Set-OutlookSignatures Benefactor Circle

Email signatures and out-of-office replies are an integral part of corporate identity and corporate design, of successful concepts for media and internet presence, and of marketing campaigns. Similar to web presences, business emails are usually subject to an imprint obligation, and non-compliance can result in severe penalties.

Central management and deployment ensures that design guidelines are met, guarantees correct and up-to-date content, helps comply with legal requirements, relieves staff and creates an additional marketing and sales channel.

You can do all this, and more, with Set-OutlookSignatures and the Benefactor Circle add-on.

Set-OutlookSignatures is the open-source gold standard for email signatures and out-of-office replies in Exchange and all of Outlook: Classic and New, local and roaming, Windows, Web, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS
Download the free and open-source core version from GitHub for free.

ExplicIT’s Benefactor Circle add-on enhances the open-source version with a great set of additional features and first-class commercial support.

Request a free interactive product demo     Request a trial version or a license quote     Get commercial support    

Table of Contents

• 1. Overview and features
• 2. Demo
• 3. Benefactor Circle exclusive features
• 4. Financial benefits of centrally managing signatures and out-of-office replies
• 5. Commercial support
• 6. Buying, extending and changing licenses
  • 6.1. Price and general information
  • 6.2. Trial version
  • 6.3. Order process for non-trial versions
  • 6.4. Extending or reducing a license period
  • 6.5. Reducing the number of licensed mailboxes
  • 6.6. Moving licensed mailboxes between license groups
  • 6.7. Increasing the number of licensed mailboxes
• 7. How license groups work
• 8. License and software version
• 9. Data protection notice

1. Overview and features

With Set-OutlookSignatures, signatures and out-of-office replies can be:

• Generated from templates in DOCX or HTML file format
• Customized with a broad range of variables, including photos, from Active Directory and other sources
  • Variables are available for the currently logged-on user, this user’s manager, each mailbox and each mailbox’s manager
  • Images in signatures can be bound to the existence of certain variables (useful for optional social network icons, for example)
• Designed for barrier-free accessibility with custom link and image descriptions for screen readers and comparable tools
• Applied to all mailboxes (including shared mailboxes), specific mailbox groups, specific email addresses or specific user or mailbox properties, for every mailbox across all Outlook profiles (Outlook, New Outlook, Outlook Web), including automapped and additional mailboxes
• Created with different names from the same template, one template can be used for multiple shared mailboxes
• Assigned time ranges within which they are valid
• Set as default signature for new emails, or for replies and forwards (signatures only)
• Set as default OOF message for internal or external recipients (OOF messages only)
• Set in Outlook Web for the currently logged-in user, including mirroring signatures the the cloud as roaming signatures
• Centrally managed only, or exist along user-created signatures (signatures only)
• Automatically added to new emails, reply emails and appointments with the Outlook add-in¹
• Copied to an additional path for easy access to signatures on mobile devices or for use with email clients and apps besides Outlook: Apple Mail, Google Gmail, Samsung Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird, GNOME Evolution, KDE KMail, and others.
• Create an email draft containing all available signatures in HTML and plain text for easy access in mail clients that do not have a signatures API
• Write protected (Outlook for Windows signatures only)

Set-OutlookSignatures can be run by users on Windows, Linux and macOS clients, including shared devices and terminal servers - or on a central system with a service account.
On clients, it can run as part of the logon script, as scheduled task, or on user demand via a desktop icon, start menu entry, shortcut or any other way of starting a program - whatever your operating system and software deployment mechanism allows.
Signatures and OOF messages can also be created and pushed into mailboxes centrally, without end user or client involvement.

Sample templates for signatures and OOF messages demonstrate many features and are provided as .docx and .htm files.

Simulation mode allows content creators and admins to simulate the behavior of the software for a specific user at a specific point in time, and to inspect the resulting signature files before going live.

SimulateAndDeploy allows to deploy signatures to Outlook Web/New Outlook without any client deployment or end user interaction, making it ideal for users that only log on to web services but never to a client (users with a Microsoft 365 F-license, for example).

The software is designed to work in big and complex environments (Exchange resource forest scenarios, across AD trusts, multi-level AD subdomains, many objects). It works on premises, in hybrid and in cloud-only environments.
All national clouds are supported: Public (AzurePublic), US Government L4 (AzureUSGovernment), US Government L5 (AzureUSGovernment DoD), China (AzureChinaCloud operated by 21Vianet).

It is multi-client capable by using different template paths, configuration files and script parameters.

