The Canadian Government has mandated that all federal employee email signatures follow a standard format. Whether you're a Canadian government employee or not, read this Cool Solution about how Riva's Managed Signatures Application allows you to standardise GroupWise user signature blocks. Change a user phone number and title in eDirectory - the phone number and title get automatically updated in the user signature. Required information not available in eDirectory? Import them using Omni's EMU application or use the Riva CSV or SQL connector to extract the mandated fields and push them into the signature.
Governments and companies are looking to standardise their customer-facing information and corporate image. Given that email is the predominant tool used to communicate with customers and clients, controlling user signatures has become an important strategy to ensure the corporate image, brand and mandate are properly communicated. The Canadian government has outlined a policy that mandates a "Common Look and Feel" for web sites and email activities. Read more details about the Canadian GOL requirements for Web Addresses; Accessibility, Interoperability and Usability of Web Site; Common Web Page Formats; and Email Signature Blocks.
There are three options to use Riva Managed Signatures to automatically populate user GroupWise signature blocks:
Option 1: Push Default Department Information to the GroupWise Signature
This option can be used if the required values are not available in eDirectory, a CSV file or a third-party database. You would create Riva Managed Signatures policies for each of the required departments. These policies automatically push the department signature to users based on their eDirectory group or container membership. Although the standardised department information is provided, users are still required to add their personal information to their signature. If there are changes that need to be made to the department signature, users will be required to re-enter their personal information.
Following is an example of using Option 1 for signatures. Note that the italicised information needs to be replaced by each user:
FIRST NAME LAST NAME
Common Look and Feel Office | Bureau de la normalisation des sites Internet
Chief Information Officer Branch | Direction du dirigeant principal de l'information
Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat | Secrétariat du Conseil du Trésor du Canada
300 Laurier Ave. West, Ottawa ON K1A 0R5 | 300, av. Laurier Ouest, Ottawa ON K1A 0R5
first.last@institution.gc.ca
Telephone | Téléphone NNN.NNN.NNNN
Facsimile | Télécopieur NNN.NNN.NNNN
Teletypewriter | Téléimprimeur NNN.NNN.NNNN
Government of Canada | Gouvernement du Canada
Option 2: Automatically Push User Information from eDirectory to the GroupWise Signature
This option assumes eDirectory contains the necessary user personal information to be pushed into the user signature either by having been manually entered, added using Novell IDM or imported using a tool like Omni's EMU.
Use the same structure as in the example above, except rather than having each user provide the personal information, the personal fields are linked to the appropriate eDirectory value. User information is automatically pushed into the signature from eDirectory. The biggest advantage of this option is that changes made to eDirectory values or the department information are automatically updated in the user signature each time the Riva Managed Signature policy is executed. Changes to phone numbers, positions, titles, addresses are automatically updated - no user intervention is required. This option allows you to leverage the power of eDirectory and GroupWise integration and completely automate the process. This is by far the simplest, best and most elegant option.
Option 3: Use an External CSV or SQL Database as the Source for the User Signature
This option assumes the user personal information is not available in eDirectory but is available in a CSV or SQL database. If the appropriate user information is available in an external authoritative source, by connecting the Riva Managed Signature Policy to the external source, user information is automatically populated into the user signature and updated each time the Riva policy is executed.
What to do if the User Information is not in eDirectory?
In additional to manually adding and updating the user information using ConsoleOne or iManager, there are a number of options that can be used to import the user information into eDirectory. Administrators can take advantage of Novell's standard LDIF import functions. Doing a quick search on Novell's support site for "Modify users with LDIF" in the documentation section returns 116 links. Lots of information on how to do that.
Organisations that have deployed Novell's Identity Manager to synchronise user information from an authoritative source will probably already have the basic information synchronised into eDirectory from the external source. And if the information is not already there, a couple of quick changes to the Novell IDM drivers will make the required information available.
And if you don't want to manually enter the information, use the free LDIF import function and don't have Novell IDM in place, the best option is to use Omni's Enterprise User and Import Management Utility (EMU). EMU allows you to bulk import, manage and modify eDirectory account information based on the contents of a CSV file.
No budget to buy EMU?
Ask your Omni account executive about the FREE 15-day EMU licence that is available to Riva Managed Signature customers who want to bulk update their eDirectory user account information!
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