How does one edit Exchange 2003's Global Address List (GAL) entriesin Outlook 2003?

[Mike]

Hi,

I am trying to figure out best practices for allowing an office
administrator to maintain the internal staff/user list. As the IT
administrator, I add new employees as users using Active Directory.
But I only fill in the basic details (e.g. name and email address). I
then want to turn the responsibility of maintaining all their user
data to the office administrator - who has NO knowledge of Exchange,
Active Directory etc. She knows, and is comfortable, with Outlook
2003.

1) So how do most companies that use Exchange/Outlook typically create
a contact list of INTERNAL staff? My approach was to create a public
folder named "Staff", then enable it to show as an "e-mail address
book". But how do most companies populate the newly created public
folder with all their Exchange users/mailboxes (i.e. their staff/
employees)? In Outlook, it seems the way to do this is to open Tools-

Address Book, then choose the GAL from the "show names from"

dropdown. Then select all (or just the desired GAL contacts), right-
click and choose Add to Contacts?
BUT this results in the selected GAL members being saved in the
default Outlook CONTACTS folder. I want to put them into a public
folder named "Staff". I guess I could then MOVE them from my main
Contacts folder to the Staff public folder. But if I already have
thousands of contacts in my Contacts folder - how do I quickly select/
move just the ones that came from the GAL? Never easy is it?

2) Instead of copying from the GAL, I assume it would be better to
link each GAL member into a corresponding Outlook contact, right?
That way there is only one source of the information - the GAL. If a
staff member changes their phone extension, I only want it to have to
be updated in one place - the GAL. Any changes made at the GAL level
would propagate down to any linked references (e.g an Outlook contact
in my public Staff folder). How do I LINK GAL members into Outlook
contacts?

3) How does a non-technical, non IT person maintain the GAL members'
information? e.g. as the IT administrator, I do create/delete new
users in Active Directory every time an employee is hired/fired. But
I only enter the most basic fields, such as name & email address. How
does the office administrator, using Outlook 2003, update the user's
GAL details (e.g. adding phone number, title, department etc.)?

I'm always amazed at how unintuitive it can be to set up what should
be simple But I guess it's just job security, right...

Many TIA,

-Mike

 

[Brian Tillman]

1) So how do most companies that use Exchange/Outlook typically create
a contact list of INTERNAL staff?

Where I work, the GAL contains the employees and we don't use contacts
folders for internal people. Certain people are AD administrators and have
the right to add people to Active Directory.

 

[Mike]

Where I work, the GAL contains the employees and we don't use contacts
folders for internal people. Certain people are AD administrators and have
the right to add people to Active Directory.

Interesting. So suppose someone wants to email to a department that
has 100 staff. How do you quickly send to the group thru Outlook?

 

[Brian Tillman]

Interesting. So suppose someone wants to email to a department that
has 100 staff. How do you quickly send to the group thru Outlook?

The GAL also contains internal distribution lists. However, being able to
use them is VERY tightly controlled. Management simply doesn't want mass
mail and one must get management approval in order to send messages to those
lists. Even with permission, ony specific users have permission to do so,
so if you have a message that must be sent to one of the lists, you must
give it to one of the people who have permission to access the DL.

 

[Mike]

The GAL also contains internal distribution lists. However, being able to
use them is VERY tightly controlled. Management simply doesn't want mass
mail and one must get management approval in order to send messages to those
lists. Even with permission, ony specific users have permission to do so,
so if you have a message that must be sent to one of the lists, you must
give it to one of the people who have permission to access the DL.

IMO it doesn't sound very user friendly the way you describe, but I
guess that will vary from company to company...

Is there ANY way to populate a Public (contacts) folder with LINKED
entries from the GAL? That was everyone would have quick access to a
staff list right fropm their Outlook folder pane. Being linked is
important, as who wants to update changes in the GAL and the Public
folder, right?

I guess I did not choose a good match for posting this topic, as only
one person has replied. Or it's such an impossible task? I hope
not

 

[Lauri]

I'm not sure our method will help you, but here's what we do. . .
I create Distribution Lists in AD, then I allow one user to "manage" the
list.
The person set as the manager opens the list in outlook and adds/removes
people as needed.
Everyone has access to the list, but someone other than IT manages the list.

-Lauri

 

[Mike]

Thanks Lauri! When you say someone other than IT can manage the lists
(from Outlook), does that mean that GAL properties for any user can be
modified? e.g. As the IT person I add a new user to the GAL using
ADUC. But I only enter the essential fields. I want "someone other
than IT" to finish entering all the GAL fields (such as phone number,
dept etc) using Outlook. In your scenario, can your non-IT person do
this? Or can only add/delete members of these GAL distribution lists?

Thanks!

 

[Lauri]

They can only manage the membership (add/remove).
The other thing we do here is allow limited access to OUs to certain people.
All the staff & students are in OUs based on the school building they are
in. The librarian has access to certain fields of all the users in that OU.
I also create a console that limits their view of AD to JUST that OU.

We use windows XP on the desktops.

Would that help you?

-Lauri

 

[Mike]

I was afraid you were going to say they can only add/remove members

I guess I'm still just blown away that IT administrators would not
want to hand off the tedious job of keeping GAL information up to
date. As an IT admin, I have way too many other things to do than
entering extension numbers, dept info etc. It really seems more
clerical that admin IMO...

And how/why did Microsoft ban Outlook from being able to at least
*update* GAL membership details. I understand we might not want an
office manager adding new user accounts, but they are surely more than
capable of editing existing GAL member's personal info. Seems like
such an obvious and logical fit - using Outlook to edit non-critical
GAL details.

 

[Lauri]

What about having them update a file that you can use to ldifde to modify in
bulk?
-Lauri

 

[Mike]

Hmm, I didn't even know what LDIFDE was But just Googled it and
found out. While that is certainly an option, I am still trying to
find out: a) did Microsoft really not provide any hooks into the GAL
so that a user (with appropriate permissions) could edit the GAL? b)
if so, why? Job security for IT folks? c) how does the
"average" small/medium company using Exchange create and maintain
their internal staff list?

Thanks for all your ideas Lauri!