Automate "after hours" mailbox?

[retygh45]

Using Exchange 2003 / Outlook 2003: We have some group mailboxes that multiple people use as "helpline" email accounts, that they access as a shared or additional mailbox in their Outlook client. So they have their own mailbox, then additional mailboxes open in Outlook.

However, my boss now wants one of the shared mailboxes to be attended after-hours, by some of the managers with Pocket PC's which can get email. So I'm looking for a way to automatically forward mail to someone from say 5pm to 6am where they would get it on their Pocket PC.

I can't use the Out of Office attendant, b/c these people use Outlook for their personal account, and only access these "additional" mailboxes and cannot modify these account settings.

Is there any way to accomplish this forwarding during certain hours? Any help is appreciated, thanks!

 

[CAPPBC]

I have only read users to forward emails to an external contact or other AD user. In the options for Delivery Options, I do not see a way to specify a time frame to only forward emails.

Sorry I could not assist you directly.

 

[billieT]

What on earth do you mean they can't access the mailbox individually? Use Outlook Web Access! All the user needs to do is logon to http(s)://outlookserver/exchange/shared_mailbox, enter their usual account details (assuming they have the appropriate shared mailbox perms), and they can read new messages there.

If the boss wants the users to respond to emails as and when they arrive (rather than checking at intervals), you can still forward via a mailbox rule to a designated user. Again logon to the mailbox via OWA, or for each user, create a shared mailbox Outlook profile and get them to switch to it while enabling the rule, create/enable the forwarding rule, and ensure they remember to switch it off again when they go offshift.

I also wouldn't use an out-of-office rule. Use a standard rule to copy messages to the designated mailbox (I assume you'd want to retain the originals in the shared mailbox?). You can set up a few rules, called "Joe on-call", "Deb on-call", etc, and get the users to enable/disable them as needed. Also, if you set them up initially, you can be sure they behave as expected.