Writer's Note: This blog post is about centrally and automatically adding Lync contacts in Microsoft Lync for all users within an organization. The audience targeted are mainly Lync Administrators who are looking for a way to manage their employees' Lync contact lists. It is not meant to give you instructions on how to manually add Lync contacts to your Lync contact list. For more information on how to add Lync contacts manually, please visit this link.
Automatically Adding Lync Contacts in Microsoft Lync
There is no such way to add a Lync contact list template to all users in the Microsoft Lync Server. Lync Administrators are always challenged by the fact that their Lync users do not have consistent and updated Lync contact lists. Business Productivity teams within an organization believe that having a central Lync contact list template(s) that is populated to all Microsoft Lync users is key for thier day-to-day interaction with the Microsoft Lync client. We could not agree more. The Lync contact list is so important for Lync users' adoption, and so is the users' time. In order to increase Lync users' adoption and save your employees' time by not letting them build their own buddy lists, you need to do this for them as an Admin. Yet, at Vytru we have a great solution for this. |
Contacts Manager for Microsoft Lync Server/Lync Online (Office365)
Contacts Manager for Microsoft Lync is a central and automatic Microsoft Lync contact list management software. It enables Lync Administrators to populate pre-set Lync contact list templates to all their users automatically. With Contacts Manager for Lync, Lync users will not have to build their own buddy lists any more. This will save them more time to be productive and focused on making the right communication with their colleagues.
For Lync Administrators, Contacts Manager for Lync provides a very easy-to-use and intuitive User Interface. The software is straight-forward and does exactly what you need it to do. With four easy steps, you will be able to build, assign, populate, and update Lync users' contact lists. No more needs for doing this manually for them or using Scripts that does not work well all the time and has less features than Contacts Manager.
For Lync Administrators, Contacts Manager for Lync provides a very easy-to-use and intuitive User Interface. The software is straight-forward and does exactly what you need it to do. With four easy steps, you will be able to build, assign, populate, and update Lync users' contact lists. No more needs for doing this manually for them or using Scripts that does not work well all the time and has less features than Contacts Manager.
Firstly, after launching Contacts Manager for Lync, right-click on "All Contact Lists" on the left side Console Root and click "Create". This will create a new contact list template that you can edit. I will name it as "Corporate Contact List".
So how to add Contacts in Microsoft Lync with Contacts Manager?
Once the contact list template is created, right click on it and select "Create New Group". You can create Contacts Groups based on your organizational structure, departments, project teams, or locations.
Here is how your Contact List with Contact Groups will look like, those group are now empty so the next step is to add relevant users to them.
Contacts Manager for Lync syncs with Active Directory domain to load your Lync users. Click your domain from the list of Active Directory Domains and right-click on any users to add them to the contact list and contact group. You multiple select and filter users. Continue building your Lync contact list template till it is done.
Now that your contact list template is almost done, you need to assign it to your Lync users. Assigned Users are the group of users to whom the Lync contact list will be populated. Each contact list in Contacts Manager, has Contact List and Assigned Users. Open your domain from Active Directory Domains to load your users. Right-click on the user you want to populate the contact list to, and hit "Assign User to Contact List", and select the contact list you want to assign the contact list to.
Last step is to populate/push the contact list to the assigned users. Right-click on "Assigned Users" on the contact list you want to push and select "Populate Contact List". Your Lync contact list tempalte will automatically be populated to all the users added to "Assigned Users". It is as simple as that.
Contacts Manager for Lync is a simple and cost-effective Lync Administration Tool that will increase users' productivity and Microsoft Lync ROI as well. You can find out more about Contacts Manager by visiting the product page by clicking here.