Auto-reply software - help!

1 post

I'm looking for a very simple software package for responding to incoming messages with a straightforward 'thanks for your enquiry, we'll get back to you' kind of response. I work for a public sector organisation and have been told that it has to be compatible with IMAP email protocol and a firewall, and have inbuilt loop protection (to avoid a loop with another auto-replier).



I have tried to set this up in Outlook rules, and it all seems quite straightforward until you have to restrict the number of replies to prevent looping (easy enough if the response has 'out of office' in it).



I have also looked at a number of packages but they all seem to be set up an priced for mass marketing campaigns.



Any ideas?



Many thanks!

From Manchester, 1 post

Originally posted by janele on 28 Dec 2006 12:38 PM
I'm looking for a very simple software package for responding to incoming messages with a straightforward 'thanks for your enquiry, we'll get back to you' kind of response. I work for a public sector organisation and have been told that it has to be compatible with IMAP email protocol and a firewall, and have inbuilt loop protection (to avoid a loop with another auto-replier).





I have tried to set this up in Outlook rules, and it all seems quite straightforward until you have to restrict the number of replies to prevent looping (easy enough if the response has 'out of office' in it).





I have also looked at a number of packages but they all seem to be set up an priced for mass marketing campaigns.





Any ideas?





Many thanks!



You can do this in outlook and prevent a loop without any external or bespoke software. In either case IMAP and firewall are not of concern if you can already send email. I would ask why you are using IMAP in public sector, this would suggest a web based mail system rather than something under your own control (Exchange for example)



Anyway, using outlook 2003 you can set up your responder as a rule setting the FROM value to something other than your email address. For example FROM autoresonpder@mycompany.com



Hope this helps, a little input from your IT dept should be able to sort this out with ease and no expense.