We have 30 locations and we are manually keeping everyone's contact lists updated. There has to be a better way
I work admin for a bakery business, about 140 people across 30 locations. Part of my job is keeping contact info updated across all of them, and right now I do it manually. Head office needs to reach suppliers, bakery employees, bakeries need to reach head…
I work admin for a bakery business, about 140 people across 30 locations. Part of my job is keeping contact info updated across all of them, and right now I do it manually. Head office needs to reach suppliers, bakery employees, bakeries need to reach head office, stores and each other. My current system: a spreadsheet I update, then email around. Nobody reads the email. Store managers save numbers in their personal phones, so when someone leaves, half the company still has the old manager's number. We pay for Microsoft 365 (email, Teams, the works). My question is probably dumb: is there something already in M365 that keeps one master contact list everyone can see on their phones? People keep telling me 'the GAL' but staff say they can't find people in it half the time, and it's definitely not showing up as actual contacts on their phones. How do other multi-location businesses handle this? Happy to be told I'm doing it completely wrong.
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Use outlook mobile. Thats the key
You could do the sync portion via the MS Outlook app and either onboarding to turn on the contacts readonly or via Intune.
Do you have a standard for usernames and display names, phone number, etc.? That will help from a user awareness standpoint. HR should be in charge of keeping that information up to date. The "GAL" is the Global Address List for Outlook Desktop and web. Changes to that directory get updated once per day, so if you add a new user on Monday afternoon, their contact info won't be visible until Tuesday morning. Populate information in the M365 tenant with user names, phone numbers, department, phone number, etc. HR maintains the info, and either you or a consultant should set up automated processes using APIs to export info from HR -> M365 attributes. HR makes a change to a user record, it automatically flows to the M365 tenant and updates the user attributes. Depending on what applications you have, that could be relatively simple, or pretty complicated. Once that part is complete you can create Dynamic Distribution Lists, which set their membership based on a "formula" of user attributes. For example, you want a list for Site 1 Department A, the list would use a formula of "Site = 1" and "Department = A." If a user changes jobs or leaves, HR update their system, and it flows over to the tenant. You don't have to make any change to the list, it's all automatic. If you aren't able to set up automated processes, you could create distribution groups for locations, and set a specific user or users as the owner, so they can keep the list up to date. The lists could be set to be visible on the global address list, or not. The owner would be responsible for making changes to the lists as employees needed to be added removed. HR would be responsible for notifying the M365 admins to onboard new users, and provide the necessary information to set up a properly populate user record. In our M365 tenant, If a user requests list changes to a standard DL, I refer them to the list owner. If they ask for a list to be created, I do so, and make them the owner, and send them a link to instructions on how to edit the list membership. If anyone expects me to make the changes to their lists, the CIO has already put his foot down that the list owner is responsible for that task, not the M365 admins.
This is the way OP, cirasync is the solution for this, set and forget
Whilst the GAL is great for looking up company staff, it is no good for when a company staff member calls you on your mobile. Even if the number is known to the GAL, the native phone apps to not look it up. Using the Outlook mobile apps still don't solve this problem.
This is incredibly detailed. Thank you. I didnt know gal updates only once per day. This explains it.
Would love to know how to use the GAL on an iPhone so it populates to the native iPhone Contacts app.
Nothing will do this, but you can search the gal from outlook on mobile They can’t have their convenience without effort on your part It was possible to script exchange to do this, and certainly to script Outlook
Thank you this thread clarified a lot of doubts.
Use the fucking GAL. This is a people problem not a technology problem. If it’s that big a problem, find a training provider to create a quick how-to for your common platforms and refer people to that every single time.
Bad news for you in October EWS deprivation is straight up going to kill it for you all together.
I've used Cirasync for years. It's a little pricey but it works very well (and great tech support if you ever need it). Money well spent IMO.
Astroturf.
Not a dumb question. Microsoft 365 has a central company directory, but it does not automatically add everyone to the Contacts app on each phone. I would handle this in three parts: Keep employee names, roles, locations and business numbers updated in Microsoft 365 so staff can find them through Outlook and Teams. Give each bakery or key role a business-owned number, such as “Bakery 2 Manager”, instead of using a manager’s personal number. When the manager changes, the number stays with the bakery. Move supplier and location contacts from the spreadsheet into Microsoft Lists and add the list to Teams. Everyone then sees the same live information instead of receiving emailed copies. If all contacts must appear in the native iPhone or Android Contacts app, you will probably need a dedicated contact-sync product. Microsoft 365 does not do that automatically. Avoid copying the full company directory onto personal phones because you cannot reliably remove it when someone leaves.
So in the past, we used Dynamics CRM because we could sync contacts to different teams. So vendors, customers, different departments all got synced when they were added. I’ve seen other software do it as well. Basically operate off of a central contact repositories, assigning them to teams and users to those teams.
Do you have a personnel system (such as payroll) and an accounting system with supplier details in it? I would expect a business of your size does have these and that tehy are the master for all internal and external contact data. If not then some sort of master system needs to be established first and I'd say oure probably outgrowing the spreadsheet era. Once you have a master system its simply a case of syncing it to the people who want to use those contacts. Maybe they need the email addresses in their email system and maybe a dedicated app they can have on their phones, where they can lookup contatcs in a way that fits teh tasks they are performing. I help businesses with this sort of joined up system thinking a lot and would be happy to chat.
Use this https://evotec.xyz/blog/syncing-global-address-list-gal-to-personal-contacts-and-between-office-365-tenants-with-powershell/
Add2Exchange. One time purchase, one time pay for them to do all the set up, and only pay for support time.
GOA.