Flow syncs instructional data between your SIS and LMS. Identity Management (IDM) systems manage user accounts and login access across platforms. While they serve different purposes, they work together to ensure your systems stay aligned.
What IDM Systems Do
IDM systems manage user identities and permissions across your school's tech stack. This usually includes:
- Creating and disabling user accounts automatically
- Enabling single sign-on (SSO)
- Managing account access and roles (for example, teacher, student, admin)
- Syncing user data from your SIS to downstream platforms like Google Workspace, Microsoft, or ClassLink
Common IDM systems:
- Google Workspace for Education
- ClassLink
- Clever
- Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD)
What Flow Does
Flow keeps instructional data in sync between your SIS and LMS. Specifically, it:
- Syncs people, classes, and enrollments from your SIS to your LMS
- Pushes assignments and grades from your LMS to your SIS
Flow matches users based on identifiers like email addresses. These emails must already exist in the LMS in order for syncing to work correctly.
How IDM Systems and Flow Work Together
| Task | Handled by IDM | Handled by Flow |
|---|---|---|
| Create user accounts in Google Workspace or Microsoft | ✅ | ❌ |
| Sync classes and rosters from SIS to LMS | ❌ | ✅ |
| Push grades from LMS to SIS | ❌ | ✅ |
| Manage user roles and permissions | ✅ | ❌ |
| Keep user info (like names and emails) up to date across systems | ✅ | ❌ |
Why This Matters
For Flow to sync correctly:
- Users must already exist in the LMS (created by your IDM system)
- Email addresses and other identifiers must match between systems
If a student or teacher does not have an LMS account, Flow will not be able to sync their data.
Example
If your school uses Veracross, Google Workspace, and Google Classroom:
- Your IDM system (like ClassLink or Google Workspace) creates and manages Google accounts based on data from Veracross
- Flow uses those accounts to sync class rosters and assignments between Veracross and Google Classroom