Alias - Staff

Email aliases are "friendly" email addresses, i.e. email addresses that only exist as a name on our system and can be used in publications or on business cards instead of the "real" email address of a user.

Personal email aliases:

Personal email aliases can be useful if your username is awkward or confusing:
For example: Your name is Jeff Smith, your username is jsmith44 and your 'real' email address is "jsmith44@une.edu.au". For convenience and ease of use, we can set up an email alias of jeff.smith@une.edu.au for you; any emails that are sent to that alias will automatically arrive at the inbox of jsmith44. That means that you still only check one email account (jsmith44) but have a nice email address to publish for your students and contacts.

Personal email aliases for staff members are set up as firstname.lastname@une.edu.au and can be requested from the IT Service Desk on x5000 or by emailing servicedesk@une.edu.au.

Generic email aliases:

A very useful way of using email aliases is to set up a generic email address for positions or functions in your area and point them to the person that is currently in that role.

For example: Jeff Smith (jsmith44) is the main gardener at UNE. We can set up an email alias called "gardener@une.edu.au" and link it to his 'real' email jsmith44; any emails to the gardener@une.edu.au address would automatically go to the inbox of jsmith44.

This has a number of advantages:
A) The email alias gardener is generic to the position - if Jeff Smith changes jobs and the new gardener is John Butler (jbutler11), let us know and we can simply change the email alias behind the scenes and link it to jbutler11. This guarantees a clean handover, users don't have to get used to a new email address and documentation / websites don't need to be reprinted.

B) Senders of spam emails often trawl websites to pick up email addresses and it's not a good idea to publish personal email addresses on the web - generic email addresses are a better option.

C) Email aliases can be changed very quickly. If, for example, Jeff Smith is on long service leave for 6 months, any gardener@une.edu.au emails can be forwarded to his replacement for 6 months and then switched back afterwards. This, again, happens behind the scenes, the email address itself (gardener@une.edu.au) remains the same throughout.

D) Email aliases can point to more than one address. servicedesk@une.edu.au, for example, is an email alias that forwards any emails to every member of the Service Desk team, we just add or remove names from the alias as new staff members leave or join.

Generic email addresses for jobs / roles make a lot of sense and we strongly recommend that you set up generic address for core positions.

To get them set up, simply email the Service Desk with a list of aliases you would like and the "real" addresses they need to point to. We can then set them up at the Service Desk for you.

There are other alternatives such as email only accounts (which are not linked to another email address, but 'stand-alone' with their own username and password). Call the Service Desk (Extn. 5000) if you need any more info or would like to discuss your specific requirements.