Before any kind of sharing of data can occur in a Microsoft Exchange environment, permission to access information within an account must be granted BY an individual or group TO an individual or group. Oftentimes, for lack of a better term, the individual or group granting permission is the delegator and the individual or group receiving permission to access another’s files is known as the delegate.
The use of the generic terms 'delegate' and 'delegator' can be a bit deceiving considering that within Outlook the term Delegate Access is different than how many people use the generic term delegate when talking about the organization of a business and the sharing of files in an Exchange environment. There are actually two different ways to be a delegator and provide access to elements of your Mailbox content: Delegate Access and Folder Sharing. According to Microsoft:
"Delegate Access is an Outlook feature that allows one person to act on behalf of another Outlook user. The most common scenario in which this feature is used is a manager and his or her assistant. The assistant might be responsible for maintaining the manager’s schedule, including creating and responding to meeting requests. Some assistants might also monitor their manager’s Inbox."
"Folder sharing is a way to provide access between two people, but it differs from Delegate Access because it does not include permissions for one to act on behalf of the other. Folder sharing is useful if you want someone to be able to access one of your folders, perhaps while you are on vacation, but you do not want the person to reply to meeting requests or e-mail messages on your behalf."