Set-OutlookSignatures requires no installation on servers or clients. You only need a standard SMB file share on a central system, and optionally Office on your clients.
There is also no telemetry or “calling home”, emails are not routed through a 3rd party data center or cloud service, and there is no need to change DNS records (MX, SPF) or mail flow.

A documented implementation approach, based on real life experiences implementing the software in multi-client environments with a five-digit number of mailboxes, contains proven procedures and recommendations for product managers, architects, operations managers, account managers and email and client administrators.
The implementation approach is suited for service providers as well as for clients, and covers several general overview topics, administration, support, training across the whole lifecycle from counselling to tests, pilot operation and rollout up to daily business.

The software core is Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS). It is published under a license which is approved, among others, by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and the Open Source Initiative (OSI), and is compatible with the General Public License (GPL) and other popular licenses.

ExplicIT Consulting’s commercial Benefactor Circle add-on enhances Set-OutlookSignatures with additional features and commercial support, ensuring that the core of Set-OutlookSignatures can remain Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) and continues to evolve.

Feature comparison

Feature	Set‑OutlookSignatures with Benefactor Circle	Market Companion A	Market Companion B	Market Companion C
Free and Open-Source core	🟢	🔴	🔴	🔴
Emails stay in your environment (no re-routing to 3rd party datacenters)	🟢	🔴	🔴	🔴
Is hosted and runs in environments that you already trust and for which you have established security and management structures	🟢	🔴	🔴	🔴
Entra ID and Active Directory permissions	🟢 User (a.k.a. delegated) permissions, least privilege principle	🔴 Application permissions, read all directory data (and transfer all emails)	🔴 Application permissions, read all directory data (and transfer all emails)	🔴 Application permissions, read all directory data (and read all emails)
Entra ID and Active Directory data stays in your environment (no transfer to 3rd party datacenters)	🟢	🔴	🔴	🔴
Requires an Exchange configuration or adds a dependency to it	🟢	🔴	🔴	🔴
Multiple independent instances can be run in the same environment	🟢	🔴	🔴	🔴
No telemetry or usage data collection, direct or indirect	🟢	🔴	🔴	🔴
No auto-renewing subscription	🟢	🔴	🔴	🔴
IT can delegate signature management, e.g. to marketing	🟢	🟢	🟡 Not at signature level	🟡 Not at signature level
Apply signatures to all emails	🟡 Outlook clients only	🟢 With email re-routing to a 3rd party datacenter	🟢 With email re-routing to a 3rd party datacenter	🟢 With email re-routing to a 3rd party datacenter
Additional data sources besides Active Directory and Entra ID	🟢	🟡	🔴	🔴
Support for Microsoft national clouds	🟢 Global/Public, US Government L4 (GCC, GCC High), US Government L5 (DOD), China operated by 21Vianet	🔴	🔴	🔴
Support for Microsoft roaming signatures (multiple signatures in Outlook Web and New Outlook)	🟢	🔴	🔴	🔴
Number of templates	🟢 Unlimited	🔴 1, more charged extra	🟢 Unlimited	🟢 Unlimited
Targeting and exclusion	🟢	🔴 Charged extra	🟢	🟢
Scheduling	🟢	🔴 Charged extra	🟢	🟢
Banners	🟢 Unlimited	🔴 1, more charged extra	🟢 Unlimited	🟢 Unlimited
QR codes and vCards	🟢	🔴 Charged extra	🔴 Charged extra	🟢
Signature visible while writing	🟢	🟡	🟡	🟡
Signature visible in Sent Items	🟢	🟡 Cloud mailboxes only	🟡 Cloud mailboxes only	🟡 Cloud mailboxes only
Out-of-office reply messages	🟢	🔴 Charged extra	🟡 Same for internal and external senders	🔴 Charged extra
User-controlled email signatures	🟢	🟡	🟡	🟡
Signatures for encrypted messages	🟢	🟡	🟡	🟡
Signatures for delegates, shared, additional and automapped mailboxes	🟢	🟡 No mixing of sender and delegate replacement variables	🟡 No mixing of sender and delegate replacement variables	🟡 No mixing of sender and delegate replacement variables
Outlook add-in	🟡 No on-prem mailboxes on mobile devices	🟡 Not for appointments	🟡 Not for appointments	🟢
Support pricing model	🟢 Charged per support hour	🔴 Charged if used or not	🔴 Charged if used or not	🔴 Charged if used or not
Software escrow	🟢 To the free and open-source Set‑OutlookSignatures project	🔴	🔴	🔴
License cost, 100 mailboxes, 1 year	🟢 appr.   0.2k €	🔴 appr.   1.6k €	🟡 appr.   1.3k €	🔴 appr.   1.6k €
License cost, 250 mailboxes, 1 year	🟢 appr.   0.5k €	🔴 appr.   4.0k €	🟡 appr.   2.7k €	🔴 appr.   3.6k €
License cost, 500 mailboxes, 1 year	🟢 appr.   1.0k €	🔴 appr.   8.0k €	🟡 appr.   4.4k €	🟡 appr.   6.2k €
License cost, 1,000 mailboxes, 1 year	🟢 appr.   2.1k €	🔴 appr.  15.7k €	🟡 appr.   8.7k €	🟡 appr.  10.5k €
License cost, 10,000 mailboxes, 1 year	🟢 appr.  21.0k €	🔴 appr. 110.0k €	🟡 appr.  65.0k €	🟡 appr.  41.0k €

