Out of office assistant permissions

[Andrew Mitchell]

We are attempting to enforce a security policy at work and educating users
not to share passwords with other staff members. We have instructed users
with time-critical mailboxes to use delegation within Outlook to ensure that
any important messages can be read if they are absent for any reason. We have
also instructed them to use the Out of office assistant if they are to be
away from the office for extended periods of time.

While this works well when the user knows in advance that they won't be in,
it doesn't work so well in emergency situations (extended illness etc.)

From my understanding of it, the out of office message is set at the mailbox
level, so if another user has delegate rights to the mailbox they should, in
theory, be able to set an out of office message on the users behalf. It just
appears that a tool to do this is missing.

If I am correct in my assumption, is anyone aware of a tool that will allow a
user to set an out of office message on another users mailbox if they have
the correct permissions?

 

[Hades]

Yes - OWA.

 

[Andrew Mitchell]

Yes - OWA.

Thanks for the reply.
Are there any tools that can do this without using OWA as we don't, by
default, allow access to OWA for all users.

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Thanks for the reply.
Are there any tools that can do this without using OWA as we don't, by
default, allow access to OWA for all users.

Even internally? If so, why not?

Might wanna see http://www.symprex.com/products/oom/ too.

 

[Andrew Mitchell]

"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"

Even internally?
Correct.

If so, why not?

We have set a default policy that OWA is not enabled for users at the
exchange server level. This affects them whether they connect from inside or
outside our network.
We only enable it using ADUC for individual users based on business needs.

Might wanna see http://www.symprex.com/products/oom/ too.

Thanks.