What is a Deparmental Email Account

A departmental email account or mailbox in Outlook, also known as a shared mailbox, is an email inbox that can be accessed by multiple people. These mailboxes provide a single point of public contact and allow multiple staff members in a unit to read and respond to emails.

A unit or department may have multiple departmental email accounts serving different purposes and/or audiences. The official email address for a unit is a departmental email account. Examples include helpdesk@montana.edu, registrar@montana.edu, or admissions@montana.edu etc.

Benefits of Departmental Email accounts

Benefits of departmental email accounts include their versatility in being used on brochures, web pages, and letterheads, eliminating the need for reprinting when staff changes occur. They simplify communication by allowing contacts to reach the office without needing specific personnel names and facilitate prompt responses by enabling multiple individuals to access and manage incoming messages efficiently.

Request a Departmental Email Account

Please complete the Departmental Email Account Request located here: https://www.montana.edu/uit/email/exchange_request.html

This request will create a ticket in your name, and you will be notified via that ticket when your departmental account has been created.

If you have questions about the form, contact UIT.

Ownership & Management

After the departmental email account is created, the requestor for the account will be made the Primary Mailbox Owner and will be responsible for all management of the account, including authorizing the addition or removal of employees with access to the mailbox.

If the Primary Owner needs to be changed because of a new role or ending their relationship with MSU, a new Primary Owner must be assigned or the mailbox and all email within it may be deleted.

You can request a new Primary Owner by submitting a request to UIT.

If the Departmental mailbox is no longer needed, you must submit a request to UIT to have the email account closed. Leaving unused departmental mailboxes active is a security risk.

Make sure to export Outlook email, contacts, and calendar as needed before you request closure of the account. More information on how to do this can be found at this link: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/import-and-export-outlook-email-contacts-and-calendar-92577192-3881-4502-b79d-c3bbada6c8ef

Membership of Departmental Email accounts

Student email accounts (a12b345@msu.montana.edu) cannot be added to Departmental mailboxes. Any work done on behalf of MSU, must occur from a Student -Worker email account only. Student worker accounts have the format of firsnamelastname@msu.montana.edu. You can request a Student-Worker email account at this link: https://www.montana.edu/uit/email/exchange_request.html

All members of a department that are added to departmental mailbox are added as delegates to the account, including the Primary Owner. This means that the mailbox will be accessed through their existing employee account rather than logging into the Departmental mailbox itself (more instructions on how to do this below).

The initial request will allow only 3 delegates to be added to the mailbox, though more members can be added by submitting a request to UIT denoting the email address of the departmental mailbox.

Any members that are no longer needed on a departmental mailbox must be removed by the Primary Mailbox Owner through a request to UIT.

Adding and removing members of departmental mailboxes can only be done by any user who is already a member of the departmental mailbox.

Accessing a Departmental Email Account

Delegates on Departmental Accounts will not login to the account.

To access a departmental email account, you will need to add the mailbox to your own Outlook account.

Information on how to open and use a departmental/shared mailbox in Outlook can be found at this link: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/open-and-use-a-shared-mailbox-in-outlook-d94a8e9e-21f1-4240-808b-de9c9c088afd

 

Membership/Delegate Access Levels

  • Members can be added to Outlook at varying levels of use, and can be given any or all of the below levels of permission. It is the Primay Mailbox Owner’s responsibility to specify the appropriate level(s) of permission for delegates in the access request.
  • Read and Manage: Allows users to read and manage the mailbox. This permission lets a delegate sign in to a user's mailbox and view its contents, but they can't send messages.
  • Send As: Allows users to send emails from a departmental mailbox on behalf of a group or person, without being the owner of the mailbox.
  • Send on Behalf: Allows a user to send emails on behalf of the departmental mailbox, or another member/delegate. The emails will be marked as "on behalf of" the other user, and the recipient's email address will appear along with the member/delegates. The From address of the email will also clearly indicate that the delegate is sending on behalf of someone else, such as "<Delegate> on behalf of <MailboxOrGroup>". However, replies to these emails will be sent to the mailbox or group, not to the delegate.