See what email integration changes at your institution
Before vs. after adding email integration to iVake
Where you are today
Holding you back
A data request means searching inboxes
A parent asks what the institution has sent and received about their child, and staff spend days searching several mailboxes to answer.
Pain point
A counsellor leaves, and so do the enquiries
When a counsellor resigns, weeks of unanswered enquiry emails turn up in a personal inbox after the families have joined elsewhere.
Pain point
A shared inbox with no owner
Several people keep an eye on admissions@, nobody is sure who replied, and families get two different answers or none.
Pain point
Every call starts from the beginning
A parent rings about a scholarship appeal, the thread sits in a colleague’s mailbox, and the family has to explain it all again.
Pain point
- 5+Inboxes holding one family’s emails
- DaysTo gather a history for a request
- WeeksBefore an unanswered email is found
Your institution, transformed
Everything connected
The history is on the record
Emails sent and received about a student sit on their record, so a rights request is answered from one place.
Solved
Emails stay when staff leave
Linked emails remain on the record, and open conversations are reassigned to a colleague in one step.
Solved
Department inboxes with owners
Mail to admissions@ or accounts@ is assigned to a person, and everyone sees what is answered and what is waiting.
Solved
Whoever picks up can answer
The full thread, whoever sent it, is on the family’s record in front of the person taking the call.
Solved
- 1Timeline per student or applicant
- 0Emails lost with a departing inbox
- 1Owner for every department email
Ready to make the switch? See how it works for your institution.
Whoever picks up sees the whole conversation
A family should not have to repeat themselves because the last reply went from a different person’s mailbox. With email on the record, whoever takes the call reads the whole thread first.
- Incoming emails matched to the student, applicant, parent or supplier by sender address
- Emails sent from a record logged with attachments, time and the staff member who sent them
- Replies threaded under the original, whoever sent it and whoever answers
Shared inboxes where every email has an owner
When everyone watches admissions@, nobody owns it. Assignment makes each email one person’s job, and the rest of the team can see where it stands.
- Mail to admissions@, accounts@ or exams@ assigned by programme, counsellor, class or in turn
- One view of what is assigned, answered, waiting and overdue
- Emails unanswered past the time you set are raised with the department head
Bulk letters that fill themselves in
Scholarship letters, fee statements and exam notices go to hundreds of families at once. Templates fill in each record’s details, batches go out when you choose, and bad addresses are found rather than ignored.
- Templates with fields filled from the record: name, class, programme, amount due and date
- Batches prepared once and scheduled to send at the time you choose
- Delivery and bounces shown per recipient, with bad addresses flagged on the record
Email integration features
Everything you need to manage email integration effectively
Google Workspace
Gmail mailboxes connected through your Google sign-in.
Microsoft 365
Outlook and Exchange Online mailboxes connected the same way.
IMAP & SMTP
Any standard mail server, including your own domain’s host.
Department mailboxes
admissions@, accounts@ and exams@ connected side by side.
Inbox reports
Response times and overdue emails by department and person.
Templates
Letters with fields filled from the record, approved before sending.
Access by role
Emails visible only to staff allowed to see that record.
Audit trail
Sends, assignments and reassignments logged with who made them.
Frequently asked questions
Get answers to common questions about email integration
Which email systems can be connected?
Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 mailboxes are connected by authorising access once, so no email passwords are stored in iVake. Other providers and self-hosted servers connect over standard IMAP and SMTP. Department mailboxes such as admissions@ and accounts@ can be connected side by side, alongside individual staff mailboxes where you want them.
How does an email find the right student or applicant?
The sender’s address is matched against the addresses held on student, parent, applicant, staff and supplier records. Where one person holds more than one role, the receiving mailbox decides: an email to accounts@ goes to the fee record. An enrolment or application number in the subject also helps, and anything still unmatched waits for a person to assign it.
Can we control which staff see which emails?
Yes. Email follows the same access rules as the rest of iVake, set by campus, department, programme and role. A class teacher sees emails about their own sections, not the accounts office’s correspondence with the same family, and financial and health correspondence is restricted separately.
What happens to emails when a staff member leaves?
Every email linked to a record stays on that record. Because staff accounts are closed from your Google Workspace, Microsoft Entra ID or SAML directory, the person’s access ends when they leave, and their open conversations are reassigned to a colleague in one step.
Do emails come from our own domain, and are they tracked?
Emails go out through your own connected mailboxes, so families see your institution’s address and replies come back to the record. Delivery and bounces are recorded so bad addresses can be corrected. iVake does no advertising, behavioural profiling or ad-tech tracking of students.
Can we send templated batches such as fee statements or scholarship letters?
Yes. A template is written once with fields filled from each record, sent to a group such as every parent with an instalment due, and can go through an approval before it is released. Batches can be scheduled for a set date and time.
Does this help us answer a DPDP Act request?
Access, correction and erasure requests can be answered from one student record rather than assembled across systems, and linked emails are part of that record. This describes how the product is built; it is not legal advice, and your institution remains responsible for its own compliance.
Do WhatsApp and SMS still work alongside email?
Yes. WhatsApp Business, DLT-registered SMS and email all run from the same record, and each message is logged against the record it came from, so the timeline shows every channel together.
- Cloud, hosted in your region
- REST API & webhooks
- SSO: Google, Microsoft & SAML
Encrypted, backed up daily- Built for the DPDP Act
- Full security details
Built for your institution type
See how this feature works for your specific institution
CBSE, ICSE & state-board schoolsParent emails on the child’s record, not a teacher’s inbox
UniversitiesDepartment mailboxes across campuses, on one record
Degree collegesAdmissions and exam office mailboxes with owners
ITIs, polytechnics & skill centresEnquiry emails answered from one shared queue
Playschools & pre-primaryParent emails answered by whoever is on duty
School groups & trustsEach branch’s shared inboxes, every email with an owner
Integrations, comparisons & tools
Extend email integration with integrations, see how iVake compares, and run the numbers
Related features
Email Marketing
Campaigns to enquiries, families and alumni, logged against each record.
CRM
Every enquiry in one pipeline, assigned by rule and traced to the admission.
Helpdesk
Questions from families and staff tracked to an answer, with an owner for each.
WhatsApp Integration
Receipts, alerts and replies on WhatsApp, logged against the record.
Student Management
One student record from enquiry to alumni, read by every module.
Admission Management
Enquiries, applications, documents and fees on the record that becomes the student.
More in finance & administration
Explore other features in this category
Ready to transform your email communication?
See how iVake puts every email on the record it concerns, so any member of staff can pick up a conversation where it was left.
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