Is this a case where Ironport Encryption is being used to send the messages, or is it some other encryption method?

From your message it sounds like its your users complaining about someone else's encryption.

The best the Ironport appliance could do with that is to just pass the messages on unchanged so that it's not any more difficult to open the messages.

We are passing outbound email through the IEA and it is using its method to encrypt.
However many users are complaining that they can not open the email because of browser issues, registration issues and few other assorted reasons. The point here is that many more are unsuccessful than successful - this begs the question of how usable this product is. Recognizably there is some education needed of the user (pop-up disablement, etc) but are there any practices for rollout that might aid us. Any landmines that others have navigated to overcome the fact that external users and their devices cannot be controlled? Can't the implementation of this product be made more vanilla?

Thanks and sorry to be long-winded!

What version of the IEA are you running? Do you use the IEA for anything other than encrypting emails?

Hopefully your recipients open cases via support@res.cisco.com, we are very responsive and resolve most issues brought to us.

Also, you may want to peruse the FAQ, most common issues are addressed there.
https://res.cisco.com/websafe/help?topic=FAQ

We are currently looking very closely at the end user experience and are working with our User Experience team to make opening the messages as intuitive as possible.

regards.

We are using version 6.2.2, is there a later release that might resolve similar issues? We are using the IEA for outbound email encryption only.

Our users are calling our Help Desk directly. If they were to call you would you be able to assist them with regard to a specific email as a part of our environment?

Appreciate the suggestion of the FAQ's, they are helpful but after the fact with regard to user frustration.