Guide: How Departments and Subdepartments Work in the Entra Integration

When CyberLearn is integrated with Microsoft Entra ID, employees can automatically be created, updated, and placed in the correct organizational structure in CyberLearn.

CyberLearn can place users in two ways:

  1. Via the Department field on the user in Entra

2. Via Entra groups, where the group name determines the placement

It is important to choose the model that best matches how the customer works.

How CyberLearn Reads the Structure

CyberLearn divides departments and subdepartments based on a path.

Example:

IT/Operations/NOC

This means:

Department: IT

Subdepartment: Operations

Next level: NOC

CyberLearn supports the following separators by default:

/

\

|

Examples:

Value in Entra or group nameResult in CyberLearn
SalesDepartment: Sales
Sales/DenmarkDepartment: Sales → Subdepartment: Denmark
IT/Support/Level 1Department: IT → Support → Level 1
HR > RecruitmentDepartment: HR → Recruitment

Model 1: Use the Department Field in Entra

With this model, CyberLearn looks at the user’s Department field in Microsoft Entra.

Example:

A user has the following Department value:

Finance/Payroll

The user will then be placed like this in CyberLearn:

Finance → Payroll

If the user does not have a Department field filled in, the user will automatically be placed in:

Default

This model is suitable if the company already maintains the Department field correctly for all users in Entra.

Important:

Only licensed users are imported

Guest users are not imported

If a user is disabled in Entra, the user will also be deactivated in CyberLearn

If a user no longer exists in Entra, the user will be deactivated in CyberLearn

Model 2: Use Entra Groups

With this model, CyberLearn uses the name of the Entra group to determine where users should be placed.

Example of a group name:

Marketing/Content

All users in this group will be placed like this:

Marketing → Content

Examples of multiple groups:

Entra groupPlacement in CyberLearn
ManagementManagement
Sales/DenmarkSales → Denmark
Sales/GermanySales → Germany
IT/SupportIT → Support
IT/Operations/NOCIT → Operations → NOC

This model is suitable if the customer wants full control through groups in Entra.

Important When Using Groups

If the integration is configured to use groups, only users in the selected synchronization groups will be kept active in CyberLearn.

This means:

If a user is removed from the selected Entra groups, the user will be deactivated in CyberLearn during the next synchronization.

For this reason, we recommend that each user is only placed in one group that determines their placement in CyberLearn.

Example:

Correct:

The user is only a member of Sales/Denmark

Avoid:

The user is a member of both Sales/Denmark and Marketing/Content

If a user is a member of multiple placement groups, the user may end up being moved to the group that is processed last during synchronization.

Recommended Setup

Before the integration is activated, the customer should decide on a fixed structure.

Example of a simple structure:

Management

Sales

Marketing

IT

Finance

Example of a structure with subdepartments:

Sales/Denmark

Sales/Sweden

IT/Support

IT/Operations

Finance/Payroll

Finance/Accounting

Example of a structure with multiple levels:

IT/Operations/NOC

IT/Operations/Infrastructure

Sales/Denmark/SMB

Sales/Denmark/Enterprise

How to Move a User

If the Department field is used:

Update the user’s Department field in Entra.

Example:

From:

Sales/Denmark

To:

Sales/Sweden

During the next synchronization, the user will be moved in CyberLearn.

If groups are used:

Move the user from the old Entra group to the new Entra group.

Example:

From the group:

Sales/Denmark

To the group:

Sales/Sweden

During the next synchronization, the user will be moved in CyberLearn.

Best Practice

To achieve the desired result, we recommend the following:

Use one fixed model: either the Department field or groups

Use the same naming standard every time

Only use the groups that should control the CyberLearn structure

Avoid placing the same user in multiple CyberLearn placement groups

Use clear group names such as IT/Support instead of internal abbreviations

Test the structure on a few users first before synchronizing the entire organization

Brief Summary

CyberLearn uses either the user’s Department field or the Entra group name to build departments and subdepartments.

The first part becomes the main department.

The following parts become subdepartments.

Example:

IT/Support/Level 1

becomes:

IT → Support → Level 1

If groups are used, the customer must ensure that users are placed in the correct groups, as group membership controls both the user’s placement and whether the user should remain active in CyberLearn.