Sharing contacts in Address Book through iCloud

[rthibault]

I work in an office where the contacts in our Address Book App. need to be shared with multiple users over multiple computers/devices. We currently have all of our contacts in the Address Book App. but whenever a new contact is added we need to physically transfer it to each machine. Ultimately, we need to accomplish 3 tasks:

1. We need to be able to create, edit, and share contacts on and between multiple computers/devices/accounts. Access is needed by all employees, including our boss.

2. Some of our contacts need to be kept private, (not shared across all machines) associated with a single account. These are our bosses private contacts that are included in the mass of our current Address Book App.

3. Do all of this in iCloud

Is it possible to share groups in Address Book over iCloud while keeping other groups private from sharing. Of course, these private entries would still need to be accessible through iCloud by our boss. I've read threads explaining that setting up a "Family Account" alongside individual accounts allows one to share contacts through the "Family Account" while keeping contacts in the individual accounts private. It seems though that this solution has its issues.

If there is an efficient and effective way of doing this, please share!

Thank you in advance!

[bloutrein]

Originally Posted by rthibault

(...) Is it possible to share groups in Address Book over iCloud while keeping other groups private from sharing. Of course, these private entries would still need to be accessible through iCloud by our boss.

Such feature would be a true icloud gem for the corporate environment. I don't know that it exists yet - possibly with future editions of iCloud. Although, knowing how slow Apple rolls-out new features, this could take its time.

I've read threads explaining that setting up a "Family Account" alongside individual accounts allows one to share contacts through the "Family Account" while keeping contacts in the individual accounts private. It seems though that this solution has its issues.

In this case, your boss would need to run two iCloud accounts - one for himself (private) and the icloud account public to all employees. Running two iCloud accounts is possible, although he would need to switch each time between the two when accessing or creating new contacts depending on what he would want to do.

Moreover, different employees with their individual iCloud accounts vs. the public iCloud account would have to do the same: not a very efficient way of sharing contacts...

[robanga]

One way i have seen this accomplished is by making the shared contacts public but keeping the sensitive contacts on mobile devices. (Separate iCloud). Not very elegant but it works.