Today, I am writing about what I wish that the Global Address List (GAL) of today could do.  These are the functions, capabilities, and features that I would be working on adding if I was a project manager for a GAL project.

1. Smart Search.  I wish that I could search the GAL like I search using Spotlight on a Mac.  You should be able to create “smart” or self-updating groupings of everyone who works in the Accounting Division without having to have someone with administrative privileges create a Distribution List.  You should also be able to find people based upon multiple criteria simultaneously.  For example, why can’t I search for all the Bob’s in Accounting who have phone numbers with 202 area codes?
2. Drill Down Search.  Along with #1, above, I wish that after you found all the “Bob’s in Accounting with 202 Area Codes, that you could than find all the ones on the 5th floor or with cell phones rather than having to start all over.  Think Google or Amazon.com search like features for the GAL.
3. Proximity Search, Obviously your computer knows where it is, especially if it is a desktop workstation.  Obviously, your co-workers have addresses in their GAL listings.  Why can’t the GAL be sorted by people closest to you?
4. Geographic Searches.  Similar to the third item, why, of why, can’t I search by geography in the GALs of today?  Why is it so hard to find Linda from Dallas in the GAL?  Why can’t I look up all the Jims on the fourth floor? 
5. Face Recognition and Indexing.  This technology is out there.  See Apple’s iPhoto or Google’s Picasa.  Why can’t the GAL include photos that are indexed by characteristics.  I want to be able to find all the people in Marketing with mustaches and phone numbers in the 212 area code for example.  Glasses, hair color, facial hair, and male/female are all non-discriminatory, non-personal attributes that could greatly limit the search results when you are just trying to get in touch with someone from a meeting you attended earlier in the week.

Thank you for entertaining my rant.  Based upon the feedback to this series I understand that many of you work for smaller organizations and therefore don’t appreciate the challenges associated with a GAL containing over 100,000 people.  If you imagine a GAL at that scope, your might understand my frustration with today’s GAL state of the art.

Since I did not get any specific feedback on this series asking for additional topics, this will be the final entry in the series.  I hope that you found it beneficial.

The Global Address Book, Global Address List, or master directory service are critical productivity, security, and resource management services in any Enterprise Information Technology System.  All Information Technology Professionals should be masters of them.

That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for November 6, 2009  by Scott Coughlin.

Image Credit: Powerful Intentions

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On Monday, we introduced the concept of the Global Address List (GAL) and explained its purposes. Yesterday, we delved into Microsoft Exchange Server, the Enterprise 10,000 pound Gorilla, and LDAP, the service that it and other open-source alternatives provide. We also went into depth on why directory services were essential to a productive Enterprise.

Today we are going to discuss the challenges and problems with the current implementations of GALs in practice. We will follow that up on Friday with suggestions for new features and functions to enhance the effectiveness of your Enterprise Directory Service.

Here are things that drive me nuts about the Global Address List as it currently exists in most organizations:

• If you cannot spell the name, it is nearly impossible to find the person.
• It is a bandwidth hog. It frequently makes Outlook hang while doing simple searches.
• It is a dumb database at the mercy of its administrator. Spelling mistakes, empty data fields, and juxtapositions are common and undetected.
• It lacks the ability to search via drill down. What I mean is that you cannot find people like your mind works. It would be nice if you could search for all the people in Accounting, then limit by those named Bob, then limit further by those who work in the Wisconsin Office for example.
• It is hierarchical and not relational. It is easy to find the Secretary in the Sales Department, but not a list of all of the Secretaries in Dover.
• It does not use the optional photos of the people in any constructive way. Why can’t face recognition be included? What can’t I find women, with glasses, in the Michigan Office, in the marketing department for example?
• It cannot self-synchronize with "entrusted" data sources. So if you import another organization’s GAL into yours for reference, then they update their listings, you have to re-import to get that data. This almost always results in duplicates.
• For some unknown reason, when you add a GAL contact to your personal address book, and then the GAL gets updated, your contact does not.
• It does not enforce standards or rules on data entry. How often have you seen one group that includes the country code in their phone numbers next to one that does not. Or that uses middle initials and one that skips them.
• It handles distribution lists in a hierarchical manner that makes it very hard to create new collectives from parts of other distro lists.
• Harvesting Data is nearly impossible. For fun try cutting and pasting phone numbers from your GAL sometime. Also, why cannot you export all the entries that match a smart search… like all IT Techs in your Boston Office…. into a spreadsheet?

That is one page’s worth of my hair-pulling annoyances with most of today’s GAL services. I could probably go on for another ten. Mostly, I just wanted to point out that for what should be one of the oldest facets of an Enterprise computing environment, the GAL is incredible immature and ripe for improvement and innovation. Tomorrow, I will discuss some recommendations to close the gaps between the today and the ideal!

I am sure that you have many more headaches with your GAL. Why don’t you share them by commenting below. We would all benefit greatly from some good interaction and discussion of this topic.

That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for November 4, 2009  by Scott Coughlin.

Image Credit: gaudiumdelingua.wordpress.com

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Today, we tackle the tough question of why The Global Address List (GAL) is important to both Enterprise users and individual users. Before we do that though, I wanted to clear up the fact that I am writing about master directory services including, but not exclusive, to Microsoft’s Exchange Server.  Some feedback recommended that I include the more generic name of Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) for the post.  Here is what Wikipedia says LDAP is:

The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, or LDAP  is an application protocol for querying and modifying directory services running over TCP/IP.

A directory is a set of objects with attributes organized in a logical and hierarchical manner. A simple example is the telephone directory, which consists of a list of names (of either persons or organizations) organized alphabetically, with each name having an address and phone number associated with it.

