Hi everyone! I work for a large company that primarily uses iPhones for business communication. Right now, whenever there's an update to our master contact list, we have to email a VCF file to all employees, who then come to me one by one to update their phones. This is quite time-consuming! I'm looking for a way to automate the process so that updates can push directly to their devices without needing to meet all of them face-to-face. One important requirement is that the syncing must be one-way; many individuals accidentally add personal contacts, and I don't want those to end up in our master list. We can't use Apple ID or iCloud but can use Google Accounts. I'm considering using Microsoft Exchange and setting up an Exchange account on their phones to manage the contacts. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
3 Answers
What about Workspace Shared Contacts? That could simplify things for you because it allows for easy management of shared contact lists. You could keep all department contacts in a specific Google Account and just have employees open the VCF files directly on their devices to update.
You're on the right path thinking about Exchange or a Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution. Both options would allow you to push contacts to all devices without users' personal contacts syncing back to the master list, which is exactly what you need.
Have you checked if you can use Google Workspace or something like Office 365? If you have access to them, CardDAV could be a good way to go for managing your contact sync.
Yes, our company does have Google Workspace!
I've been using that method, but it still involves them opening the file manually.