I have searched here and on Google for the best solution to achieve a similar function to a shared inbox here at my office setup. I also spent one hour with the Google Apps Support team in the States over the 'phone without finding a perfect solution. Your ideas might be much better. Here is the situation:
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We have eight users at the office, setup as
name@example.com. -
Our umbrella company has five subsidiary companies. Using one subsidiary as an example, let us call it subcompany-x.
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I would like customers to be able to send an email to
subcompany-x@example.com -
Three users should be able to receive this email and reply to it without exposing their personal email address. They should be able to reply as
subcompany-x@example.com. -
All users should be able to read each others replies and follow all customer conversations.
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the CEO is using a Blackberry 'phone to check email and is not a techie person.
The different options I see have different pros/cons:
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Creating a Google Apps User for
subcompany-x@example.comand delegating this account to my three users. Problem: requires the users to login to a new account to read/reply. the CEO is not able to read/reply to emails from his 'phone. -
Creating a Google Group for
subcompany-x@example.comand the other four subsidiary companies. Problem: 1. Expensive to add extra users. 2. When a user replies to a customer email from his Gmail inbox it appears as being sent from the user's personal email address and does not keep the other users informed of the reply. The Groups web interface does this perfectly, not the email setup. -
Creating email aliases. Problem: Only one user can have
subcompany-x@example.comas alias. -
Making advanced settings in the Google Apps Control Panel Settings for Email routing. I don't understand these so well.
Please let me know if I am missing something here. I really cannot get my head around this issue. It seems so simple, but it is not! Even Google themselves could not solve it for me.
Best Answer
The Collaborative Inbox would be your best solution if it were not for the CEO:
https://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=167430
This is a specialized Group which allows people to respond as the Group. This does not address the CEO's need to be mobile.
The other solution which is messy and requires users to pay close attention to others who have responded: 1. Setup a group for each subsidiary 1. Setup a Send As address for each user for each group (e.g. name@example.com can Send As subcompany-x@example.com) 1. Configure each user's email to reply using the same address it received from. 1. Switch the CEO to an Android phone so he/she can use the Send As feature.