Shared mailboxes · Outlook
Your Outlook shared mailbox. Everyone knows who is handling what.
orders@, service@ and invoices@ receive work every day. When nobody knows who has it, things get delayed or answered twice. Kerna shows who is handling each case and where it stands, to everyone on your Kerna team who has access to that mailbox.
Facts checked against the product on .
The problem
Everyone can see the email. Nobody knows who is handling it.
Several people can open a shared mailbox. But the email itself does not say who should answer it.
- Two people answer the same customer, sometimes with different information.
- Everyone assumes someone else took the awkward one, so the customer gets no answer.
- "Who's taking this?" gets settled in a chat, not on the email.
- When someone is away, it is hard to tell what they were handling and where it stands.
Every case shows whether someone has it, and where it stands.
In an Outlook shared mailbox, Kerna shows who is handling each case and where it stands, to everyone on your Kerna team who opens that mailbox. On Business and Enterprise plans.
Shared mailbox · orders@
How it works
Assign it, set the status, mark it done.
Assignments and statuses show on the email for everyone on your Kerna team who has access to the mailbox. They use no AI and no tokens.
- 01
Take it, or assign it to someone
Open the email and click I'll take it, or choose Assign to… to give it to someone else on your Kerna team.
From then on, everyone's triage shows who has it. Only that person or a team leader can change the assignment.
- 02
Set the status
Choose from Open, In progress, Waiting on customer, Waiting on others, Needs review, On hold and Done.
When someone on the team replies, in Kerna or directly in Outlook, Kerna sets it to Waiting on customer. When the customer writes back, it reopens and is marked Customer replied.
The update happens the next time the email is shown in Kerna.
- 03
See whether someone is already replying
While someone writes a reply in Kerna, colleagues who open the same email see that before they start their own.
- 04
Mark it done
Done removes the case from everyone's triage. Kerna also adds the Outlook category Done (Kerna) in the shared mailbox, so the closed case is visible in Outlook too.
Your open cases are in Assigned to me in Kerna. Team leaders also have To review and the Team overview, which shows who is handling what.
In practice
Three mailboxes, the same rules
What everyday work can look like in three common shared mailboxes.
A request for quotation arrives. Marek clicks I'll take it and prepares the quote. Once it is sent, the status changes to Waiting on customer the next time the case is shown in Kerna. The team knows who has it and whose reply it is waiting for.
Anna starts replying to a complaint in Kerna. Kasia opens the same email, sees that, and does not write a second reply.
Once the invoice is paid, the person handling it sets it to Done. It leaves the team's triage and gets the Done (Kerna) category in Outlook. Nobody has to move the email to a separate folder to show it is dealt with.
Alternatives
How do teams manage it today?
Teams use categories, agreements in a chat or a separate ticketing system. Each has its strengths and its limits.
- Colour categories in Outlook
- They help keep work in order if everyone follows the same rules. But they do not show that someone is already writing a reply.
- "I've got this one" in a chat
- A quick way to split the work, but the agreement stays in the chat. Someone who opens the email later may not know about it.
- A help-desk system
- Can be a good choice for high volume or more complex processes. It usually means rolling out another tool and getting the team used to a new way of working.
Data and retention
What IT and procurement will ask
Kerna stores who is handling a conversation and its status, never its content.
- What is stored: who the conversation is assigned to, its status, who started a reply in Kerna, and the time of the latest change. When Kerna changes the status itself, it also records why. No email content, subject or sender (privacy policy, section 2.8).
- How a conversation is identified: by the shared mailbox address and Outlook's conversation identifier.
- How long it is kept: 90 days after the conversation is marked done, otherwise one year after the last change. It is also deleted with the team owner's account.
- What is written to the mailbox: only the Outlook category Done (Kerna). Kerna adds it when a conversation is marked done and removes it if the conversation is reopened.
- When changes are checked: when someone opens a conversation, a triage result or a team list in Kerna. Nothing runs in the background.
- Who has access: Kerna works only in shared mailboxes you can already open in Outlook, and never gives anyone access they do not already have.
The full list of what Kerna stores, and for how long, is on the trust page.
What you need
- An Outlook shared mailbox that you can already open.
- A Kerna team on the Business or Enterprise plan. Each person has to accept the team invitation.
- Each person who should receive assignments opens the mailbox with Kerna once.
Kerna sends no email notifications about assignments. Your cases are in Assigned to me in Kerna.
What it costs
Team status is part of these plans:
- Business: €69 a month for 5 seats.
- Enterprise: €499 a month for 25 seats.
Both plans share one token allowance across the team. Assigning and setting statuses use no tokens.
See the plansTry it in your own shared mailbox.
Kerna works inside the Outlook you already use. Set up a team, open the shared mailbox and click I'll take it on the first email. Your colleagues will see that you are handling it.