Hello Everyone,
I'm having a strange problem with the Global Address List conflicting with my users' mobile phones. I'm running Exchange 2010 which is hosted, but that shouldn't matter (I believe). Here's the scoop:
1. Most of my users have office extensions (desk phones) which are 4 digits. So in the Global Address List, I add their extensions. So in the "Business Phone" field, you see (555) 123-4567 x2259. So the GAL works great.
2. Then it turns out that when I add the extension in the GAL, the Outlook 2010 social connector goes through and matches any personal contacts with identical e-mail addresses with the contacts in the GAL. Outlook then adds the extension to the similar contact in the user's PERSONAL address book. Now as a result of adding extensions in the GAL, user personal contacts within the company have (555) 123-4567 x2259. No problem so far.
3. Then, the user's mobile phone synchronizes with the user's personal address book. Now the mobile phone has all of the company employees listed with the numbers (555) 123-4567 x2259, etc.
4. Now that user tries to make a phone call using their phone's contact list. Multiple phone brands and models are now trying to dial 5551234567x2259 and they freak out and the call fails.
5. And finally, an employee at a desk phone calls the call the person's cell phone. The cell phone rings and appears as 5551234567. But in the phone's address book, the number is (555) 123-4567 x2259, so now the cell phone user doesn't know who the inbound call is coming from.
Questions:
1. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has run into this problem. How have other people dealt with this? Do you simply put the desk phone extensions in some other field in the GAL?
2. Is there a better solution than disabling the Outlook 2010 social connector which is causing this problem to begin with? Is the only solution to use group policy to disable this plug-in?
Thank you for all of your input!
Mike