Running multiple independent companies through a single Helpdesk

From Cerberus Helpdesk Wiki

Contents 1 The Problem 2 The Solution 2.1 Companies become Groups 2.2 Outbound Mail goes through Group E-mail Addresses 2.3 Incoming Mail Filters to Proper Group 2.4 Outline

The Problem

From what I can tell, I’m able to have multiple inbound email addresses, but what I really need are multiple outbound email addresses, preferably tied to each inbound server. Essentially what I am working with is a large company with a number of smaller, logical identities beneath it. Each smaller company should have an inbound email (ie support@companyA.com, support@companyB.com, etc) and use that same address for outbound. If they all have to use a single outbound, it just won’t work for us.

This question came from the forums a long time ago but the same question still comes up quite a bit, “how do I run multiple independently-operated companies through a single Helpdesk”. Thankfully it is an easy workflow that can be created in Cerb4, so let’s start by simplifying the issue into two pre-requisites:

1. Every company (or group) needs their own inbound and outbound e-mail address.
2. Make sure each group receives only their mail.

The Solution

To make this tutorial easier to follow, I'm going to assume you have two companies you run: a Computer Repair shop and a Network Consultant firm.

Companies become Groups

First and foremost we need to translate each company into Cerb4 groups, we'll call these groups "Computer Repairs" and "Network Consultants". Click ‘helpdesk setup’ then the ‘Groups’ tab.

(Seeing the free version limit of 3 groups? If you filled out the survey during installation you should have, or soon will, receive a Community license to enter that will unlock the group cap. You can also edit the ‘Sales’ and ‘Support’ group if you wish.)

If each company has their own mailbox then you need to add a mail server for each one. Go to ‘helpdesk setup’, ‘Mail Setup’ tab and continue to “add new mail servers”.

On the other hand if all the e-mail addresses sit on one mailbox, just add that one mail server, as we can rely on mail routing rules instead to separate e-mails into the proper groups (companies). Setup for this scenario is exactly the same as the one described later in the Incoming Mail Filters to Proper Group section.

Outbound Mail goes through Group E-mail Addresses

The tricky part can be achieving multiple outbound addresses since you can't specify more than one SMTP server in Mail Setup. But what you can do, is create unique "reply to" addresses for each group where each group's outgoing mail shows it's from that company. Click over to ‘group setup’, (group name), the ‘Mail Preferences’ tab, and set a new address for the “send replies as e-mail”.

Incoming Mail Filters to Proper Group

The final thing to do is isolate each group with their own mail, which can be done with mail routing. Go back to ‘helpdesk setup’, the ‘Mail Routing’ tab, and create some basic patterns to match mail addressed to one company to their corresponding group.

Outline

With those three pieces in place you should be able to distribute your mail between your separate companies. I'll wrap this guide with a basic outline of how all the pieces fit together.

• INBOUND MAIL SERVERS
  • Computer Repair shop (POP3 account)
  • Network Consultant firm (Different POP3 or same POP3 with unique To/Cc:)
• TWO COMPANIES (OR GROUPS)
  • Computer Repair shop >> Group Computer Repairs
  • Network Consultant firm >> Group Network Consultants
• "REPLY TO"/FROM (SEND REPLIES AS E-MAIL)
  • Group Computer Repairs >> computer@example.com
  • Group Network Consultants >> network@example.com
• MAIL ROUTING
  • computer@example.com >> Group Computer Repairs
  • network@example.com >> Group Network Consultants

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Adapted from a Cerb4 blog post.