In this article, we are going to look into the procedural format for creating Disclaimers for all outgoing or selected outgoing emails in Exchange server 2013.
Introduction:
Now-a-days business world Disclaimers, legal agreements or Terms of usage have become an integral part for any form of communication. Example, a Tele-calling representative will provide disclaimers verbally. So in email communication, contents of that email, intended recipients etc., may or may not suitable for everyone. Hence the corporates adopted the practice of appending a disclaimer at the end of each email. This might be same for all the emails or might vary depending on the department and requirements. Let’s see how to achieve customized disclaimers in Exchange 2013 or Office365 (Also uses Exchange 2013 and 2016 version). The procedures are same for Exchange server 2013 and Office365 since they both use the similar front end consoles.
Transport Rules:
To achieve the above said requirements, we will be using Transport Rules. Transport rules are more efficient and intelligent in processing mails. Now let’s open the Transport Rule console by logging to Exchange Admin Centre (EAC). Navigate to EAC → Mail Flow → Rules. There we can see wide range of options and previously created rules (if any).
Now Click on the ‘+’ Icon, and select “Create New Rule”.
Though we have a predefined option for creating disclaimers let’s try a blank option “Create a new rule”. Now we will get the rule creation wizard. This wizard will give the basic options only, so click on “more options” at the bottom, this enables the wizard with advanced options which will help us in creating more customized rules.
Condition or Scope of the Rule:
Give a name to the rule, then we should determine the scope of the Disclaimer. Generally Disclaimers will be sent only to external recipients (outside the organization). But the requirements might vary from company to company. Below are some of the scope/requirement.
- Apply disclaimers only to external recipients
- Apply disclaimers to all recipients (including internal & external recipients)
- Different Disclaimers to different departments(like Finance, Admin, IT Support etc.,)
Now we will see the format for creating the above requirements. The first two options are kind of similar. So to create the first disclaimer the below conditions should be used. Navigate to apply this Rule → Select ‘The recipient’ → is external/Internal → Select outside the Organization.
Similarly for the second rule you need to select Apply This Rule → the Sender is Internal/external → Inside the Organization.
For the Third rule, we should create a Security/Distribution Group and add the required members to it before we create a rule.
Then Apply This Rule → the Sender is → is a member of this group → Select the Group.
Like this we can come up with different logics and customize the scope as per our needs. The below snapshot will show the various options available.
Rule Action:
Till now we saw the condition part, now let’s see the action part. This part takes care of the action that is applied on every emails. Our aim is to append a Disclaimer and hence the action part bounds to only one option.
Now go to “Do the following → Apply a Disclaimer to the message → append a disclaimer”
We do have one more option called prepend a disclaimer, this will add the disclaimer above the original email. This option is less likely used, however under rare scenarios for certain requirements it will be used. 
So after selecting the above option you will get the option to enter your customized disclaimer sentence.
Rule Processing:
Once the above settings are done, now we should check the rule priority and processing, It is always a best practice to disable the “Stop processing more rules” for disclaimers, since we might add more rules in the future.
Conclusion:
We do have PowerShell commands to achieve this requirement, however GUI is easier and user friendly. But it is always best to take a backup of all the rules using powershell commands, because for OST and mailbox we do have software like OST 2 PST conversion tools etc., but for Transport rules we don’t have such options.
Author Introduction:
Sophia Mao is a data recovery expert in DataNumen, Inc., which is the world leader in data recovery technologies, including repair pst mail corruption and word recovery software products. For more information visit www.datanumen.com
Leave a Reply