Time based email forwarding?

[Vachaun22]

I'm looking for some advice on an efficient way to route email.

We have mail groups set up for various groups of people (ie: customerserver@[domain], sales@[domain], etc.)

On the weekends, there are people that come in that do not belong to our customerservice mail group, that do some of the customer service work on the weekends. It's only a weekend thing.

What I need to be able to do, is forward certain emails to these people (preferrably only on the weekends) so that they can do the work associated with them.

I'm reluctant to set up a rule on one of the customer service email accounts because the rule would be dependent on the existence of this account. I'm looking for more of a generic set up.

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

 

[Marcs41]

I dont' quite understand what the difference is, server-wise, if you send it Wednesday of Friday...

But, if you really must, AND you use Outlook, you can time the sending using the Message Options:
Do not deliver before...

Marc
[sub]If 'something' 'somewhere' gives 'some' error, expect random guesses or no replies at all.
Free Tip: The F1 Key does NOT destroy your PC![/sub]

 

[Vachaun22]

The time issue is really relative only because the people who aren't customer service people need only to see the email on the weekends when there is no customer service. It's only incoming mail as well from one of our customers.

The receiving only on weekends really isn't the big issue, however. The big issue is a receiving rule that isn't tied to a specific user that will route only messages from a certain user to more than one group. If I must, I'll set up a rule for my email account that will forward only those messages.

I'll try to explain more specifically here...

There are 2 email addresses that email can possibly come from that a customer sends order information on the weekends. They always send email to customerservice@[domain] which has our customer service email addresses in (4 people receive this email). There are non customer service people that work on the weekends, who cannot see this email, but must be able to get it in order to process the orders.

Hopefully this explains a little better what the issue is. Thanks in advance.

 

[Marcs41]

Sounds like a complicated way to have customer support, and with a chance of having duplicate answers.
I am sorry, I may be missing something, but I do not see the relevance to have email only delivered or accessed in the WE by people who ONLY come in in the WE. If they are not there, they don't see it, but if they come in, they need to see the mails anyway, so why not just let the mail get where it is supposed to get?

OR:
Why not setup 1 or 2 MAPI accounts, so everyone, regardless when they come in can see what is coming in, and what has been answered already?

Marc
[sub]If 'something' 'somewhere' gives 'some' error, expect random guesses or no replies at all.
Free Tip: The F1 Key does NOT destroy your PC![/sub]

 

[Vachaun22]

Customer Service and Dispatch work Mon-Fri, but the dispatchers don't actually do customer service work. However, on the weekends, there are some movements made that are emailed to customerservice@[domain], but there is a user rotation. So, on the weekend, the person that is working would need to see the customer service email to enter those movements. The rest of the week, dispatch doesn't need to see those emails because it doesn't pertain to them. Hopefully this is starting to make sense.

The other issue is, my boss is a computer nazi, and everything is Top Secret, eyes only around here. Also, dispatchers would complain about having to deal with customer service email throughout the week.

So far, what I've done is added myself (the network admin) to the customer service group, so I get all the CS email. I have a rule set up to redirect only the 2 email accounts that would send email on the weekends to the dispatchers, and another rule that follows to delete anything to customerservice@[domain]. This is more or less what I want to do, however I'd have preferred to not have it tied to a user account. If I were to leave, then someone else would have to set up and maintain the rules.

I've thought of setting up a public folder, but I'm still back to the rules and permissions issue. What would be ideal, is if there was a way at the exchange server, to set up some form of delivery ruleset that isn't tied to a user account to move these emails, but I'm guessing this probably can't be done.

Is this starting to make some sense? It's a very confusing and stupid thing, I know......but most of the stuff around here is...

 

[Marcs41]

Ok, no I see what you mean.

I must stay with my previous suggestion with MAPI.
If you set it up as the customeservice@domain then all mail to that address get in there.
Tehn all you need is the working customer staff to access that mailbox, through MAPI, when they are on support duty.
The rest of the week, they stay out of it. They can still see it if they want to, but it will be in another mailbox, so it does not interfere with their regular mail.

It is kind of like your Public folder idea, but the mails can also be answerred and replies can be followed by whoever is on the next duty shift.

Marc
[sub]If 'something' 'somewhere' gives 'some' error, expect random guesses or no replies at all.
Free Tip: The F1 Key does NOT destroy your PC![/sub]

 

[Vachaun22]

I don't think I understand what you mean by using MAPI? Isn't that just a programming interface to allow other applications to incorporate email functionality?

I could set up a public folder associated with the customerservice@domain email address and show everyone how to access it that would need it, and that would work wonderfully in a company that has competent users. However, the users here have a hard enough time understand and using the Inbox only.

As much as I hate to say it, I need to come up with a solution that would cater to the user level of a kindergarden child. Our users literally cannot and will not learn how to do anything more on the computer than is necessary to do their job. Very frustrating to say the least.

 

[Marcs41]

Oh dear, what a typo of mine, I meant IMAP, sorry.

When I read your user part, I brings back old memories, the kind to avoid at all cost.
Never, ever get yourself in a position that YOU have to hold hands to the user at all times, THEY need to learn to do their job, period. If they are not willing or incompetent, you should not be the one solving that, and there are bigger problems then.

Anyway, an IMAP folder is a mailbox, fully mailcompatible like any other, unlike Public folders which are tricky to handle mailwise.

Marc
[sub]If 'something' 'somewhere' gives 'some' error, expect random guesses or no replies at all.
Free Tip: The F1 Key does NOT destroy your PC![/sub]

 

[Vachaun22]

Yep, I know IMAP rather well. Our email setup is just about the most ridiculous setup you can get, only because it's cost effective.

Anyway, I talked it over with the people that it affects, and decided that the customer should be faxing this information anyway because email isn't quite as reliable as it needs to be for the load information.

But thanks for all the help, and your ideas will definitely prove useful in the future for me.

 

[Marcs41]

You're welcome ...

Users huh ?...

Marc
[sub]If 'something' 'somewhere' gives 'some' error, expect random guesses or no replies at all.
Free Tip: The F1 Key does NOT destroy your PC![/sub]

 

[Zelandakh]

Fax is more reliable than email?

Only a user could say that!

 

[Vachaun22]

The fax medium isn't more reliable as far as transmission. However, what is more reliable is that there will only be 1 transmission. When the fax comes in, once it's taken off the fax machine, we know someone has already taken care of. We don't need to worry about duplicate data entry. So in our case, fax is more reliable.

If we wanted true reliability, we'd just tell them they are to call in and actually speak to someone (which would have been my suggestion, but we aren't allowed to inconvenience our customers like that... )