 

An LDAP directory tree often reflects various political, geographic, and/or organizational boundaries, depending on the model chosen. LDAP deployments today tend to use Domain name system (DNS) names for structuring the topmost levels of the hierarchy. Deeper inside the directory might appear entries representing people, organizational units, printers, documents, groups of people or anything else that represents a given tree entry (or multiple entries).

To be fair, all organizations require some form of directory services.  In practice, I find that most large Enterprises are using Microsoft Exchange for their directory services, including LDAP, while any that have a need for LINUX or Apple OS support are using LDAP straight. 

More great reading LDAP can be found here.

So, we start with a review of all the functions that the GAL, or directory server can perform in an organization.

• Phone Book.  The most obvious function is to allow people to find other people by name.  The result is usually a complete profile including all the ways to contact them, their location, and department.  For most Enterprise users, they never even see e-mail addresses as the GAL serves as a look up tool to replace their names with addresses behind the scenes.
• Collaboration Center.  Your GAL is usually closely tied to the services that your network provides.  From a person’s entry, you should be able to contact them via e-mail, instant messaging, VoIP, chat, etc.
• Resource Management.  The GAL should include not only people, but resources in your organization such as conference rooms, support teams, printers, etc.  They should be contactable, assignable, and useable via the same interface.  Integrating these listings with your calendar server is normally how the time based management is accomplished.
• Gate Keeping. Though smart GAL management, departments and people can establish intermediaries and gate keepers for their time and resources by altering the contact methods to direct to other personnel.
• Organization Management.  Especially in today’s push towards ever flatter organizations, the directory server can function as the keeper of your organization chart.  By adding labels to people’s entries you can both explain their assignment, role, and function and permit the GAL to display by geography, division, function,etc.
• Partner Management. The GAL can be augmented with address listings from partners and allies who are not resident on your network.  This strategic tool for alignment has a huge effect on productivity for Enterprises.  Basically, if you are looking for someone and they show in your corporate GAL, they are “one of the good guys”.
• Authentication.  The GAL serves as the official registry of authorities, privileges, and  identity services for most Enterprises.  This means that he who controls the GAL controls access to others, services, and information.
• Encryption Key Control.  Finally, a GAL can manage encryption keys and functions as easily as people or printers.  This means that your corporate IT group can implement data in transit security features invisibly to users.  It also means that authority choices can be backed up by stronger means.

As you can see, the Global Address List is a very powerful feature of most Enterprise computer networks.  It is critical to making the whole thing run smoothly, execute security policies, and enforcing standards.  For individuals, it is a productivity tool and resource manager that must be understood, taken advantage of, and monitored.  Please come back tomorrow when we will begin to discuss the problems with current generations of Global Address List instantiations and set-up for recommendations for future features.

That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for November 3, 2009  by Scott Coughlin.

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This is what “The GAL” looks like to all of you Microsoft Exchange Clients out there:

My plan for the week follows:

• Monday (today) – What is a GAL via an Information Technology (IT) Vocabulary Builder.
• Tuesday – Why is this important to both Enterprise users and individual users.
• Wednesday – Why the concept applies to more than just Microsoft Exchange users.
• Thursday – What I wish was possible using today’s GAL services and what might be possible shortly.  Basically a  GAL wish list.
• Friday – I will reserve for topics yet to be named based upon the community’s feedback and comments!

As a reminder to new readers, The Information Technology (IT) Vocabulary Builder series aims to deliver a very concise summary of a currently relevant topic to Information Professionals.  It is done mostly by collecting a small number of highly relevant web links to save you the time of combing through search results yourself.  It differs from sites such as Wikipedia because it includes opinions, forecasts, and detractions in addition to just facts.

So today, we focus on Global Address Lists (GAL),  This is how Wikipedia defines the Global Address List:

The Global Address List (GAL) also known as Microsoft Exchange Global Address Book is a directory service within the Microsoft Exchange email system. The GAL contains information for all email users, distribution groups, and Exchange resources. Digital IDs certificates generated by Microsoft Exchange Server Advanced Security IIS or by Microsoft Exchange Key Management Server (KMS) are automatically published in the Global Address Book. Users of Microsoft Outlook can publish to GAL their externally generated PKI certificates that are used for secure e-mail.

Essentially, it provides a directory service for an entire Enterprise.  If you use Microsoft Exchange at work, then the GAL is where you go to find the way to contact, collaborate, and interface with other users.  You find their email addresses, Instant Messaging names, phone numbers, office addresses, mobile phone information, points of contact, etc.  At least that is the idea, in practice, it can be a very frustrating tool for most users to employ successfully.  When you now someone’s name, exactly how to spell it, and which department they work in, it will work like a champ.  Unfortunately, it is next to useless, when you are trying to get in touch with “That guy from accounting with the black hair and glasses who does billing reviews for our West Texas division.”  Making it go from what a bunch of programmers at Microsoft think is best to actually effective is what I would like to focus on this week.

Here are some of the best links on the subject that I found in my search of the web:

• Stanford University – Tips for Using the Global Address List (GAL)
• Microsoft – How to Update a Global Address List
• Microsoft – Managing Global Address Lists
• Google – Google Apps in place of Microsoft Outlook Global Address List
• Wikipedia – Global Address List

Obviously, if you are an Enterprise level Information Technology Professional, then Microsoft Exchange Server and its Global Address List directory functionality are key tools in your productivity set.  I hope that this week’s discussions offer your value.  Please come back tomorrow for more and feel free to comment, make recommendations, and provide feedback via my contact button above or comments below.

That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for November 2, 2009  by Scott Coughlin.

Image Credit: Microsoft Outlook via Stanford.edu

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