By default, EmpowerID is configured to use SMTP as the provider for email delivery. However, SMTP is not the only provider option. You can elect to use Exchange Web Services (on-premise or Office 365) or both SMTP and Exchange Web Services (EWS). If you choose to use both providers, you order the precedence by setting the priority for each. The provider with the lowest priority has the higher precedence. By default, SMTP has precedence over EWS. You can change this at any time in the EmpowerID Web interface.

You can configure EmpowerID to process emails differently, depending on your scenario. These scenarios include the following:


To configure EmpowerID for simple SMTP relay, do the following:

  1. On the navbar, expand Infrastructure Admin > EmpowerID Servers and Settings navigate to the Email Settings page by expanding Infrastructure Admin > EmpowerID Servers and Settings and then click Email Settings.
  2. Select SMTP from the Email Delivery Mode drop-down.
  3. In the SMTP Mail Delivery Settings pane, enter the following information:
    • SMTP From Address — This specifies the default From address the system should use when sending automated emails to your user.
    • SMTP Server DNS — This specifies the DNS or IP address of the SMTP server in your environment.
  4. Save your changes.

To configure EmpowerID for authenticated SMTP delivery, do the following:

  1. On the navbar, expand Infrastructure Admin > EmpowerID Servers and Settings navigate to the Email Settings page by expanding Infrastructure Admin > EmpowerID Servers and Settings and then click Email Settings.
  2. Select SMTP from the Email Delivery Mode drop-down.
  3. In the SMTP Mail Delivery Settings pane, enter the following information:
    • Account with Vaulted Password for Authenticated SMTP — Select the user account to be used by EmpowerID to authenticate to the SMTP server and to send automated responses on behalf of the system. This account must have a password that is vaulted in EmpowerID. If the account does not have a password that is vaulted, please see How to Vault Account Passwords below and then return to complete the setup.
    • SMTP From Address — This specifies the default From address the system should use when sending automated emails to your user.
    • SMTP Server DNS — This specifies the DNS or IP address of the SMTP server in your environment.
  4. Save your changes.

When configuring EmpowerID for authenticated SMTP, the mailbox selected for reading and processing emails takes precedence over the setting entered in the SMTP From Address setting.


If you are using a mail delivery system other than Exchange that supports SMTP, then you need to create a tracking-only account store and add an account with the appropriate credentials, as well as a user principal name, for that system to that account store. You then vault the password for that user account. For information on creating tracking-only account stores, see Creating Tracking-Only Account Stores.


  1. From the navigation sidebar, expand Identity Administration and click User Accounts.
  2. Search for the user account and then click the Logon Name link for it.
  3. From the View One page for the account, expand the Actions accordion and then click the Edit Vaulted Account Password button.



  4. On the Service Account Credentials page that appears, do the following:
    1. Click Encryption Certificate and select a certificate for encrypting the password.
    2. Enter the password in the Password and Confirm Password fields
    3. Click Submit.



    4. Click OK to close the Operation Execution Summary.
    5. Return to the EmpowerID System Settings page and edit any of the other SMTP settings as needed.

  1. On the navbar, expand Infrastructure Admin, then EmpowerID Servers and Settings, and click Email Settings.
  2. Select Exchange EWS from the Email Delivery Mode drop-down.
  3. On the Email Settings page, edit the following settings:
    • — This specifies the user account EmpowerID uses to authenticate to the EWS server as well as to send automated emails on behalf of the system. This account needs to have its password vaulted in EmpowerID.
    • — This specifies the URL to the EWS server. If you are using Office 365, the value of the URL should be https://outlook.office365.com/EWS/Exchange.asmx.

For EmpowerID to process email approvals, the task or operation being approved or rejected must have the EnableBulkApproval set to trueThis is set in Workflow Studio.


If you are using SMTP, follow the procedure outlined in the Configuring EmpowerID for authenticated SMTP Delivery section, including vaulting a user account; otherwise, following the procedure outlined in the Configuring EmpowerID for EWS section. After completing those steps, do the below steps.

  1. On the navbar, expand Infrastructure Admin, then EmpowerID Servers and Settings, and click Email Settings.
  2. On the Email settings page, select Enable Approve by Email Reply.