How to setup an Office 365 subscription to use server-side signatures

Relevant Product: Exclaimer Cloud - Signatures for Office 365

This article guides you through the process of configuring your Exclaimer Cloud - Signatures for Office 365 subscription, for server-side deployment ONLY (so signatures are applied to all email messages via Exclaimer's Cloud service, irrespective of which browser/device/email client is used).

Running the setup wizard

This wizard walks you through the steps required to grant permission for Exclaimer Cloud to read user data from your Azure AD/Office 365 directory (and maintain a replica in an Exclaimer Cloud database).

You will also need to grant permission for Exclaimer's Cloud Signature Update Agent to sign in to Office 365 as a user.

To run the setup wizard, follow the steps below:

1. Once you have set up your subscription and launched Exclaimer Cloud, you can choose to Connect to your email system or Try the Signature Designer:
   
   
   
   Note: Even if you select Try the Signature Designer option, the Connect to your email system option will always be available when you launch the product.
2. Select Connect to your email system then click Next to choose the features that you wish to configure.
    
3. Select Apply to email from all devices including mobiles, then select Setup for Microsoft 365 (Formally Office 365) Exchange Online Service:
   
   
   
   
4. Click Next to view a summary of tasks that will be completed during this setup:
   
   
   
   
5. Click Next to grant permission for Exclaimer Cloud to read your Azure AD/Office 365 data.
   
   
6. Enter the domain name for your Azure AD/Office 365 then click Next.
   Note: If you're not sure what your domain name should be, see Where can I find my Microsoft Tenant ID?
   
   
   
   
7.  You are prompted to sign in to Office 365 as a Global Administrator (be sure that you are entering the credentials for the correct Office 365 tenant):
   
   
   
   
8.  Once authenticated, you are prompted to accept a permissions request for the Exclaimer Cloud Signatures for Office 365 app, click Accept: 
   Note: The Exclaimer Cloud Signatures for Office 365 app requires permission to sign in and read user data in order to perform data synchronization.
   
   
   
   
9. Having confirmed these details and granted the required permissions, you are directed back to Exclaimer's setup wizard, where you'll see a confirmation that you have successfully granted permission for Exclaimer Cloud to read your Azure AD/Office 365 directory data:
   
   
   
   
10. Click Next. The Office 365 Connector Setup wizard is launched:
    
    
    
    
11. Click Next. You are prompted to sign in to Office 365 as a Global Administrator (be sure that you are entering the credentials for the correct Office 365 tenant):
    
    
    
    
12.  Once signed in, you are prompted to accept a permissions request for the Exclaimer Cloud Setup App. Click Accept:
    
    
    
    
    We recommend: As Exclaimer Cloud Signatures for Office 365 Setup app requires permission to create a new domain within your Office 365 tenancy - we recommend that you remove this application after completing the setup of Exclaimer Cloud as detailed here: Removing the Exclaimer Cloud Azure App.

13. You will now be prompted to authenticate to allow Exclaimer Cloud to run a PowerShell script to automatically configure the required mail flow settings:
    
    
    
    

14. Copy the code provided on your screen then click Authorize. A new tab will be opened in your browser. In the new browser tab, paste the code into the box then click Next:
    
    
    
    
15. Sign in using your Global Administrator credentials:
    
    
    
    
16. You will receive a confirmation that you have successfully signed in:
    
    
    
    
17. Return to the Exclaimer Cloud tab.
    
    
18. As required, select which emails should be routed to Exclaimer Cloud for signature processing.
    
    By default, this option is set to all users; however, you can specify the name of a group, in which case only messages sent from users in this group will be sent to Exclaimer Cloud for processing:
    
    
    
    Note: If you specify a group name that does not already exist in your Office 365 tenancy, the group will be automatically created for you as a mail-enabled security group. You will need to add members to this group in Office 365 once the setup of Exclaimer Cloud is complete.
    
    If you want to select an existing group then only mail-enabled security groups or distribution lists should be specified.  

19. Having made the required selection, click Next. 

    A secure certificate is generated for your Exclaimer Cloud subscription and the domain associated with this certificate is added and configured as an accepted domain within your Office 365 tenancy.
    
    Exclaimer Cloud runs through a number of tasks to configure the required mail flow settings:
    
    

    
    
    The tasks to ensure that your email flows through Exclaimer Cloud are:

    • Remove Existing Exclaimer Connectors: This ensures that anything configured in the previous Exclaimer setup is cleared out and all standard rules are put in place for the current subscription. 
      
      
    • Create Receive Connector: This ensures that when Exclaimer Cloud has added a signature, it returns the message back to Office 365 through the Receive Connector.
      
      
    • Create Send Connector: This redirects each message to Exclaimer Cloud where the signature is added before it is delivered to the recipient(s).
      
      
    • Create Transport Rule: This defines rules based on the conditions you defined earlier during the setup (where you selected which emails should be routed to Exclaimer Cloud for signature processing).
       
    • Create Bypass Out of Office Transport Rule: This creates a new transport rule to prevent 'Out of Office' emails from being routed to Exclaimer Cloud and also prevents these emails from being marked as Spam. 
      
      
    • Add Exclaimer Cloud IP addresses to IP Allow List: This adds the Exclaimer Cloud IP Addresses to the whitelist in the Connection Filter of your Office 365 tenancy.
      
      
    Note: In the unlikely event that the Office 365 Connector Setup fails, click Retry. If you continue to have issues, please raise a Support Ticket and an Exclaimer Support Engineer will contact you directly.

20. Once these tasks are configured, click Next to confirm the setup:
    
    
    
    

    Warning: It may take up to an hour for your new Connectors and Transport Rule to become operational in Office 365.

21. Click Next to access the Home page - you're now ready to create your first email signatures in Signatures for Office 365.