Know who holds the keys: Review your organization administrators

[Kylie]

Just as you don’t offer your car keys to just anyone, you shouldn’t let just anyone have an administrator role (or administrative privileges) in your ArcGIS Online organization. And you should regularly review who has that access.

In this blog we’ll look at:

• Who should have an administrator role
• A recommendation: review your administrators regularly
• How to review and update your ArcGIS Online administrators
• A note about custom roles with administrative privileges

Who should have an administrator role

Who are the right people to control your ArcGIS Online organization? Ultimately it is up to you and your district who gets a copy of the keys. They should all have:

• Experience with managing software and accounts
• Ideally experience with ArcGIS Online

And you should always have at least 2 ArcGIS Online administrators. But the specific people with administrative roles might vary over time as makes sense with their roles in your school or district.

Recommendation: Review your administrators regularly

It is recommended that you review your ArcGIS Online organization administrators at the start and end of each school year or when an admin’s role in your school changes. People leave your school, and new people join your district. And even people who stay year over year might have changing responsibilities that change their relationship to your ArcGIS Online organization.

How to review and update your ArcGIS Online administrators

Take the following steps to review and update the current administrators in your ArcGIS Online organization:

1. While logged in to ArcGIS Online, click Organization in the navigation at the top of your ArcGIS Online organization.
2. In the blue tabs, click Members.
3. In the Filters to the left of the table, expand Role and select Administrator.
   The members shown in the table are those that currently have an Administrator role in your organization.
4. Review the list of administrators. Is there anyone you should remove? Is there anyone missing?
5. If there is someone you should remove, you can change their role, disable their access, or completely remove their account.
   • To change their role, click the Role dropdown to the right of their name and select a new role for them.
   • To disable their access, click the three dots to the right of their name and choose Disable member account.
   • To completely remove their account, click the three dots to the right of their name and choose Delete member.
6. If there is someone missing, add them as an administrator as follows:
   1. Clear the Role: Administrator filter by clicking the X by that filter above the table.  
      The full members list displays in the table.
   2. Find their account in the members list, click the Role drop-down to the right of their name and select the Administrator role (or a custom administrator role if your organization uses one).
   3. If the person doesn’t yet have an account, create one for them. While creating it, you can’t assign an administrator role, so use a different role. After the account is created, change their role to administrator. See details in “Set up another administrator for your subscription” in the ArcGIS for Schools Bundle Administration Guides > Guide A – Quick Start > Task 5.
7. Review and update your administrative contacts as follows:
   Administrative contacts are ArcGIS Online administrators who are used as the points of contact if a user needs a password reset or other administrative assistance, and are the people who get communications from Esri Customer Service. Learn more about administrative contacts.
   1. Still in the Organization section of your ArcGIS Online organization, click Settings in the blue tabs.
   2. In the General tab, scroll down to the Administrative contacts section.
   3. Review the listed administrators who are administrative contacts.
      This list can be a subset of your administrators, or it can be all of them.
   4. If any are missing that should be included, click Manage administrative contacts and check the box to the right of the missing administrator.
   5. If any should be removed, click the X to the right of their name.
      At least one administrative contact is required. You won't be able to delete the contact if only one is listed, so you'll need to add someone new and then delete in that case. 

A note about custom roles with administrative privileges

If your organization uses custom roles, consider if any of the custom roles you have defined include administrative privileges. If so, review the people with that role the same as you reviewed those assigned an administrator role.

Breathe easier

Knowing your ArcGIS Online organization is in good hands, you can now rest easy. Or perhaps you are now ready to tackle managing the accounts of other users. See other ArcGIS Online organization management blogs including:

• Disable, Review, Delete: A best practice for managing the accounts of departing users
• Showcase accounts: A best practice for sharing student work
• A tidy ArcGIS Online organization for the holidays – Identifying and deleting unnecessary items