Best Practice scan-to-email setup?

[HCHTech]

Now that MS has (rightly) enabled tenant-wide MFA, what is the best-practice way to setup Scan-to-email for copiers? I know I could:

• edit the policy in Azure to exclude a scanner@domain.com address, and making sure there was a very strong password on that address
• Use a standalone SMTP server (Sendgrid, SMTP2GO, etc.)
• Use Direct Send as illustrated in MS documentation here (and accept the 'internal addresses only' limitation on recipients)
• Use an SMTP relay, which frankly, I've never made work successfully (which means this is probably the right answer)

I'm curious what others are doing.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

We set them up on SMTP2GO. I don't want to wrestle with the troubleshooting every few years of "why did it stop working..because Microsoft changed something with authentication...and this MFP doens't seem to support the new way, or..."

...with SMTP2GO, they keep it simple, and...it works!

And then also we use the MS Automate on a Team document library to have MFP's scan and send that email to that channels email address...and the Automate grabs the file attachment and saves it to that channels document library. This is the modern equiv of "scan to folder on the server". I know some MFPs now support "saving to OneDrive" or "saving to Sharepoint"...but like above...I do not want to have to troubleshoot every few years why it stopped working because Microsoft changed something with protocols again.

SMTP2GO works...it just...works!

 

[alexsmith2709]

I switched to SMTP2Go for my use and i would recommend that for clients and now after @YeOldeStonecat post, possibly using MS Automate to save to a document library if needed.

 

[HCHTech]

SMTP2GO works...it just...works!

Yep - we have our own account we use for client device notifications- - no complaints so far. Do you use your own account (and resell this service) or do you set clients up with their own account. I don't see this as a big money-maker, so I'm inclined to do the latter, although I can see some folks balking at even the low tier of $16/mo.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Do you use your own account (and resell this service) or do you set clients up with their own account. I don't see this as a big money-maker, so I'm inclined to do the latter, although I can see some folks balking at even the low tier of $16/mo.

We have our own account...we add our customers under it, so every customer has a username/password, you enter their domain so that you create the DKIM records to legitimize emails sent through SMTP2GO on behalf of their domain. There's reporting in there to see how much volume customers are sending. "Most" of our clients, we just include that as part of our MSP plan...we don't bill them on a line item. We just absorb that under our "Core fee"...that we charge each client...(kinda covers much of the tools and this 'n thats that we provide our clients). For some of our customers that pump some high volume through it, we do add a line item and charge them. So it's not a "money maker" at all, I don't think we're clearing 200 bucks a month on it from our "heavy use" clients. And we're only at the first level of billing...so it's dirt cheap for us. However, it keeps things simple, and reliable...for us, and for our clients. Thus..it's worth it.

 

[putz]

Use Direct Send as illustrated in MS documentation here (and accept the 'internal addresses only' limitation on recipients)

Option 2 or 3 depending on your needs. Never had any issues with either.

 

[Sky-Knight]

I use Option 2 almost exclusively.

As soon as that doesn't work... SMTP2GO