A mail agent holds the credentials and settings of an external email account, either Microsoft Exchange or SMTP. It can be used with a Layer account to send mail from the system as if it was sent from their own account. You can set a user's default mail agent in their user settings page.

The Mail Agents area of Settings allows you to manage the mail agents used by your user and maintenance accounts in The Layer.

Click New Mail Agent on the left side bar.

These options are common to both mail agent types.

Who can use this template? - Choose the Layer User name to be associated with this Mail Agent. This means you would need to have a user already created.

Microsoft Exchange - Check this to enable a ME configuration and show the relevant options.

From Name - The name of the user associated with the mail account.

From Address - The email address of the account.

Campaign Compatible - Enabling this option will make the agent selectable when configuring marketing campaigns.

If you are using a SMTP server configuration, do not tick the Microsoft Exchange option. Enter the server and user credentials into the lower section of the dialogue.

Check Microsoft Exchange - the lower part of the dialogue will change to reflect this setting, allowing you access to a number of Exchange-specific options.

Please note that this window will look slightly different depending on whether you use basic or modern authentication (determined in Settings - Company Setup via the Mail tab).

Here is an example of a completed configuration:

Microsoft Exchange® Server Configuration Options

Exchange Triage - You can designate this as a Mail Triage agent. The number of total and in-use triage agents is shown.

Exchange Case Sweep - With this enabled, any emails to this agent's address that contain a valid case reference in their subject will trigger the creation of a note against that case.

Exchange Archive - If this option is enabled, emails sent to and from this agent's address will be stored against the relevant customer's record. Stored messages can be viewed from the Touch Exchange app. The external sender / recipient's email address is used to determine the customer record to be used. This option is only visible to users with the relevant permission.

Exchange Calendar - Enable this if the Exchange Calendar is to be synchronised with The Layer calendar.

Connection Type - There are two options - Connect with user credentials and Connect with maintenance account. The latter is generally preferable, but requires you to set up a maintenance account on the Exchange server to manage passwords. Connecting with User Credentials means having to revisit this section to enter new passwords every time they change.

Exchange Endpoint - The Exchange service URL.

Exchange Username - The email login name (usually the email address). Only present if you are using basic authentication.

Exchange Password - The email password is only required if you chose to connect with the user's credentials and are using basic authentication.

Exchange Authentication - This allows you to log in if you are using modern / OAuth authentication. The graphic indicates the amount of time left before the token must be refreshed by logging in again. This respects the Connection Type chosen - it will display either the user account token or the maintenance account token accordingly.

These options are visible if Exchange Case Sweep has been enabled.

Enable Non-Matching Contacts - If a contact doesn't exist on the customer record, it will be created, and the message attached to it. If this isn't checked, you'll only receive replies to contacts on the account.

Enable Mail Sweep Attachments - If this is enabled, a full copy of the .eml file will be stored against the note. This can be opened in Outlook, and will include any attachments.

These options should not be enabled without consulting your account manager first, as they have implications regarding storage space regulatory issues.

You can send a test email from an agent to your account.