Use Your Lookups! (BlackBerry Tip # 85)

If you’re like me and countless others out there, you’ve been given a Blackberry SmartPhone and have BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) connected to your Exchange Server.

With newer versions of BES, you can look up addresses in your Exchange Global Address list (GAL) - when you start typing in a name, click on the Lookup: option instead of selecting a name from your address book in the pulldown.

You’ll be given a list of names from your GAL  to choose from. Select “View Contact” to view information in the GAL on that person.

Before realizing this tip, I added anyone I *thought* I’d need to email into my Outlook Contacts. As a result, my Outlook Contacts grew by 50% and the one person I really needed to email was invariably not there.

There are a few wrinkles. Many companies don’t put mobile phone numbers in GALs for a couple of reasons:

• Many people use personal cell phones, and many information organizations responsible for keeping lists up to date don’t have adequate control or visibility.

• There are many companies where technology support individuals will ABSOLUTELY NOT publish their mobile number — too many experiences with users who bend the rules when it comes to resolving “their” problem. If it means calling the wrong person at 3am and apologizing later, so be it - if it speeds up resolving their problem…

So, it’s a step in the right direction towards consolidating directory services into one central respository for identification management, but with a sociological wrinkle.

Possibly Related Posts: