Building an Enterprise-Wide Staff Directory

February, 2007

Many companies implementing an organizational Intranet face a common scenario - how to maintain an online, up-to-date, easy-to-maintain staff directory. A robust staff directory should be able to do the following:

• Pull data and routinely synchronize the information from disparate systems, such as Active Directory, the company's HR system, and custom company databases
• Allow employees to update and maintain certain pieces of their information, such as cell phone number, emergency contact, and home address
• Maintain one or more fields of information unique to the organization
• Contain confidential fields - such as pay grade - while restricting access to such fields to certain individuals, such as the employee and his/her manager
• Dynamically display an employee's place within the company's organizational structure
• Optionally allow employees to maintain their own personalized web sites, which they can link to from their entries in the directory
• For large organization, allow employees to easily identify common acquaintenances with others within the organizations
• Modularize the directory so that individual departments and offices can display smaller, localized versions of the same directory information, each of which would always contain the most up-to-date information

While such a system sounds complicated and expensive, it can be easily and cost-effectively implemented using a combination of utilities included in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS 2007) and a small amount of custom programming. The key building blocks to this system are the following:

• User Profile Database - The User Profile Database, part of MOSS 2007, is the central piece of the solution. The database will store entries for each user, or employee, within the organization.
• Active Directory - Active Directory, or any other LDAP-compliant account management tool, can feed key pieces of information - such as employee name, manager, email address, department, office and phone number - into the user profile database. The user profile database provides the capability to schedule a routine import from Active Directory, so that Active Directory will constantly feed the most updated information into the system. The update can be scheduled as often as is appropriate for the company implementing the feature.
• Business Data Catalog - A new feature in MOSS 2007, allows SharePoint to connect to external data sources, such as an off-the-shelf HR system, or a custom company database. The User Profile Database can be configured to pull secondary information - items not stored in Active Directory - from any system linked via the Business Data Catalog.
• User Profile Properties - Custom properties or fields can be configured in the User Profile Database allowing for types of information that may be unique within an organization. These properties can be optionally configured to allow employees to maintain their own information.
• Private Properties - The aforementioned properties can be configured with privacy settings, limiting who can see the information in these fields. Privacy options include Everyone, My Manager, My Colleagues, My Workgroup, and Only Me.
• My Site - MOSS 2007 allows users to create their own personal web sites, called My Sites. When this feature is enabled for users, and when users opt to create their own site, their entry in the User Profile Database will automatically link to their My Site.
• Manager Field - The Manager field, if diligently maintained in Active Directory, is used by the User Profile database to establish an organizational structure, showing where each employee fits within the company, no matter how large or small.
• Colleage Tracker - A component of My Site, employee's can specify their own colleagues, allowing others in a large organization to establish who they know in common.
• People Search - A sub-set of SharePoint's built-in search engine, the People Search allows users to search for others.
• Colleage Tracker - A component of My Site, employee's can specify their own colleagues, allowing others in a large organization to establish who they know in common.
• Custom Web Part - The final piece of the solution, not provided by MOSS 2007, but recently built and deployed by Abel Solutions, is a custom web part that allows for customized queries of the User Profile Database. This web part can be dynamically configured to do any of the following:
• Display all entries in the user profile database, for a complete staff directory. (see figure 1)
• Display any columns contained in the User Profile Database. One such display configuration could be columns for Last Name, First Name, Email Address, Phone Number, Department. (see figure 2)
• Filter the display list by any field in the user profile database, including, but not limited to Department, Office, and Manager. Departments or offices maintaining their own sites could easily use and configure the web part to display only the employees from their department or office. (see figure 2)
• Sort the display list by any field or fields in the user profile database. (see figure 2)

Figure 1 – Staff Directory based on SharePoint User Profile Database

Figure 2 – Parameters for Staff Directory Custom Web Part

Each of the tools identified above, when configured and implemented properly, can easily be used to provide a comprehensive, up-to-date, and easy to maintain staff directory for companies and organizations of any size.