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.

Select the user which will be using the mail agent, If the user does not exist yet then stop creating the mail agent and create the user first.

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

Next, enter the From Name & From Address which will be used by the mail agent. These should link to an existing mail box in Outlook

Then, change the Graph connection type to Connect with Admin Credentials:

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

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 admin consent. The latter is generally preferable, but requires you to set up admin consent via the Graph Admin Consent option:

To set up Admin Consent, from the mail agent area > click on Graph Admin Consent > Click "Add New" > enter the domain name e.g. layersystems.com > click on "give consent" > follow the onscreen prompts/instructions.

Please note, to give admin consent you must have administrative permissions within Outlook

Connecting with User Credentials means having to revisit this section to enter new passwords every time they change.

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.