How are emails sent via Workflows in Microsoft CRM 4.0

Question

I'm Creating a workflow that needs to send the users an email on set events. This I don't have a problem with. However can someone please confirm if you need the local windows SMTP service installed or if I can use another method for it to send the emails.

UPDATE Ok I've just read about the E-mail Router, just need to find out where it is, and how to get to the configuration settings.

UPDATE

Update 2 Right, Iv'e looked into it and the e-mail router configuration is not used on this CRM set-up, it used an Outlook Add-in which I cant find a lot of into on.

However it appears to work flawlessly. end update 2

Thanks

Answer 1

It looks like there are at least two options, one which uses the SMTP or exchange. And another which is an outlook plugin. Which syncs the emails with the owners outlook and then sends out the emails.

EDIT So the two options which both work are:

1. Email Router - This appears to be the standard and can use various email servers
2. Outlook add-in - This sends email based on the owner/email settings in the CRM record. This works with any email CRM wants to send, and even works with workflows.

I've not got to the bottom of why the outlook add-in has been used at this site, however the workflow functions appear to run without problem, and seamlessly to the owner/user.

end edit

Answer 2

AFAIK, Microsoft CRM uses Exchange server to send out emails. Haven't you configured this during setup?

Answer 3

You are right that the Email Router is the way to enable outbound emails from Dynamics CRM. If you haven't done so already, I strongly encourage you to download the Dynamics CRM Implementation Guide. You can jump right to the section called "Planning e-mail integration" to read about it.

What you need to do is configure the e-mail router to operate with a POP3/SMTP server. You can use Windows Server's SMTP service for that. You can use almost any service - i have configured it to work with my gmail account, for instance.

Here are three good articles that you can read to learn more about the e-mail router.

• What's New in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 E-Mail Integration
• Dynamics CRM 4.0 E-mail Integration Overview
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM: How to configure the On-premise and Online E-mail Router in different deployment scenarios

Now when you configure an email from a workflow, CRM will automatically forward it out through the router to your SMTP email account.