Does outlook have round robin email capability?

P

Prophx

Our company currently uses Lotus Notes databases to field incoming emails to
a common email team address and then assigns and sends the individual emails
to just one person on the team in a round robin method. We are moving off of
Notes and need to have a way to do this in the very near future...

Is there anything we can utilize in Outlook2003 to get this same
functionality? I have seen some utilities outside of Outlook, but if it can
be internalized, that would be better.

Thanks!
 
D

Diane Poremsky [MVP]

Outlook doesn't support such a feature.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Need Help with Common Tasks? http://www.outlook-tips.net/beginner/



Subscribe to Exchange Messaging Outlook newsletter:
(e-mail address removed)
 
P

Prophx

Thanks for your response about Outlook not having the feature.

I have seen a few utilities out there and have been told that it could also
be scripted into Outlook. Anyone have any experience in that area?

Thanks!

Diane Poremsky said:
Outlook doesn't support such a feature.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Need Help with Common Tasks? http://www.outlook-tips.net/beginner/



Subscribe to Exchange Messaging Outlook newsletter:
(e-mail address removed)


Prophx said:
Our company currently uses Lotus Notes databases to field incoming emails
to
a common email team address and then assigns and sends the individual
emails
to just one person on the team in a round robin method. We are moving off
of
Notes and need to have a way to do this in the very near future...

Is there anything we can utilize in Outlook2003 to get this same
functionality? I have seen some utilities outside of Outlook, but if it
can
be internalized, that would be better.

Thanks!
 
V

Vanguard \(NPI\)

Prophx said:
Thanks for your response about Outlook not having the feature.

I have seen a few utilities out there and have been told that it could
also
be scripted into Outlook. Anyone have any experience in that area?

Thanks!

Diane Poremsky said:
Outlook doesn't support such a feature.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Need Help with Common Tasks? http://www.outlook-tips.net/beginner/



Subscribe to Exchange Messaging Outlook newsletter:
(e-mail address removed)


Prophx said:
Our company currently uses Lotus Notes databases to field incoming
emails
to
a common email team address and then assigns and sends the individual
emails
to just one person on the team in a round robin method. We are moving
off
of
Notes and need to have a way to do this in the very near future...

Is there anything we can utilize in Outlook2003 to get this same
functionality? I have seen some utilities outside of Outlook, but if
it
can
be internalized, that would be better.


Unfortunately, since about OL2002, I think, it polls all accounts
concurrently. This can cause problems. For example, you might have
multiple accounts at the same e-mail provider who restricts connections to a
maximum of 1 from an IP address (i.e., you cannot have multiple connects
from the same IP address to your account(s) at that provider). One
suggestion is to put each account into a different Send and Receive Group
and change the mail poll interval for each group so they are different, like
5, 7, 9, 11 minutes, and they will take awhile before they happen to
overlap, but they will eventually overlap and the problem reoccurs then (so
all you've done is reduced frequency of the problem). It also appears that
anti-virus software really only scans one traffic stream at a time to
interrogate for viruses (i.e., their proxy interrogates one account's mails
at a time) which causes timeouts for the other accounts since they are
waiting for the AV proxy to respond.

I doubt scripting will change the mail poll behavior since those are
effected after the mail poll when the data is received. You could visit
over at www.outlookcode.com because I could be wrong. You could ask the
developers over there if the primary behavior of Outlook's code can be
altered with scripts that are run AFTER Outlook has loaded.

An option to let the user select whether to concurrently poll all accounts
or specify an order (by moving them in a listbox in the order wanted) would
be great. However, I really don't expect Microsoft to listen since their
manpower is geared towards the prime market for their Outlook product, and
that is in a corporate environment and likely using Exchange.
 

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