Changing the name of a distribution list or contact

[jim.grey]

We use distribution lists and contacts routinely for scheduled report delivery.  If any change is made to the name of the distribution list or contact, all of the schedules have to be updated.  Does anyone know of a way to avoid having to perform this maintenance every time?  It's resource intensive and prone to error.

[bensah]

Please create email groups and add the email group id to the scheduler.

[jim.grey]

Thanks for your reply.  Perhaps you can clarify.  Is there a difference between an 'email group' and a distribution list?  Is there a difference between the 'group ID' and the name of the distribution list?

For example, we have a distribution list called Alumni Relations that contains nine users.  In our schedules we use Alumni Relations as the email recipient.  This all works perfectly until they want the name changed to Alumni and Parent Relations.  If I change the name of the distribution list, all of the schedules fail unless we go back into each one and update the recipient.  This is tedious and, all too often, something gets missed and creates a headache.

[bdbits]

If this is an AD group, change only the Display Name to whatever flavor of the moment has been requested. Leave the alias alone and use that as the recipient on the schedule. I don't think Cognos will resolve the alias to the Display Name so it should stick, but I cannot test this at the moment.