side. Skills Base does not typically provide integration services since they require specialist knowledge of and access to your organizational systems and IT landscape, however we are always glad to help where we can.
For more information on the REST API see: https://support.skills-base.com/kb/articles/11000025172-api
Employee self-update
Another way of keeping Skills Base data in sync with organizational systems that is worth considering is to simply allow employees the ability to update their own data. This is not a machine-level integration, but can leverage the person-power of the workforce to efficiently conquer a larger-scale task. The specific fields that an employee can update is decided by the organization, and can be restricted to a desired set. We find employees generally want to see correct information associated with their profile and so are generally motivated to make corrections where they see required.
For information on configuring permissions see: https://support.skills-base.com/kb/articles/11000025185-configuring-permissions
Instructions for employees on editing their own information are available here: https://support.skills-base.com/kb/articles/11000025512-editing-your-own-information