Do/Can Public folders synch with GAL???

[Ozman]

I am now being told by IT that Public Folders do not synch with the Exchange
Global Address List, but are another duplicated source of contacts. And so
they will not put Public folders in place. Is this true? Or is there a way
to synchronise them?

I want to use Public folders to share company contact lists and use the
enriched functionality of Outlook, but does seem limited if they won't sync
with the GAL. The GAL is used to feed other data systems and so has to link
up.

Any thoughts would be welcome- and thank you for responses to my previous
posts

 

[Brian Tillman]

I am now being told by IT that Public Folders do not synch with the
Exchange Global Address List, but are another duplicated source of
contacts. And so they will not put Public folders in place. Is this
true? Or is there a way to synchronise them?

Both the GAL and Public Folders are Exchange constructs and so you should be
asking your question in an Exchange newsgroup like
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.exchange.admin . Yes, the GAL
and Public Folders can be sources of Contacts, but they're not duplicates.
The GAL usually contains contacts for people with mailboxes on the Exchange
server, while Public Contacts Folders can contain contact entries for
anyone, including people with whom your company does business. I think your
IT staff should read more about the uses of the GAL and Public Folders.

I want to use Public folders to share company contact lists and use
the enriched functionality of Outlook, but does seem limited if they
won't sync with the GAL. The GAL is used to feed other data systems
and so has to link up.

If those company contact lists of which you speak refer to contacts for
people in other companies whom you wish to track and whose addresses you
want anyone in your company to be able to access, then a Public Contact
Folder is a great tool for the purpose.