Automations Using Distribution Lists
Is there any way people have found to use a company created distribution list and have Smartsheet send the automation using that DL? Example: DL_All IT (goes to all IT in the company).
Pretty sure that Smartsheet only sees the words "DL_All IT" and not the underlying emails that go with that DL. Wondered if people have found a way around this?
Best Answer
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Hi @Pamela Wagner,
As you point, adding distribution lists as recipients in a Notification Workflow is discouraged. Even if adding them may be an option, it could cause the whole list to unsubscribe if only one of the email addresses does this by accident.
With the current functionality, if manually adding all email addresses in the recipient list isn't an option (by either selecting "sent to specific people" or by adding them to a multi-select Contact List Column and then selecting that Column as the the one for contact in the Workflow, the alternative would be to maybe create a Group with all the relevant members of the IT team, share them to the sheet and selecting "Send to everyone shared to this sheet" this would only be ideal if no other contacts who shouldn't be notified in alerts would be shared to the sheet. Here you can find all recipient options in Workflows.
It is currently not possible to add Groups directly in the recipient list of a Workflow, but if this sounds like something you'd like to see in the future, when you have a moment, please let our Product team know about your feedback by filling in this form, here. Thank you!
I hope these can be some suitable alternatives for you.
Cheers!
Julio
Answers
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Hi @Pamela Wagner,
As you point, adding distribution lists as recipients in a Notification Workflow is discouraged. Even if adding them may be an option, it could cause the whole list to unsubscribe if only one of the email addresses does this by accident.
With the current functionality, if manually adding all email addresses in the recipient list isn't an option (by either selecting "sent to specific people" or by adding them to a multi-select Contact List Column and then selecting that Column as the the one for contact in the Workflow, the alternative would be to maybe create a Group with all the relevant members of the IT team, share them to the sheet and selecting "Send to everyone shared to this sheet" this would only be ideal if no other contacts who shouldn't be notified in alerts would be shared to the sheet. Here you can find all recipient options in Workflows.
It is currently not possible to add Groups directly in the recipient list of a Workflow, but if this sounds like something you'd like to see in the future, when you have a moment, please let our Product team know about your feedback by filling in this form, here. Thank you!
I hope these can be some suitable alternatives for you.
Cheers!
Julio
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Julio, thank you for the feedback. I do like the Group concept and have done that for other situations. We are hoping to reduce having to review the sheet on a regular basis when people come and go with the company particularly in this case where this is a document to monitor retention of deliverables which we have an obligation to keep for 7-10 years. In our company when people come and go we manage the DLs so we only have to remember to update that one location; with the creation of a Group, we would need to remember to update that as well. It's certainly possible so thank you for the thought!
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Julio,
Our organization has distro lists varying from 2 to 15 members on the email. We have been successful with distro email automation on some of ours, but not all. Why would it work for some and not all? Is there a max number of members encouraged on the distro email? I read that you discourage using distro emails, but most of our organization is doing this. I implemented the work around you proposed in previous message, and I am just curious.
Thank you,
Emily
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Hi @EmilyD,
Distribution lists are discouraged as it is relatively easy for an action such us unsubscribing from notifications to end up affecting all listed emails even if this action was just taken by one of the users within the distribution list. This could be a likely cause for some notifications not being received in Workflows set to notify distribution lists and you can verify possible unsubscriptions by accessing the Workflow Manager.
If unsubscribing doesn't seem to explain why notifications aren't sent in some cases, If you haven't done yet, I would recommend opening a ticket with our Support team via this form. If going this route, please ensure to include as much information as possible (name of the sheet where the Workflow is based, Workflow ID, screenshots of the Workflow setup, etc) when opening the ticket.
Cheers!
Julio
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Thank you,
Haven't found a work around through Smartsheet.
But Outlook can forward “rule” to a distro based on an email.
So you could forward out to a distro using that rule to your own email exchange. Then you would only have to manage yourself (assuming you stay with your company) on the Smartsheet.
My company distro is 10000+ so this helps tremendously.
Thank you
