Help Solve a Problem! Please!

[airhockeycanada]

Hi everyone. I've got a specific problem that I need expertise in solving.

I have a small business and customers have access to their account information online. My business' systems run on Windows XP Pro, utilize Microsoft suite products.

Unfortunately, the third party which provides my back office account management has a system that requires syncing and updating every 6 months. What this does is reset the passwords for client access (no way around this). I then have to provide the clients with a new password every 6 months. That's 200 clients and it is crazy and time consuming. To add to the frustration is the fact that I have to manually find out what the new password is by logging in as an administrator to the third party system and querying each client.

What I need is a solution that can help streamline this process of providing updated passwords to clients.

I have looked into other third party software and unfortunately they do not provide what I need so I am stuck with what I am using now. So, as much as suggestions of changing the third party provider might seem to make sense I cannot at this time.

So, that being said how can I provide updated passwords to clients efficiently and effectively?

Thanks for any suggestions you might have.

Steven

[renegade600]

find out what file stores the passwords in that third party program and back it up. Possibly you can just replace the new file with the old.

[degsy]

If the users can access their accounts online then I assume you have a webserver and database or connection to the software.

If so then you can use ASP or WSH to connect to the database, grab the user details then email them to the user.

[airhockeycanada]

Unfortunately renegade600, I cannot do that.

[airhockeycanada]

degsy, I have access to information on client accounts and can make changes online however, I do not have access to the database or the third party server.

Here is more info. When it comes to the new passwords it's either a manual process to get the new info or if I'm lucky I might possibly convince the third party to send me the new passwords for each client in a specific format.

In either situation, is there an easy way for me to send out e-mail communications to clients?

Thanks again!

[renegade600]

I don't know who the third party is, but have you contacted them about your problem. IMO, this seems to be a poor way for them to do business.

Do the clients have the ability to create new passwords? or forgotten passwords automatically? Also do you have the ability to do bulk email to all clients at once.

If they can do the forgotten password thing automatically, then just send an email to them to do that every six months after the reset.

[degsy]

if I'm lucky I might possibly convince the third party to send me the new passwords for each client in a specific format.

If you have them in database, excel or csv format then again you can use ASP or WSH to connect to the file, read the contents, extract the info then email it.

This means you will need to learn some sort of VB scripting or get someone to write a script for you. You will also need webspace that supports ASP and has a mail server or use your own SMTP server.