Introduction

There are several scenarios where you may want a dedicated email address for some purpose. This may be:

  • An email address for specific event (e.g. wref@mit.edu)
  • An email address for a lab (e.g. sul-lab@mit.edu)
  • An email distribution list to contact several people at once (crestaff@mit.edu)
  • Some other purpose

There are solutions to this which are explained below. Each have their own advantages and disadvantages.

To request any of these to be set up, email cre-it@mit.edu.

Shared Mailboxes

  • Shared mailboxes have an email address that you can receive email to and send email from.
  • Multiple users can access this mailbox
  • Shared email addresses must be between 3-8 characters in length.
  • Your personal email and your shared email will be kept entirely separate - it is like having a secondary email account
  • This is a simple solution when you want a general email inbox for a group of users
  • You will see the additional mailbox as an additional account in Outlook, below your main account
  • Takes a few days to set up
  • Membership must be managed by IS&T

Moira Groups / Moira Lists

  • Moira groups replicate email to another email address (or addresses). For example, email sent to your-list-name@mit.edu will be sent to your-keberos@mit.edu.
  • These can be thought of as an alias.
  • Mail can be forwarded to any domain, such as @gmail.com, @yahoo.com, etc... It does not need to be an @mit.edu email address
  • There is a 320-character(question) limit for Moira group email addresses
  • Very easy to set up (takes a few minutes)
  • Membership can be managed by you, self-managed, or CRE IT.
Caveats:
  • Because email sent to the Moira group will be replicated to your individual email account, your group email and your individual email will be commingled. You can configure Outlook rules to automatically organize your group emails into folders.
  • Sending email FROM a Moira list is a little tricky.
    • Requires the use of a separate email client
    • Replies are stored in the local device (replies do not sync across devices)
    • Others can't see sent emails
    • You can't send replies from the web/mobile
    • See this KB article for setup instructions.

Ticketing/Help Desk System

  • A third approach is to use a ticketing system, such as ServiceNow
  • Ticketing systems are superior when you expect to receive a lot of requests that have tasks associated with them (E.g. You are being asked to provide support to a group, you need to coordinate reservations, etc...)
  • Emails are sent to a Moira group email address and processed by the ticketing system. The system then notifies you about the inquiry (and any replies to the thread) via email.
  • You can reply to notification emails from the ticketing system just as you would respond to a user directly and they will receive the email
  • All related emails are associated with the specific ticket
  • All correspondence can be viewed on the ServiceNow website, and you can made additional notes that are not visible to the client
  • Tickets can have statuses (Open, On Hold, Closed...) as well as custom categories (Work Request/AV, Work Request/Printer Setup, etc...)
  • Provides substantial reporting capabilities (See the number of requests, when they come in, the type of requests, average time to resolution...)
  • Membership can be managed by you; typically managed by CRE IT

Read more about MIT's ServiceNow Ticketing system here. You may also want to watch the first several minutes of this training video which has a brief overview on ticketing systems.

Email Marketing Tool (Emma)

An email marketing tool, like constant contact, mailchimp, and emma, are designed to send out emails to groups of people and track response rates - who opened them, who clicked links in the email, etc. These emails can be slightly customized, so you can use tokens such as "Dear [First Name], ..." or "we see you're part of [initiative]". This helps to personalize the experience a little better, and understand how effective your email campaigns are. At the CRE, we have a license to Emma - contact CRE IT or CRE Communications if you want to use it.

Note: This tool can be used in conjunction with one of the other methods. So for example, you can set up a shared mailbox as part of your initiative that you use to communicate with individuals on a one-on-one basis, and use that email address as the "send from" address for your Emma marketing emails.

Contact Relationship Management (CRM) System  - On the roadmap; not implemented yet

  • A Contact Relationship Management (CRM) system is used to keep a history of interactions your organization has with individuals and organizations
    • Interactions can include emails, phone calls, events they have attended, donations they have made, social media posts they have interacted with, and more
  • Similar to a ticketing system, but more focused on the relationship you have with an individual as opposed to a task-based workflow
  • Provides substantial reporting data
  • Expected to be available sometime in 2024-2025

How to Request

To request any of these to be set up, email cre-it@mit.edu.

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For questions about this space email cre-it@mit.edu.