Important note :
- Borealis recommends to use the Outlook Add-in to facilitate the transfer of e-mails and meetings from messaging systems to Borealis. To get to know how to install the Outlook Add-in, please refer to our article here.
- The below article is only intended to users who do not have the possibility to use the Outlook Add-in feature.
Keeping the Boréalis application in the loop for emails/meetings with your stakeholders is the quickest way to keep track of your engagement with minimum effort. The Mail Handler feature helps users automatically generate a full communication record in Boréalis, including title, description, date, time, participants, type of communication, and more, directly from their email service.
Basic rules
Here are basics rules every Boréalis users should know about the feature:
- Emails sent to the mail handler are processed instantly.
- Only Boréalis users with 'writing' access rights can send emails to the Mail Handler. If emails are sent by employees that are not users, they won't be processed.
- Copying the system's BCC email address in an email will create an "Email" communication. The current level of the email will be analyzed by the system.
- Forwarding an email to the system's BCC email address will create an "Email" communication. The second level of the email will be analyzed. Only email that are forwarded only to the system will be considered as a 'forward' and analyzed as such. If users add other recipients when fowarding an email to the system, then only the first level will be analyzed.
- Replying to a meeting and sending it to our system's email address will create a "Meeting" communication. The information of the meeting invite will be added in Boréalis.
Mail handling
Once the Mail Handler validates that the email sender is a Boréalis user, here are the steps the system will follow to process the email:
Email attachments
All attached documents will be linked to the new communication. If images are embedded in the body of the email, these images will be linked as documents in the communication. If vCards (electronic business cards) are attached to an email transferred to the system, the application will create an individual's record (and its organisation) instead of a communication.
Email threads
The application will recognize if the email sent to the system is part of a thread from previously recorded communications. The conditions below must be met for an email to be linked to a thread:
- The email must be a transfer (FW:) or a reply (RE:) to an email that already exists in the system
- The email must not be a transfer or reply to a meeting invite. In this case, the communication of this meeting invite will be updated instead of creating new communications.
Participants / staff members linked or automatically created
Main rules for staff members:
- If the email is linked to one or more employees, all staff members with the email address will be linked.
- If the email recipients are employees that are not already in the staff members register AND their email addresses contains the configured domain, a staff member will be created automatically.
Main rules for participants:
- If the email is linked to one or more positions, all the positions will be linked. When the communications are linked to positions, then they are also linked to the individuals and the positions' related organizations. If the email is not linked to a position in the individual profile but the 'Always link communications to main position' check box is ticked, the communication will be linked to its main position.
- If the email address is linked to multiple individuals and organizations in the system, all of them will be linked to the communication.
- If there is no email address but only a name, then the system will proceed to analysis based on names instead of email addresses:
- If only an organization is found, then the organization with that email address will be linked to the communication.
- If an individual and an organization are found and that individual has a position in that oganization in the system, then the position will be linked. In the case no position exists, then the individual and the organization will be linked.
- If the individual found is not in the system, it will be created automatically.
- The email address will be added as the main email.
- The name of the stakeholder will be either the name found or the first part of the email address (if only the email address).
- If recognized by the Mail Handler, an organization may be linked or created (if not already in the system). A position may also be created if an organization is found.
Signatures
When forwarding an email to the system, the Mail Handler analyse the signature of the second level of the email. If the individual has no phone number, email or postal address, the Mail Handler will create the contact information.
Aliases
If one ore more BCC aliases are recognized by the Mail Handler, the communications will be linked to the corresponding element. BCC aliases exists for projects, subject categories, general atmosphere and engagement plans. Please refer to this article for more details.
Confirmation e-mails
Once an email is sent to the system, user will receive a confirmation email with the following information:
- Details regarding the newly created communication
- A list of individuals and staff members that were created (if applicable - green dot in front of the stakeholder/staff member name when created and purple dot when profile updated)
- Warnings if the information was not processed by the system with an explanation
We strongly recommend users to always read confirmation emails to make sure that the communication was properly created. It is thus the best time to update data in the system if needed.
Original email link
When a communication is automatically created from an email sent to Boréalis, the original eml email file is stored with the communication. The Original email link (highlighted in yellow on the image below), available from the General page of the communication, allows one to retrieve that email.
More specifically, clicking this link does two things:
- A copy of the original .eml file is downloaded on the local machine;
- Provided the local machine is properly configured, the email automatically opens in the default mail client application, allowing you to seamlessly continue the conversation with the stakeholder.
This is useful when, for example,
- You know your colleague exchanged emails with a stakeholder and you need to continue this discussion;
- You want to see an email in its original format to make sure everything was correct;
- You like to simplify the management of your communications by keeping all related information in the same, consistent environment.