Using AD.Displayname to differentiate between similarly named individuals

As Tufts is a large organization, there are several instances where an individual's first and last name may be similar, or in some cases identical to another member of the university. While each person at Tufts has a unique mail alias (i.e. Lee.Raymond@tufts.edu is different from Lee_e.Raymond@tufts.edu or L.Raymond@tufts.edu) the Displaynames (name that shows up in look-ups for the Global Address Lists, Offline Address Books, etc.) may still show:

Lee E. Raymond
Lee F. Raymond
Lee J. Raymond

It is sometimes impractical to expect the average user to be able to easily identify which Lee Raymond they are attempting to contact. This article describes a few easy changes that can help ensure that mail makes it to the right person.

Since everyone has a unique alias, sometimes simply looking for the alias you want, and not just the Displayname is effective

Especially with Faculty and Staff, sometimes viewing the directory information on an individual is enough to be certain that you have the right person. Below is an example of my directory information – most of which is automatically populated by the Account Synchronization scripts.

Students, however, do not have as much Directory information populated, so it may be harder if you are looking to differentiate between multiple students, or perhaps students and affiliates.

Below is an example of a student's directory information:

In some cases it may be necessary to modify the displayname of an individual because the first, middle and last names are too close. Displayname is not one of the fields that is governed by synchronization (nor is AD.Description) which both show up in directory look-ups. More valuable, Displayname shows up in how mail is addressed in most native clients which can be a very helpful passive reminder.

You have two options:

1) Use Active Directory (Users and Computers) and elevated AD rights to modify the displayname on an account
2) Use Exchange Management Console (EMC) to modify the displayname on the account.

For the purposes of this walkthrough, I'll use EMC:

1. look up the account you want to modify the displayname on
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2. Modify the First field on the "General" tab to the desired value. This will have several downstream impacts that are discussed below.
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3. There are other AD Fields that can be modified to assist, under "Organization" in this aim, but before you modify directory values in EMC, make sure you understand the synchronized values that exist in AD from the Directory Synchronization scripts otherwise some of your edits may be persistently overwritten.

1. Anything that consumes and displays the AD Displayname field will be impacted by this change
   • Mail messages sent from the individual (that are published through exchange) will display the new Displayname edits.
     • This may impact messages in a folder pre-and-post change that are sorted by "From" as technically the new displayname is a "different" person.
   • Unified Messaging calls will have the displayname appended to them
     • For people that have not recorded a custom message, the appended displayname will be pronounced by the auto-announcer
   • Some Mail Clients do not natively show displaynames, or actively update their global address list – updating the local cache may be necessary.