A hosted solution

Screama is a hosted solution comprising:-

• An Outlook add-in with built-in web services system for communication between the add-in and the Screama Transaction system.
• The Screama Administration Portal - a web based portal for configuring the system and for creating and managing Campaigns and Messages.
• The remote Screama Transaction System which processes the Screama Message requests and which communicates via web services with the Screama add-in.

In order to remove the need to change your email settings and to avoid re-routing your email through third party servers, Screama functions by adding the Screama template and message content via an add-in which is installed alongside your Outlook client(s). This approach means the content of your emails is not exposed to the outside world through Screama and also the architecture is failsafe in that Screama is not in the critical path for delivery of your email.

In operation

The diagram below shows how Screama works in operation when a user has created their email and presses the Send button. Until this time, the add-in is dormant.

When Outlook’s Send button is clicked, the add-in places the email in the Screama Outbox. The Screama Outbox is a folder that is added to the client’s Mailbox folder structure during installation of the add-in. The add-in periodically checks the Screama Outbox and when there is new mail waiting to be processed it initiates a web service communication with the Screama server-side transaction system.

Secure

Importantly, only the sender’s email address and those of the recipients as specified on the To: or Cc: list in the email, are sent to the Screama server. This information is used to select a Screama template and to identify those campaigns that are applicable to the sender and recipients. The Screama Message picker then selects the most appropriate Screama message(s) based upon campaign and management settings from the Screama administration portal. The template and message(s) content is then transmitted to the add-in whereupon it is inserted as appropriate and the email is moved to Outlook’s Outbox where it is sent as normal.

Instant response

This entire process takes typically less than a second although the speed of operation is clearly dependent upon internet connection speeds and Screama content size. However, because the process is asynchronous, it is almost entirely transparent to the user.

Screama offline

For off-line working, the approach of moving the email to the Screama Outbox, ensures that when the user is back online, Screama content will be applied in the normal way at the next Screama Outbox synchronisation. The add-in also incorporates logic to provide failsafe routing of emails in the event of a Screama service failure.