Outlook Agent Overview for Email Experiences

Feature Details

Outlook Agent keeps employee email signatures in sync with the latest content created in Email Experiences. It can be installed in the background by your IT organization, or individually by employees. Outlook Agent provides improved control over email signatures by: 

• Creating a new signature for Windows Desktop Outlook clients.
• Setting the new signature to be used by default.
• Syncing changes from Email Experiences to the signature on a regular basis.

The information in this article pertains to individuals leveraging the classic desktop version of Outlook for Windows and Outlook Agent Version 6.5.0 or older.

If using the new Outlook for Windows desktop, please refer to this article for an overview of the functionality and installation steps for Outlook Agent Version 7.0.0.

Implementation/Setup

Outlook Agent involves a one-time setup process. After it’s been initialized, Outlook Agent will run on start-up and will update employee email signatures every 15 minutes unless another time interval is specified.

Initialization

When Outlook Agent is installed, the following changes will take place on an end-user’s Windows machine:

• A new Email Experiences directory will be created in the “C:\Program Files” directory on the user’s machine. Files required for Agent execution will be stored here.
• The current signature will be backed up and remain as an option in the Outlook Signatures List.
• A new signature file will be created, using the signature and/or campaign you’ve built in Email Experiences.

Automated Updates

Every 15 minutes, Outlook Agent will execute a list of updates:

• If a user’s signature has changed since the last update, new content will be retrieved from Email Experiences and written to the Email Experiences signature file.
• If not already set, a registry edit will occur to set the Email Experiences signature as the default signature.
• If not already enabled, an Internet Explorer content setting will be enabled. This is labeled “Save Encrypted Pages to Disk”, and is required to view Email Experiences campaigns & images in Outlook. 

Campaign Only Option

If you would like to solely utilize Email Experiences campaigns, Outlook Agent can still be applied. Outlook Agent has two methods of controlling signatures: Overwrite and Append. Your admin controls which mode is used for each employee by assigning users to specific signatures in the application.

• Append mode happens when a user is assigned to a signature template that only features a campaign (and a watermark). When Outlook Agent updates in Append mode, it will append the user’s Email Experience campaign to his or her default signature in Outlook.
• Overwrite mode affects a user’s entire signature. If a user is assigned to a Signature Template that contains anything more than a campaign, Outlook Agent will overwrite the entire signature with Email Experiences content, and set the new content to be the default signature.

Distribution

Outlook Agent can be distributed to employees in many different ways. Your IT organization’s tools and technology, and your level of allowable employee interaction will determine which method is best for you.

Outlook Agent is delivered to you as an .EXE file which can be executed automatically via a Windows batch script, or individually by employees. It is important to note that Outlook Agent can be installed for employees, even if they are not users in Email Experiences. Outlook Agent only performs updates for employees who also exist as users in your Email Experiences account.