IT Technical Setup Overview

This article provides an overview of the technical implementation required for PeopleGrove. The platform is built in a way that no integration is actually required. The platform can be successfully implemented as a standalone solution. The following items are all optional, but many are very quick to set up and can make the experience much smoother for users and administrators. 

Single Sign On - documentation

• Single Sign On can be configured with SAML/CAS/Shibboleth
• We are members of InCommon
• We have self-service admin tools so you can set this up and test yourself, and map your attributes to PeopleGrove fields
• Timing: pre-launch recommended
• Typical time to completion: a few days
• Importance: high - this makes signup and approval much easier for students

Custom Domain - documentation

• Delivering our software on a sub-domain of your university's domain helps students and alumni trust that this is a legitimate service offered from your institution
• Requires only a CNAME record to be set
• Timing: pre-launch recommended
• Typical time to completion: a few days
• Importance: high - significantly builds trust in the platform

One-Time Data Import - documentation

• Pre-import users so that we can send invitations and unique links (token-based) to students and alumni
• Timing: pre-launch recommended
• Typical time to completion: a few days
• Importance: high - makes invitation and approval flow much easier

Automated File Exchange - documentation

• PeopleGrove can process a daily/weekly file feed from you to keep your imported data up to date
• We pick up and process this file from Amazon S3
• Timing: post-launch (within 6 months)
• Typical time to completion: 1-2 months including testing
• Importance: medium - for most clients, the goal can be accomplished with manual file imports on a per-semester basis - this is helpful to automated work, but is not required for success

Email Configuration - documentation

• Verify your domain and white-list our IPs so PeopleGrove can send signed emails on behalf of your administrators with DKIM
• Timing: pre-launch recommended
• Typical time to completion: a few days
• Importance: medium - often doesn't make a huge difference, but can sometimes help with spam issues

API integrations / webhooks - documentation

• PeopleGrove has developed advanced APIs and webhooks which can be used to achieve real-time integration with our systems
• Can get user profile updates as well as user activity on the platform
• Timing: post-launch (when business requirements necessitate) 
• Typical time to completion: 1-2 months
• Importance: depends on business use case - often real-time integration is not required