Sources of staff directory information
Categorised under: Intranets
Intranet-based staff directories are only truly useful when they contain comprehensive information about staff members.
This means going beyond just a name, phone number and email address. Staff directories should provide a photo, job title, organisational unit, reporting structure, plus much more.
The challenge is that no single system will hold all these details, forcing staff directories to pull information from a number of sources.
Typical sources include:
- HR/payroll system
- IT/security
- user contributed and updated information
Drawing this information together will require integration, a more difficult task when legacy systems are still in place.
In some cases it may be possible to have ‘real-time’ integration between these systems, although scheduled updates are more common. Often, data is synchronised between the systems on a nightly (or weekly) basis. For a staff directory, this is often sufficient.
[CM Briefing 2009-06, read the full article]
Tags: active directory, Intranets, ldap, staff directories
James Robertson is the Managing Director of 
2 Comments:
For a staff directory it may well be sufficient, but if we want to introduce efficiencies in applications delivered via the intranet (e.g. auto form filling) and also maybe influence “intranet” workflow (e.g. financial authority, cost centres etc) we need to drive towards getting real time accurate identity data closer to the intranet.
@Peter, absolutely agree with you on this! Too often, LDAP/Active Directory is used in only a very simple way, and true integration between back-end systems and the intranet is not implemented. As result, the value of the intranet (in the ways you highlight) is often not fully realised.