ServiceDesk Plus Cloud comes with a ready-to-use email address for each instance, that can be used to receive and send emails.This is an essential configuration for many features and functionalities, such as email notifications, ticket creation from emails, conversations, on tickets, email commands, etc. The native email addresses provided by ServiceDesk Plus Cloud is like any regular mailbox with the additional benefits as listed below.
This article discusses the following topics on mail server settings. Use the links to go to specific sections.
You can set up a mailbox for each of your service desk instances using the native email service. ServiceDesk Plus Cloud automatically creates and assigns a unique email address for each instance.
To set up the native email service,
Go to Setup > Mail Settings > Mail Server Settings.
Click Activate.
After the mailbox is activated, emails sent to the mailbox will be converted to tickets automatically. However, if you are using a custom mailbox, you can continue using it by forwarding emails from the custom mailbox to the native mail address provided by ServiceDesk Plus Cloud using simple forwarding rules. Mail fetching will be triggered each time a notification is received from ServiceDesk Plus Cloud email service.
The incoming emails will be processed and converted into requests or appended as conversations to requests. You can track all incoming and outgoing emails in the mailbox folders.
To create and set up your built-in mailbox, follow the steps below:
After the mailbox is created, the following fields will be displayed with respective values auto-populated:
Mail Server: Provides the name of the mail server.
Support Address: An auto-generated email address that will be your primary email address to receive emails from end users. Format of the email address: <instance-url-name>@sdp<number>.zm.sdpondemand.com. If you are using a custom mailbox, you can forward emails from the custom mailbox to this email address using forwarding rules.
Reply Back Name: A customizable sender name in outgoing emails. This configuration does not apply to group email addresses.
Reply-To Address: Sender's email address in outgoing emails. It is also the email address to which you will receive end users' replies. You can either use the auto-generated email address, which is the Support Address, or use an email alias. Learn how to configure email aliases.
Go to Setup > Mail Settings > Mail Addresses.
Click New Email.
Provide your preferred email address.
For public domain email address: Verify the email address by clicking the link received in your mailbox.
For custom domain email address:
Establish ownership of the domain using SPF and DKIM records. To do this, follow the steps below.
For SPF verification, copy the SPF Record value and use it to create a TXT record under your domain's DNS configuration page.
Verify the email address by clicking the link received in your mailbox.
All inbound emails are first received into the Inbox. Once processed, the emails will be moved to Trash automatically. If the processing fails, the emails will be retained in the Inbox. You can perform the following actions under this tab:
Delete emails: To delete emails from the inbox, select the emails, click Delete Mail, and confirm your action.
Process emails as requests: To manually initiate processing emails as requests/conversations, select the emails, and click Process Mail.
Under this tab, you can access all outbound emails. You can also delete emails. To do this, select the emails, click Delete Mail, and confirm your action.
Trash holds both processed emails and all deleted emails. You can also process emails in Trash as requests/conversations. To do this, select the emails, and click Process Mail.
Under this tab, you can access all emails filtered using the custom spam filter criteria and emails that are restricted using Incoming settings mentioned here. You can perform the following actions on the filtered emails:
Delete emails: To delete emails, select the emails, click Delete Mail, and confirm your action.
Process emails as requests: To process emails as requests/conversations, select the emails, and click Process Mail.
Here you can access all emails that are marked as spam by the spam identification algorithm used by the native email service. You can also perform the following actions:
Delete emails: To delete emails from spam, select the emails, click Delete Mail, and confirm your action.
Process emails as requests: To process emails as requests/conversations, select the emails, and click Process Mail. Processed emails will be moved to Trash automatically.
Mark as not spam: To unmark as spam, select the emails, and click Mark as not spam.
On the Mail Server Settings page, Switch and Configure button will be shown to switch between POP and the native email service.
Configure ServiceDesk Plus Cloud native email service by following the steps mentioned here.
You can test the native mail service by sending a test email to the configured Support Address.
Once testing is completed, you can move to the native email service by clicking Finish Configuration.
Before configuring forwarding rules or authentication, you must have created an email account with the native email service.
To receive emails from your custom email address, set up forwarding rules in your email account with the support email address created for ServiceDesk Plus Cloud as the forwarding address. For instructions, contact your email service provider or refer to their documentation.
Here are some resources for popular mail service providers to set up forwarding.
After setting up mail forwarding from your custom domain email address, you can configure the following options under Setup > Mail Settings > Mail Server Settings.
Accept emails from unknown users: Use this option to allow/disallow processing of emails from unverified domains.
Disable new request creation through email: Use this option to allow/disallow creation of new requests from emails.
To set up a custom email address for outbound email,
Go to Setup > Mail Settings > Mail Server Settings.
Provide an appropriate name for Reply Back Name.
Choose your preferred verified email address from the Reply-To Address drop-down.
To connect to any other mailbox, click the Switch to Custom Configuration button on the top-right corner of the Mail Server Settings page.
This configuration uses basic authentication. To learn more, click here.
ServiceDesk Plus Cloud mail service provides a layered security approach enforcing relevant safety measures at various levels as explained below:
Mail Sending: All the automated emails sent from the application can be constrained using Notification Rules. You can also restrict unwanted automated emails from being sent using the Junk Notification Filter.
Mail Fetching: Spam Filter rules can be configured to prevent specific emails from being converted to requests. Additionally, ServiceDesk Plus Cloud native email server uses a custom spam identification algorithm.
Email Validation: Emails sent and received from ServiceDesk Plus Cloud are validated to protect against email attacks.
From Address Verification: To prevent email spoofing, verification is enforced for Sender Addresses and Group Emails used in the application.
DMARC protocol: DMARC is a powerful tool capable of mitigating the impact of malware and phishing attacks. In addition to helping your organization avoid compromises and scams in business emails, it prevents spoofing and protects your business against brand abuse. ServiceDesk Plus Cloud native email service ensures DMARC protocol by enforcing DKIM and SPF.
Access Level: When using the ServiceDesk Plus Cloud native email service, the application creates an instance-specific mailbox internal to the application. This mailbox is tightly integrated with the application and cannot be accessed using basic authentication outside of the application.
Mailbox Level: ServiceDesk Plus Cloud has implemented industry-leading security standards as discussed below:
Physical Security: Our data centers and hardware are equipped with the best services to resist physical and logical breaches.
Email Data Protection: ServiceDesk Plus Cloud ensures email security to prevent unauthorized access with an additional layer of protection through encryption of emails