I was recently working on a migration project with a customer and volunteered to help find a solution to a challenge the Organizational Change Management (OCM) team were facing. The OCM team had been communicating with the business to keep them informed about the upcoming changes and what impact these changes would have on their day to day operations. This communication had all taken place via email and they now needed to send out a new notification to several thousand users that contained specific information that would be different for each recipient. Since this was a single-use scenario and all recipients were internal users, they were not terribly interested in investing in a third-party application or service to do this so we decided to explore other options.
Inspired by Pat Richard’s “New-WelcomeEmail.ps1” script, I figured it would be pretty easy to achieve this using a PowerShell script and .CSV input file, it works great! To illustrate this, I’ll use the fictitious example of gooseLabs, Inc who are relocating to a new office building and would like to send a notification email to all their users that contains their new desk location and phone number. The first and most important step is to ensure that you have an accurate input file. For this particular scenario, the input file looks something like this:
Once we have our input file created, we can use the magic of PowerShell to generate our notifications using this data. The following script imports the .CSV file and generates a simple email notification that is then sent to everyone in the list:
[powershell]
# Function to create report email
function SendNotification{
$Msg = New-Object Net.Mail.MailMessage
$Smtp = New-Object Net.Mail.SmtpClient($ExchangeServer)
$Msg.From = $FromAddress
$Msg.To.Add($ToAddress)
$Msg.Subject = "Announcement: Important information about your office relocation."
$Msg.Body = $EmailBody
$Msg.IsBodyHTML = $true
$Smtp.Send($Msg)
}
# Define local Exchange server info for message relay. Ensure that any servers running this script have permission to relay.
$ExchangeServer = "yourexchange.domain.com"
$FromAddress = "Office Relocation Team
# Import user list and information from .CSV file
$Users = Import-Csv UserList.csv
# Send notification to each user in the list
Foreach ($User in $Users) {
$ToAddress = $User.Email
$Name = $User.FirstName
$Level = $User.Level
$DeskNum = $User.DeskNumber
$PhoneNum = $User.PhoneNumber
$EmailBody = @"
Dear $Name,
As you know we will be relocating to our new offices at 742 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield on July 1, 2015. This email contains important information to help you get settled as quickly as possible.
Your existing access card will grant you access to the new building and your desk location is as follows:
Level: $Level
Desk Number: $DeskNum
Phone Number: $PhoneNum
Your new phone will be connected and ready for use when you arrive.
If you require any assistance during the move please contact the relocation helpdesk at relocation@gooselabs.net or by calling 555-555-1234
Regards,
Office Relocation Team
"@
Write-Host "Sending notification to $Name ($ToAddress)" -ForegroundColor Yellow
SendNotification
}
[/powershell]
The resulting notification looks like this:
This method could also be used to distribute other information, like temporary passwords prior to a Cutover Exchange Migration.