Departments and targets
Departments do two jobs: they group people, and they are what rules and campaign audiences match on.
- Last updated
- 4 minute read
- People
- Rules
A department is a label on a person. Two things read that label: assignment rules, and the audience setting on a campaign banner.
Where departments come from
- Microsoft 365 sync creates departments from the ones in your directory and links people to them.
- CSV import creates a department when the file names one that does not exist.
- By hand you can add a department at any time and assign people to it.
Departments
Group people so rules and campaigns can target them.
- Operations12 peopleMicrosoft 365
- Sales28 peopleMicrosoft 365
- Design9 peopleManual
- Marketing7 peopleCSV import
- Delivery16 peopleMicrosoft 365
Watch out: A renamed department in Microsoft 365 arrives as a new department, and the old one is left behind with nobody in it. Any rule still matching the old name stops matching.
What uses departments
| Feature | How it uses the department |
|---|---|
| Assignment rules | A rule can give everyone in a department the same signature |
| Campaign banners | A banner can be limited to one department |
| The user list | Filter people by department to see who is in a team |
| Signature variables | {{department}} prints on a signature when the design includes it |
Tip: Departments are cheap. One per team, spelled the way your directory spells it, is enough. Signed does not need a hierarchy and does not support one.
Keeping them tidy
- After a big sync, open Departments and look for anything with 0 people.
- Check whether a rule still points at it. If it does, repoint the rule and delete the empty one.
- If a department is only ever going to have one person, skip it and use a rule that matches that person instead.
Related articles
- Syncing with Microsoft 365Connect once and stop maintaining people by hand. What comes across, what does not, and how the daily sync behaves.
- Create a ruleAdding a rule takes about a minute. Here is the order that keeps it predictable.
- Run a campaign bannerPut a banner under signatures for a set period, shown to everyone or to one team.
Something here out of date, or a step that did not work? Tell us and we will fix the article. Every page is checked against the running product, so corrections are welcome.