If you administer Okta, you’ve assigned users to apps — Salesforce, Slack, Zoom — and watched accounts get created in those apps automatically. That’s provisioning, and it works because someone built an app integration for the Okta Integration Network (OIN). Usually, that someone is the app vendor: an ISV.

If that app doesn’t support SCIM, building the provisioning side of the integration means running a SCIM server yourself.

Your app already has APIs for managing users and groups. But those APIs don’t speak SCIM, the standard identity providers use for provisioning — so you build a second interface in front of them that does. You write the code, host it, and maintain it.

It’s not only protocol work. You’re also mapping your data model onto SCIM: firstName becomes name.givenName, and a status string becomes an active boolean. Libraries handle the protocol boilerplate. They don’t handle the mapping logic or run the server for you.

Okta API Integration Actions changes where that adapter lives. You point it at your existing APIs as-is and map them to Okta’s action contracts in a low-code builder — built on Workflows, so the flow-building will look familiar. The translation still happens. Something has to bridge the gap between your API’s shape and Okta’s contract. But it’s configuration on Okta’s side now, not a service you deploy.

SCIM still has real advantages — bulk operations, standardized error handling, and better performance for large user bases. Actions is the faster path when you don’t have SCIM, not a substitute for it.

Each operation Okta expects becomes a flow you build. Here they are in Integration Builder:

Here’s the difference side by side:

Okta Workflows resources

• 🚀 New to Okta Workflows? The Getting Started with Okta Workflows page has all the resources to help you get started.
• 📺 Like learning from videos? Watch Okta Workflows videos.
• ❓Have a question? Ask during community office hours or post on the community forum.
• 💬 Want to learn from the community? Join the #okta-workflows channel on the Mac Admins Slack.
• 🎓 Want to learn more about identity automation? Take the Okta Workflows training on Okta Learning.