2. Demo

Contact us for a free interactive product demonstration: Ask for a free product demo

For a quick overview, the basic features are shown in our demo video:

3. Benefactor Circle exclusive features

4. Financial benefits of centrally managing signatures and out-of-office replies

There are three relevant questions to calculate the financial benefits:

• How much do non-compliant signatures and out-of-office replies cost in terms of loss of reputation or in terms of fines for non-compliance?
• What is the added value of using email as an additional marketing channel?
• Does the new software cost less than the effort we want to save users?

While the first two are difficult to calculate and very individual, the last question is easier to answer. Let’s assume that an average employee costs 50,000 EUR per year from the employer’s point of view (including all taxes, social security, etc.) for 1,800 hours of work. This gives costs of 0.47 EUR for each minute of employee work.

Other parameters we need are:

• How many times a year do parameters relevant to signatures change (corporate design, job title, logos, marketing banners, etc.)?
• How many minutes does it take a user to correctly update a single signature (including reading the instructions)?
• How many signatures does a user typically need to keep up to date (internal and external, language, tone, signatures for shared mailboxes)?
• On how many clients does a user need to update the signatures?

Formula: CostPerMinute * NumberOfChanges * NumberOfMinutes * NumberOfSignatures * NumberOfClients = Cost in EUR per user and year to manually keep signatures up to date

Let’s assume 2 changes per year, 3 minutes for making the change (including reading the instructions) per signature, 2 signatures, 1 client. This results in 5.64 EUR per user and year (0.47 * 2 * 3 * 2 * 1).

Per user and year, the costs are now 5.64 EUR in manual effort compared to 2.10 EUR for a centrally managed solution with Set-OutlookSignatures.

This calculation does not even take into account

• the manual effort for shared mailboxes,
• the manual effort for out-of-office replies,
• the loss in reputation because of incorrect data entered manually,
• the damage to the external image of the brand due to non-compliance with CI/CD guidelines,
• the cost of non-compliance with regulations,
• and the added value of an additional marketing channel.

Set-OutlookSignatures pays for itself immediately and actually helps you earn more money.

5. Commercial support

Whether you use the free and open-source version of Set-OutlookSignatures or the Benefactor Circle add-on as a trial or annual license: ExplicIT always provides first-class commercial support.

You prefer to be guided through the setup and customization process instead of working through the documentation yourself? You are looking for customized workshops, hands-on implementation support, training, template creation assistance and other services related to centralized email signature and out-of-office reply management? Then our offer is just right for you.

You are not buying just any support, but our comprehensive expertise as manufacturer, consultant and implementer. For us, support means not only providing a solution to your problem, but also passing on our experience to you so that you know how and why. Our support is therefore an investment in your own knowledge and that of your employees, which pays off immediately.

Our all-round carefree support promise: If the cause of your support request is a bug in the latest version of Set-OutlookSignatures, the Benefactor Circle add-on, their documentation or one of the supplied components, support is free - no ifs, ands or buts. In all other cases, you get the same first-class support at a fair price.

Request commercial support

6. Buying, extending and changing licenses

6.1. Price and general information

The price currently is 2.10 EUR net per mailbox and year, which is less than 0.18 EUR net per mailbox and month.

We keep license costs as fair as possible. Fair means:

• Small companies always just pay the same low price as big enterprises.
• No maintenance contracts or support contracts that are advertised as “free” but really are hidden in the annual price and are never used to the extent that you pay for over the years.
  With us, you only pay for the support you actually need - due to the extensive documentation, this is usually not even necessary. If the cause of your support request is a bug in the latest version of Set-OutlookSignatures, the Benefactor Circle add-on, their documentation or one of the supplied components, support is free - no ifs, ands or buts.
• No additional infrastructure that someone else runs for you and for which costs are incurred regardless of usage.
  No interfaces that regularly transfer your data to external data centers for the preparation of signatures and to which you have to redirect every email for the application of signatures.
  Everything runs on your existing systems, which you already trust and govern, and within your own security boundaries.
• No deliberately inflated prices that are then “discounted” through negotiations.
  
