RE: DL Creation Requirements/policy
We don't try to control the DLs that users put in Outlook. That's for them to manage as they best see fit. But for Distribution Groups, we set a standard where there should be a minimum membership of the distribution group and a minimum number of users that will use it once created. If one user wants to email 10 users, we're not going to create a DG for that. The rest of the users in the GAL don't need that clutter. But if 10 users will email 10, it makes sense to make the group. As far as names go, I think it's wise to have a convention that is meaningful to the user base. A new user trying to reach the Customer Service Supervisors isn't going to know to find them under Bob's staff. If Bob doesn't like the convention, he can always make a DL in Outlook that is called what he likes and include the Distribution Group from the GAL. Like any shop, it depends on the buy-in. We've been able to make the point and demonstrate the need for a convention. Where we have seen resistance is where the pretty name is CC'd in a public email and the convention just isn't as pretty as Customer Service. From: Barsodi.John [mailto:john.bars...@igt.com] Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010 12:05 PM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: DL Creation Requirements/policy Curious what other groups out there have as guidelines and boundaries for DL creation and controlling DL sprawl? Do you have standards for naming conventions? For Example - if a manager wants a DL for his staff of 10, and wants it named John's Staff do you accommodate or recommend they use a local contact DL? Mind you we have thousands of Employees worldwide, so John's Staff existing in the GAL seems a bit odd to me. Thanks, JB
RE: DL Creation Requirements/policy
Note that this changes dramatically in Exchange 2010 with the capability for user's to create and manage their own scoped distribution lists; as well as configure who has visibility to them. From: Barsodi.John [mailto:john.bars...@igt.com] Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010 12:05 PM To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues Subject: DL Creation Requirements/policy Curious what other groups out there have as guidelines and boundaries for DL creation and controlling DL sprawl? Do you have standards for naming conventions? For Example - if a manager wants a DL for his staff of 10, and wants it named John's Staff do you accommodate or recommend they use a local contact DL? Mind you we have thousands of Employees worldwide, so John's Staff existing in the GAL seems a bit odd to me. Thanks, JB
Re: DL Creation Requirements/policy
If it's a legitimate business unit or cross unit team that needs to communicate then they can have a list. We chat with them first. We tend to use a specified format. The use of # as the first character indicates distribution list. Most are set to not accept email from outside the internal exchange system. No personal names in distribution list titles. We also have three types, location, business unit and systems management based. Not actual names but examples would be; Location: #CA - Building A Used primarily for location specific announcements Business '#Claims - All', '#Claims - Management' '#Sales - East Coast' Notification '#SM - groupname' (used for notification and automation products, can contain contacts/pagers, not generally used fo regular email communications) We tend to minimize the location based one where possible for a business unit based one. We also 'help' guide the requester to a name in line but it's to help with consistency more then anything else. Lists are not created for personal use, they are groupings that will be used by the company. While not always possible we try and nest lists. '#Sales - All' has '#Sales - East Coast' and '#Sales - West Coast' in it. We do not manage the majority of the lists memberships. We are not that group. We do not generally know who should or should not be on it, so our support center will help you request membership from an owner. It's there for a business reason. So every list has an owner. Generally it's the requesting person. It also has in the General tab Notes field a backup owner name. We used to send an email to list owners once a year requesting assurance that it was still in use and needed and pruned accordingly. I am not so sure that is done anymore as I am not involved in day to day operations right now. We have about 1000 distribution lists. The email system predates me so we do have some sprawl which we try and contain, mitigate or 'make go away' when opportunity presents itself. We have several thousand people in multiple locations across the US. We have absorbed various separate companies and have had to accommodate various local business cultures into the overall enterprise structure. It's not always as pretty and logical as we would like but so far it seems to work for our business customers. Steven On Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 9:04 AM, Barsodi.John john.bars...@igt.com wrote: Curious what other groups out there have as guidelines and boundaries for DL creation and controlling DL sprawl? Do you have standards for naming conventions? For Example – if a manager wants a DL for his staff of 10, and wants it named “John’s Staff” do you accommodate or recommend they use a local contact DL? Mind you we have thousands of Employees worldwide, so “John’s Staff” existing in the GAL seems a bit odd to me. Thanks, JB
Re: DL Creation Requirements/policy
I've put up a standard for naming. The DG must begin with a 'z', the (lower case) country code, then a hyphen, then the DG name with no spaces, then a hyphen, then DL at the end. Thus Zus-InformationTechnology-DL or Zau-Sales-DL. This differentiates them from security groups and allows them to sort nicely in the GAL. There are probably better ways to do it, but that's what I came up with. Kurt On Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 09:04, Barsodi.John john.bars...@igt.com wrote: Curious what other groups out there have as guidelines and boundaries for DL creation and controlling DL sprawl? Do you have standards for naming conventions? For Example – if a manager wants a DL for his staff of 10, and wants it named “John’s Staff” do you accommodate or recommend they use a local contact DL? Mind you we have thousands of Employees worldwide, so “John’s Staff” existing in the GAL seems a bit odd to me. Thanks, JB
Re: DL Creation Requirements/policy
(Trying again because Lryis rejected me) If it's a legitimate business unit or cross unit team that needs to communicate then they can have a list. We chat with them first. We tend to use a specified format. The use of # as the first character indicates distribution list. Most are set to not accept email from outside the internal exchange system. No personal names in distribution list titles. We also have three types, location, business unit and systems management based. Not actual names but examples would be; Location: #CA - Building A Used primarily for location specific announcements Business '#Claims - All', '#Claims - Management' '#Sales - East Coast' Notification '#SM - groupname' (used for notification and automation products, can contain contacts/pagers, not generally used fo regular email communications) We tend to minimize the location based one where possible for a business unit based one. We also 'help' guide the requester to a name in line but it's to help with consistency more then anything else. Lists are not created for personal use, they are groupings that will be used by the company. While not always possible we try and nest lists. '#Sales - All' has '#Sales - East Coast' and '#Sales - West Coast' in it. We do not manage the majority of the lists memberships. We are not that group. We do not generally know who should or should not be on it, so our support center will help you request membership from an owner. It's there for a business reason. So every list has an owner. Generally it's the requesting person. It also has in the General tab Notes field a backup owner name. We used to send an email to list owners once a year requesting assurance that it was still in use and needed and pruned accordingly. I am not so sure that is done anymore as I am not involved in day to day operations right now. We have about 1000 distribution lists. The email system predates me so we do have some sprawl which we try and contain, mitigate or 'make go away' when opportunity presents itself. We have several thousand people in multiple locations across the US. We have absorbed various separate companies and have had to accommodate various local business cultures into the overall enterprise structure. It's not always as pretty and logical as we would like but so far it seems to work for our business customers. Steven On Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 9:04 AM, Barsodi.John john.bars...@igt.com wrote: Curious what other groups out there have as guidelines and boundaries for DL creation and controlling DL sprawl? Do you have standards for naming conventions? For Example – if a manager wants a DL for his staff of 10, and wants it named “John’s Staff” do you accommodate or recommend they use a local contact DL? Mind you we have thousands of Employees worldwide, so “John’s Staff” existing in the GAL seems a bit odd to me. Thanks, JB
