What are LMS Admis doing about Suppression Lists?

Chris Clark

I've learned that our users can be added to a Suppression List which restricts them from receiving any notifications from Bridge. From the admin portal, it appears that notifications are sent, but AWS takes it from there and suppresses the communication if they are on the list. This is creating issues. I can't say, with certainty, why someone gets added to a suppression list, how long they will be on it/when they will fall off of it, or what to do to work around this issue. Anyone working on this too or have ideas on how to avoid it? Thank you.  

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Comments

9 comments

  • Comment author
    Stephanie Kemp

    Hey, Chris Clark! I know that this question is geared more toward how people are creating solutions for this issue, so I thought I'd highlight how we know (at Bridge) why this can happen with the suppression list:

    • Email doesn’t exist when we try to send messages (email doesn’t exist can be that IT hasn’t actually created it yet or it’s misspelled.)
    • User Mailbox is full
    • The user reported the email as something they didn’t want
    • Any hard bounce

    Open to brainstorming if you need any ideas!

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  • Comment author
    Chris Clark

    I have been working with LMSes long before AWS was a thing, so this issue has me reeling. Our setup with Bridge includes SSO via Okta, so it is literally impossible for a user to access Bridge without being authenticated as an employee. Also, I'm quite confident that we do not run into full mailbox situations.

    Yes, the email might not be completely setup when the initial Welcome to Bridge notifications are sent, but that would further the need for Bridge to key the sending of those emails off of Start Date instead of when they enter the system as a user; I have requested this feature several times already. In my research of Suppression Lists, it is possible to disable them, but it depends on the type.

    Thus far, my interactions with Bridge Support want to blame this on new user emails. My experience tells me that it is rarely new employees having this issue. So, that leaves us with the "hard bounce" possibility. I do not have any information helping me understand if this is happening or more importantly why a "hard bounce" would be initiated. 

    I'm not sure when Bridge started using AWS, but these Suppression Lists have completely flipped the ability to assign required or compliance training upside down. I have lost the ability to know if an employee ever receives a notification from Bridge, and I have frustrated stakeholders. Continue clarity and work towards solutions is needed. 

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  • Comment author
    Stephanie Kemp

    Thanks for this feedback, Chris Clark. The most prevalent issue that we see for all customers dealing with the suppression list is the fact that the emails are being added to Bridge before they're ever actually been setup by the IT team for the org. I understand that it would be convenient if Bridge provisioned the users based on start date. If you are using autoCSV, are you able to create a rule with your HRIS tool to not send the user until their start date? Would you like to speak to someone more on this topic? I am happy to coordinate.

     

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  • Comment author
    Chris Clark

    We are using SCIM based on our Okta environment. We have spoken with people at Bridge, and it did not appear that there was a solution. So, I thought I would ask if other admins have found ways to work around the issue. 

    Regarding the Start Date issue, it would be huge if that could be the triggering event for a user to start receiving notifications and training. As it is now, I have had to disable required onboarding training assignment by Smart Group because training gets assigned the second they enter the system as a provisioned user which can be 10+ days before Start Date. This caused new employees to be overdue on specific training that our Compliance department wants done within 2 days of start. New employees received overdue notices before they even started and then had to read those emails on their first day which created confusion and anxiety for some. 

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  • Comment author
    Stephanie Kemp

    Chris Clark, is there no way to prevent the HRIS feed from containing any user data for users with a future start date?

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  • Comment author
    Chris Clark
    • Edited

    We are using Okta for provisioning via SCIM; it is also doing the lifecycle/user management. So, our HRIS is not providing this information to Bridge. 

    What is the use-case/reasoning on Bridge's side to send notifications prior to a Start Date? I cannot do course assignment automatically the way I'm accustomed to in an LMS and now have notifications being suppressed for some users because Bridge sends them notifications the second they enter the system regardless of start date. If Start Date is considered before sending a notification it would fix multiple issues. 

    Will reiterate that our users are unable to access systems without being authenticated daily via Okta. I'm sure there is the rarest of exception here, but would venture to say it's nearly impossible for an inactive employee to be sent a notification from our instance of Bridge. Despite what AWS may think, an email sent to one of our users is always legitimate and should never be considered for suppression. 

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  • Comment author
    Jamie Moen

    Our HRIS system is providing the information to Bridge and because of the time of the sync, employees don't necessarily  have access to Bridge until a day or two after their start date. We are still seeing employees ending up on the suppression list. At this point the only solution I have is to reach out to support to have the employee removed from the suppression list. It does cause an inconvenience for us because usually we have an employee on a job site trying to help the employee access Bridge and after trying a couple times, they then have to reach out to me to let me know they are not receiving any notifications from Bridge. I usually do some additional troubleshooting to make sure that the suppression list is the issue before putting in a ticket with Bridge. I often have to just manually reset the employee's password while we wait for the email to be removed from the suppression list because employees are often waiting to get training completed before they can begin work. 

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  • Comment author
    Katie Swenson
    • Edited

    Is there a way to send admins a report of this list so we know who is on it so we can resolve the issue?

    I'm looking for a solution as this causes a problem for us.  We often add learners before their email is set up so that we can have new hires on rosters for in-person classes so the instructor can prepare for class. I just contacted support and we had a large number of learners on the suppression list.  A report or notification when someone is added would be very helpful for us to ensure all learners are getting the notifications needed.  

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  • Comment author
    Stephanie Kemp

    I do understand, Chris Clark. Unfortunately, we are not always in control of the choices AWS makes in regard to suppression. It's also why we can't trigger a Bridge notification because we don't have visibility into the addition without reactively looking in our logs. These logs are good for three days, so something that can help is to coordinate an "All Learners" direct message from Bridge. At that point, you can submit a support ticket for us to check the logs. We can clear the suppression list and provide you a list. You can, if you want, follow up with a second message once we cleaned up the list to ensure that this effort was successful.

    We are always open to feedback and ideas, so thank you for providing more context on your experiences.

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