Managing email signatures for many client tenants

How should an MSP manage email signatures for many clients? From one place, with each client's own Microsoft 365 tenant connected once, rather than with scripts and per-machine signature files for every customer. Done that way, a signature change for a client is a few minutes in a portal instead of a ticket per user, and a new starter is covered without anyone visiting their desk.

The MSP signature problem

Signatures are a classic low-value, high-volume ticket. Each client wants a change a few times a year: a new logo, a new address, a Christmas banner, a disclaimer from their solicitor. Each change means touching every user, often every device, and then fielding the calls from the people whose signature still looks wrong. Across twenty clients that is a part-time job nobody wants.

Moving signatures to the server removes most of it. The signature is added as mail leaves each client's Microsoft 365, so phones, Outlook on the web and every other app are covered, and nothing is installed per machine.

Onboarding a client

Connecting a tenant always needs the customer's own Global Administrator to approve it, because it is their Microsoft 365. With Footer365's reseller programme, it works in three steps:

1. Add the client from your reseller dashboard, with the organisation name and domain. It is linked to your reseller account.
2. Send the consent link. Footer365 emails the Microsoft 365 setup link to the client's technical contact. Their Global Administrator approves it, and mail flow is set up in Exchange Online automatically.
3. Build and manage. Templates, rules, campaigns and reports for that client, from the same dashboard as every other client.

Full Microsoft delegated administration (GDAP), so you could set a client up without their administrator's approval, is not supported today.

Access your clients control

Working inside a client's portal is something the client grants, not something you hold by default forever. In Footer365, a client's Reseller access card shows whether you can open their portal, and a Super Admin at the client can turn it on or off. It is on by default for a customer set up through a reseller.

• A banner on every page tells the client's own users that someone from your organisation is working in their portal on their behalf.
• Everything you do is recorded in their audit log under your own name.
• Each visit lasts at most an hour, and you cannot give anyone Super Admin access or change the reseller access setting yourself.

That is a good story to tell a client's auditor. Our article on reseller access describes it from the client's side.

Billing

You agree one billing model when you join, and every client you add is billed the same way:

• Bill me for my clients: one consolidated monthly invoice to you, itemised per customer, and you bill your clients on your own terms.
• Bill my clients directly: Footer365 invoices each client, and you keep management control without carrying their billing.

Reseller margin is built into the rate on every seat, and the full volume curve is published on the pricing page so your own price list is easy to build.

Running signatures well across clients

• Pilot every new client. A rule for a small group first, then everyone. Anyone no rule covers sends exactly as before.
• Turn off the old way. Remove login-script signatures and old disclaimer rules when a client goes live, or recipients see two footers.
• Mind the SPF record. Each client domain's SPF record needs the Footer365 include. The client's portal shows the exact record.
• Back up before redesigns. A backup file holds every template and rule, and can also copy a client's signatures into another Footer365 account.

Joining the programme

Applications are made with a Microsoft work account and are usually reviewed within one working day. The reseller programme page has the details and the application form.