Distribution List Manager / Mail Group Manager

Over the past two years, a number of customers have asked us if we can incorporate "group" management in to either Directory Manager or Directory Search. When we sit down and start looking at the ramifications of "self service" or "delegated" group management, we realize we are opening a can of worms.  Allowing a user to update their own telephone number is one thing, but allowing them to insert themselves in to a mail group or security group is quite another.  A group manager or distribution list manager product would have quite a bit more complexity associated with it, require more logging/auditing, and require some "work flow".

So, we have avoided this type of product. However, we are taking a fresh look at building a group management system and have begun to build a functional specification. 

Are you interested in such a product? We want to hear from YOU.  Send us your ideas, thoughts, feature requests, and suggestions to jim (at) cta.net.  Make sure you include in the subject line Mail Group Manager.

We have NOT looked at any of the existing products on the market (and probably won't); Jim McBee has used the Microsoft's AutoGroup tool in the past and we have based many of the initial features on his experiences with that tool. We are thinking that our initial version of the product will be limited only to mail-enabled groups (security or distribution / domain local, global, and universal).  Here is a some features and constraints that we are currently considering.

• Group management will be a standalone product, it will not integrate with Directory Update or Directory Manager
• Initial version will handle only groups that are mail-enabled (either security groups OR distribution groups)
• Web application will require a minimum of Windows Server 2003, Internet Information Server (in IIS 6.0 mode), the .NET Framework 2.0 (or maybe 3.0)
• All group management will be performed via a Web interface
• A request to joining a group will generate one of three possible results
    - User will immediately be made a member (or)
    - Request sent to group owner requesting that the user be added to the group (group owner can approve)
    - User is allowed to join, but group owner sees a notification and can remove
• Group manager / group owner can manage groups via a Web interface
• A group can have multiple owners / managers / contacts
• Web interface interacts with a SQL Server (such as SQL Express) database and workflow process.  Changes are made to the SQL database and the workflow process updates Active Directory
• SQL database keeps an audit log of all changes and requests
• The product will be licensed based on the number of groups in the organization, not per domain or per seat
• Groups can be hidden so that they do not appear in the management interface