User and Organisation Management | Scheer IMC

This page explains how the imc Learning Suite organises people and access. A structure layer of clients, system groups, Business Units (BUs) and target groups divides the system into partial systems, roles, reporting lines and dynamic user groupings; sitting inside it, an identity layer of users, user attributes and user profiles represents each person, the data held about them, and who may see or change that data. The sections below cover all seven concepts, how they combine, and typical scenarios for using them together.

At a Glance

Concept	Purpose	How Users Are Assigned	Structure	Typical Use
Client	Divides one physical system logically into several partial systems, each with its own settings, rules, interfaces and design	CSV user list in the client manager, in the user manager, automatically depending on the system configuration, or in the configuration manager	Separate partial systems; a user can belong to several clients but must have one master client	Brands, subsidiaries or country branches; internal staff and external users
System group	Manages user roles; the group function defines a role such as tutor, mentor or HR	Directly via user assignment, via a CSV user list or during user import via a rule set; by default, every user is assigned to the learner group	Hierarchical	Roles, navigation access, selection pools for tutors, correctors and administrators
Business Unit (BU)	Replicates the organisational structure and creates reporting lines between supervisors and users	Directly via user assignment	Hierarchical	Supervisor access to staff, supervisor reports, clearances on objects, automatic enrolment
Target group	Groups users dynamically based on attributes and learning data	Only indirectly via rules and exceptions; no direct manual assignment	Flat; a target group may contain exactly one other target group	Automatic enrolment, recertification
User	Represents a person who can access the platform with login credentials	Created manually in the User Manager, by CSV import, or automatically via SCIM API integration; assigned to at least one client and group afterwards	Account-level; a single account holds the login credentials, client and group memberships	Login and authentication, group and client membership, the account that attributes and profiles belong to
User Attribute	Specifies one piece of information about a user as a field-value tuple	Defined as a personal identifier in the Person Attributes Manager, then filled in on the user's profile manually, by import, or via SCIM	Field-value pair, held on the user's account	Search criteria, profile display, target-group rules, reporting
User Profile	Defines which user attributes are visible or editable to which role, and which action that role can perform on them	Built from categories and personal identifiers in Profiles, then applied at a specific point in the system	Per-role visibility and edit rule, applied at one point in the system	Self-registration forms, "My profile", administrator/supervisor editing views, exports

Clients

Clients serve as master domains or tenants that divide a single physical system into several partial systems. Several clients use the same database and server in the background but appear to their users as separate, independent systems. Each client can have its own design, web address, login procedure, sender addresses, security and data protection settings, wording and user attributes. Learners only see "their" system; administrators can apply changes globally or to one specific client.

More information: Client Administration and Multi-client Context.

System Groups

System groups are used to manage user roles. The group function defines a role, for example tutor, mentor or HR, and every user in the group inherits this role. Users of a group with the function "Tutor group" can, for example, be selected as tutors on courses. In combination with BUs, system groups represent and manage the organisational structure.

More information: System Groups and Organisational Structure and Groups Administration.

Business Units (BU)

Hierarchical BUs replicate the organisational structure. They create reporting lines through one-to-many relationships between the BU supervisors and the users in the BU, giving supervisors visibility into their staff, supervisor reports, and the ability to enrol staff in training and approve training requests.

More information: Business Units (BU).

Target Groups

Target groups collect users automatically based on rules; no direct manual assignment is possible.

Only target groups with the status "final version" can be used for automatic registration in the participant manager of courses and course templates.

More information: Target Group.

User

A user is a person who can access the imc Learning Suite with login credentials.

Whether a user can log in depends on the account's authentication status, and, for local authentication, on repeated failed login attempts. See User Status - Active, Passive and Deleted for the full status model, automatic passivation, and deletion behaviour.

Relation to Clients and Groups

A user's clients and groups determine which partial system, roles and reporting lines apply. See Clients, System Groups, Business Units (BU) and Target Groups above for how these units work and how users are assigned to them.

More information: User Manager.

User Attribute

A user attribute specifies one piece of information about a user as a field-value tuple, for example a name, an address, or a date of enrolment. Attributes are configured as personal identifiers in the Person Attributes Manager.

More information: Personal Attributes.

User Profile

A user profile defines which user attributes are visible or editable to which role - administrator, supervisor or learner - and which action, view or edit, that role can perform on each attribute.

More information: Profiles.

How They Work Together

Clients separate partial systems. Within a client, system groups define what users may do, BUs reflect who reports to whom, and target groups select users by criteria. A user can belong to several groups at the same time.

Groups and Clients

In multi-client systems, it is recommended that all users of a group come from the same client. Because the visibility of navigation items depends on group membership, this allows a separate navigation for each client.

Clearances in Group Hierarchies

System groups and BUs can be structured hierarchically, for example a tutor group divided into main tutors and correctors. Whether clearances defined for one group also apply to other groups in its hierarchy is controlled by the setting "Use explicit group membership" in the configuration manager. With "True", rights apply only to the members of the explicitly designated groups. See Configuration Manager - Clearances.

Automatic Enrolment

All three group types can be used for automatic course registration. The groups are specified in the participant manager of a course or course template. Users in these groups are then automatically booked as participants of the course or pre-booked for the course template. Automatic enrolment based on inactive BUs is no longer executed.

Example

A company runs two brands as two clients, each with its own web address and design. Each client has its own system groups, so each brand uses its own navigation. The BU structure reflects the departments, and department heads are set as supervisors. A target group contains a rule with the conditions "belongs to a selected BU" and a specific value of a personal identifier. After it is set to final version, the target group is specified in the participant manager of a compliance course template, and all matching users are pre-booked automatically.

User attributes feed this structure as well: a target group's rules can include a specific value of a personal identifier as a condition, so the attribute values held on a user's account help determine which target groups enrol that user automatically.

Typical Scenarios

Goal	Use
Run a brand or subsidiary with its own design, login and web address	Client
Make users selectable as tutors, correctors, moderators or course administrators	System group with the matching group function
Let supervisors see and enrol their staff	BU with supervisors
Grant a department clearance on a catalogue	BU as recipient of the clearance
Enrol all users who meet certain criteria, with membership that updates itself	Target group with the status "final version" in the participant manager
Give a training team automatic access to objects its members create	Group with the type of role "Content administration"
Show a different navigation per client	System groups whose members all come from the same client
Give a new person access to the platform	Create the user in the User Manager, by import, or via SCIM, then assign at least one client and group
Add a searchable custom field for users	New personal identifier of the matching type in the Person Attributes Manager
Let a target group react to a custom value	Personal identifier used as a rule condition on the target group's "Rules" tab
Show a photo on a user's profile	Personal identifier of type Image, added to the relevant profile category
Hide sensitive data from supervisors	Personal identifier left out of the profile assigned to the supervisor role, or set to displayed but not editable
Consolidate two duplicate accounts	"Merge" in the User Manager
Keep a GDPR-compliant history after deletion	Anonymisation in "Type of user deletion", with an anonymised value set per personal identifier
Let people manage their own data at sign-up	"Self-registration page" profile, optionally with "Display categories tiles on sign-up page"

Hints & Tips

After creating a BU structure, give the supervisors clearances on their groups so they can see their own groups in system filters.
Once a target group is final, existing conditions can no longer be edited directly. Delete and rebuild them instead. Exceptions remain fully editable.
Generating a large target group can take some time. A confirmation e-mail is sent when the generation is complete.
Before deleting a group, BU or target group, check dependent supervisor assignments and reports. They may no longer work as expected after deletion.