This month Sperry Software is introducing a new add-in, called MailBeat. Let’s say you use Outlook as an order processing system that’s kept in a locked room. What happens if the mailbox on that machine gets a full mailbox? What happens if there’s a prompt that requires user input? What if there’s a power outage or an operating system update that requires a reboot? All these scenarios end with the same result: Outlook will no longer process emails.
The add-in we’ve created is basically a heartbeat monitor for email. The add-in sends out an email, and it must be responded to within 30 minutes or it raises an alarm and alerts you (or your team) about the lack of a reply so you can fix the problem.
The add-in can also act as an auto responder (for those emails only, not as a general purpose auto responder) or you can use Outlook rules to reply. This way, one machine (with the add-in installed) can monitor many different machines all at once. Or, you can have two machines (both with the add-in installed) watching each other so that if either one goes down the other can respond.
This add-in is in beta, but you can download a free 14-day trial to try it out.