[adviper]

Hi all..
I'm new BESadmin user and using a Blackberry Professional Software. I would like to know on how to sync GAL to Blackberry devices on Wirelesss Sync. Let say, we have a user in GAL, they are resign or we had new user increase. We want the GAL to be same as GAL in Blackberry devices. We can add the GAL to blackberry by export it using .pst and restore the file with Desktop Manager.

How ever it is not practical where is like not auto sync and we need to do that everytime we had a changes on Active Directory. If any one outside there know about this maybe can share on the solutions. Thanks.

[penguin3107]

You don't sync the GAL. This is not a function of BES.
If a user needs to query the GAL from their handheld, they use the Lookup function of the Address Book.

[knottyrope]

I never liked the GAL for that.

This is what we do.

Not the best solution but it works very well offline for outlook, BB smart phones and windows um mobile things


This also teaches the user how to better manage their contacts via categories.

Also we have outlook do lookups in the personell list (copy to favorites and enable address book) and not use GAL.
HR can manage it easier from a public folder too as an added bonus.


How users update:
go to contacts
View arrange by category
Delete catagory personnel list

Goto public folders/personnel list
highlight first user
press ctrl a
Drag drop into contact folder

is this easy enough?



All of our users do it this way for the last 4 years. Also since we are on outlook 2003 we even use Outlook PCS to sync them with one click.

[TargetIT]

I never understood your methods Knotty.

The lookup feature works great IMHO. You can force the update of the offline address book fairly easily in Exchange, but by default it will update it once a day. Do you have that many changes that need be reflected ASAP?

[knottyrope]

The users here actually made the choice, I implemented it.

why do you ask?

Look up feature sucks compared to contacts on the device.
When device is not in range = SOL on lookups
Users half way around the world find GAL slow
Teach HR about AD, LOL and I dont want to do it either
GAL does knot have enough fields for us
Does not look like act like contacts.
People dont want a second area to get info from.
You can have any user export them to excell, pst, etc.
no emails to BESAdmin or other admin accounts when users select all users
easier to backup and restore when HR screws up.
users like to be updated ASAP and not wait a day asking why it cant be done faster

[besadmin23]

knotty... WOW!! nuthin else to say but WOW!!

[knottyrope]

Caller ID and Voice dial works well with this too since the hard part was done years ago.
Make it easier for hands free setup for anyone that syncs their phone with outlook.
I even have a PF with directions for it too

making my life easier, PRICELESS


Maybe I made it too easy since I have plenty of posting time,

[TargetIT]

I don't have any of those problems - I don't have people going overseas, but I have good coverage. For actual changes to info, HR keeps their own database, I simply run a script to reflect those changes to AD.

It's also the business too - most of the people with BBs are actually communicating with the same handful of people internally, or a bunch of different people externally (which they use contacts for).

I don't know what you mean about no emails to admins... you can block that in exchange.

As for Caller ID - well I just make the tel provider turn on the called name display

So yeah - I still don't get why that's less work - I run a script to update the HR database to the AD, force a rebuild of the OAB (and I don't even do that most of the time). Your way makes it sound like you spend all day helping people resyncing.

[knottyrope]

No script needed, Everyone including HR uses the the same folder.

Some bussinesses have different needs.

Why click more to make it get no email. Mine get no email by default since we dont use GAL.

Called name display does not work well if all employees have company name on their caller ID.

No script to run, no rebuilding, self updates fast.
I get a call once a month about how to sync personnel list. I just forward a draft that was sent to them when hired that contains info about public folders and the Outlook tips area.

[TargetIT]

HR is updating multiple databases then - there's a lot of info stored per employee that isn't in contacts, nor would you want it to be. So yeah, no script to run, but also multiple data entry points then.

[knottyrope]

HR is not a concern for that. They can copy/paste faster than anyone I know.

[juwaack68]

Yikes. I'd not want to teach my employees to do that. We have 7500+ employees.

They all use the Lookup feature just fine.

[knottyrope]

Learning to copy/paste should be taught to every new person.

[juwaack68]

While I agree that people should know how to cut/paste (using shortcuts!), I also advocate knowing how to use the full functionality of the device.

Lookup is a function that was built in expressly for the purpose of finding the most up to date information with the least amount of work/replication.

[knottyrope]

It is not the perfect solution for everyone, but it works well for us.