AWS Simple Email Service (SES®)

Beginning with BillMax version 2022 Q3, BillMax can be configured to use AWS SES service to send email. Using AWS SES to send email has many advantages over sending email through an MTA and associated mail system and configuration. These include:

  1. Greatly improved delivery success rate
  2. Reduced administrative burden
  3. Status Tracking (delivered, bounced, opened, …)
  4. Scalable to 100’s of thousand emails
  5. Reputation management

With AWS SES, emails are more likely to be received by mail servers and not bounced or placed into SPAM folders. This is accomplished by proper setup of: DNS, SPF alignment, DKIM signatures. In addition, emails can be configured to originate with dedicated IP addresses so bad practices of other senders won’t adversely affect your sending domain’s reputation.

Administratively, there’s less to figure out and maintain. For example, SendMail and Postfix can be configured to sign emails but the process doubles the amount of setup over that of non-signed emails. And this of course means more to maintain as well.

In addition to sending email through AWS SES®, BillMax can be configured to receive and process notices of various events related to the email sent. The events hold the status of the email delivery. Possible status values include but not limited to: Delivered, Bounced, Rejected, Opened.

Aside from proper configuration, AWS SES® also includes tools for managing your sending domain’s reputation. For example, SES maintains suppression lists where previously problematic email addresses are quarantined instead of being sent to a mail server. Such techniques can help to improve your bounce rate and reputation, thus improving overall deliver-ability.

BillMax offers an optional service where BillMax will host and maintain the AWS SES services to send email for your BillMax instance. While your domain or sub-domain can be used in this service, the use of a BillMax domain for sending is recommended as this allows for complete outsourcing of the email sending infrastructure. Contact sales@billmax.com for full details.