  

There is no minimum number of mailboxes, only a minimum amount of EUR 210.00 net per invoice.

Each mailbox in your environment for which you want to use an exclusive Benefactor Circle feature requires a license. This also applies to shared mailboxes.

It does not matter how many users access a mailbox. If you only want to provide signatures for a single mailbox that is used by 50 people, you only need to purchase 1 license.

The mailboxes do not need to be named, you just need to define at least one Active Directory or Entra ID group containing the mailboxes and the maximum number of recursive members for each group.

It doesn’t matter how many signatures you have or how often you change them.

Licenses are payable in advance and are valid for one year from the date of receipt of full payment. There is no automatic renewal or subscription.

As long as a license is valid, it includes free version upgrades and prioritization of support requests.

We work hard to keep our prices as low and stable as possible, with the aim of only adjusting them for inflation. So prices are subject to change. Since you pay upfront, you can and will never be charged after the fact.

If you wish to add additional mailboxes during an active license period, you will only be charged the current price for these additional mailboxes for the remaining months of your license period.

6.2. Trial version

You may want to start with a 14-day trial license.

The Benefactor Circle add-on extends the feature set of the free and open-source core version of Set-OutlookSignatures, so make sure that the core version is working correctly before requesting a trial version.
If you look for help implementing the free and open-source core version of Set-OutlookSignatures, go through the Quick Start Guide in the readme file, open an issue at GitHub, or contact us: We are happy to help you implement Set-OutlookSignatures in your own environment as part of our commercial support.

As soon as the open-source core version is running, it is time to take the next step:
Request a full-featured 14-day trial license

To use the license file, just add two parameters to your call of Set-OutlookSignatures.ps1:

• BenefactorCircleLicenseFile with the path to your individualized license file
• BenefactorCircleId with your Benefactor Circle ID

Trial licenses can not be extended or re-issued. They are limited to 14 days runtime and a maximum of 20 mailboxes.
The trial period starts when we create and submit the trial version, not with you using it for the first time (that’s not possible, as our software does not phone home).
It is strongly recommended to start your trial only when the free and open-source version of Set-OutlookSignatures has already been implemented successfully. Also make sure you have a test plan and reserved time to execute it.

6.3. Order process for non-trial versions

Request a license quote for Set-OutlookSignatures Benefactor Circle

You will receive a quote shortly. As soon as all details are ironed out, you will receive an invoice and can start the payment process.

As soon as the full invoice amount is received, you will be sent an email with instructions on how to securely download your individualized license file.

To use the license file, just add two parameters to your call of Set-OutlookSignatures.ps1:

• BenefactorCircleFile with the path to your individualized license file
• BenefactorCircleId with your Benefactor Circle ID

6.4. Extending or reducing a license period

A license period cannot be extended. Licenses are valid for one year, starting with the date the full payment is received, and do not auto-renew.

To continue using Set-OutlookSignatures with Benefactor Circle benefits, just place a new order to receive a new license file.

You will be informed in advance that your license is about to expire.

6.5. Reducing the number of licensed mailboxes

The total number of licensed mailboxes can not be reduced during a license period (one year starting from the date of payment reception), as the license fees are paid in advance.

6.6. Moving licensed mailboxes between license groups

Moving licenses means that the total number of licensed mailboxes does not change, but their distribution across license groups. This can, for example, be necessary due to Active Directory consolidations.

Shifting licenses between license groups is possible once per license period.

If more license shifts are required, additional licenses have to be acquired temporarily, the total number of licenses can then be reduced when the new license period begins.

6.7. Increasing the number of licensed mailboxes

When adding licenses during a license period, you only pay for the new mailboxes and only for the remaining months in the running license period. The license price for the new mailboxes is the list price at the time ordering the additional mailboxes.

The new payment does not extend the existing license period, but it increases the number of licensed mailboxes in it.

An example:

• After a trial with 20 mailboxes, you start a pilot with 75 mailboxes in mid of April 2023. The license is valid until mid of April 2024, with the following cost: max(210; (75 * 2.10)) = 210.00 EUR net
• As the pilot is a success, the number of licensed mailboxes is raised to 7,500 in July 2023.
  • The license period does not change, the license is still valid from mid of April 2023 to mid of April 2024, of course with the higher number of mailboxes.
• The added licenses result in the following costs:
  • Year 1 total cost of 13,203.75 EUR, consisting of
    • Year 1 cost for 75 mailboxes for 12 months: max(210; (75 * 2.10)) = 210.00 EUR net
    • Year 1 additional mailboxes for 10 months (July 2023 to mid of April 2024): max(210; ((7,500 - 75) * 2.10 / 12 * 10) = 12,993.75 EUR net
  • As long as the price is not changing, the consecutive years will cost: max(210; (7,500 * 2.10)) = 15,750.00 EUR net

7. How license groups work

Each Benefactor Circle license is bound to one or more Active Directory or Entra ID groups, called a license group. For maximum data protection and ease of administration, licensing is not bound to specific mailboxes (“named users”), but only to a group with a maximum amount of members.

For most environments, only one license group is needed.
In on-prem and hybrid environments with multiple Active Directory domains, you may define a separate license group for each AD DNS domain, each license group with a separate maximum member count. When a license group for the home Active Directory domain of a mailbox is defined, this license group is used. If not, the license group defined as default will be used.

A license group definition consists of three components:

• The DNS domain name of the on-premises Active Directory domain the license group is located in. Use ‘EntraID’ for cloud-only groups.
• The SID (security identifier) or the Entra ID Object ID of the license group.
• The maximum number of mailboxes licensed for the group.

Where should I create the license group?

• When using the ‘-GraphOnly true’ parameter, create the group in Entra ID. The license group is then ‘EntraID <Object ID of your license group>’. You may also a group created in on-prem Active Directory, as long as it is synchronized to Entra ID. The license group is then ‘<On-prem Active Directory DNS domain name>, <SID of the license group>’.
• In hybrid environments without using the ‘-GraphOnly true’ parameter, create a group in your on-prem Active Directory and make sure it is synchronized with Entra ID. The license group is then ‘<On-prem Active Directory DNS domain name>, <SID of the license group>’. You can also use a group created in Entra ID (‘EntraID, <Object ID of the license group>’), which would basically be equal to using the ‘-GraphOnly true’ parameter.
• In pure on-prem environments, you can only use on-prem groups. The license group is then ‘<On-prem Active Directory DNS domain name>, <SID of the license group>’. When moving to a hybrid environment, you do not need to adapt the configuration as long as you synchronize your on-prem groups to Entra ID.

When a Benefactor Circle exclusive feature is about to be used, the license is checked as follows:

1. Determine which license group to use.
   1. Extract the AD DNS domain name from the mailbox’ distinguishedName or dnsDomainName property.
   2. When the step above returns an AD DNS domain name and if a license group is defined for it, use this group. Else, use the first group in the list.
2. Find the license group via a Graph or Active Directory query.
3. Check if the number of direct and indirect (a.k.a nested, recursive, transitive) members is less or equal than the number of mailboxes licensed for this group.
4. Check if the current mailbox is a member of the license group.

As soon as one of these steps fails, the mailbox is not licensed and Benefactor Circle features can not be used for it.

You need to make sure that the user running Set-OutlookSignatures is able to resolve all direct and indirect members of all license groups, especially across on-prem AD trusts.
Primary group membership (such as in ‘Domain Users’) is not considered due to Active Directory and Entra ID query restrictions.
Dynamic groups are supported when Entra ID is queried, but not when Active Directory is queried.

Only one pure Entra ID group is supported, and it must be the default license group.

The default license group is the first group in the list of license groups. The default group is used for mailboxes not being covered by more specific license groups.

When a connection to Microsoft Graph is available, Graph is used to check license group membership. A connection to Graph is enforced when the default license group is an Entra ID group.

8. License and software version

License and software versions go hand in hand, so every new release of Set-OutlookSignatures also means a new license release, and vice-versa.

Using different versions of software and license file is not supported, as this leads to unexpected results.

A warning message is logged when a version mismatch is detected.

9. Data protection notice

Set-OutlookSignatures and the Benefactor Circle license add-on do not store any telemetry data, do not “phone home”, and do not transfer any data, only the absolute minimum necessary data between:

• the end user’s Windows client,
• the end user’s on-prem Active Directory and/or Entra ID,
• the end user’s Exchange or Exchange Online system,
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Set-OutlookSignatures/Set-OutlookSignatures/main/docs/releases.txt to check for new releases,
• and the file server or SharePoint document library storing the sofware, it’s sub-components, template and configuration files.

The data transfer always happens in the security context of the user executing the program.

For license purposes, only the absolutely required information is stored and processed: Invoice address, email addresses for technical and commercial communication, license group information (domain, SID, maximum members) and payment information.