How to manage the most time-consuming form of communication – email
THE AVERAGE number of business emails sent and received each day in 2014 was 121. This is projected to increase to 140 in 2018. Worldwide, there are more than 190 billion emails sent each day – over 100 billion of these are business related, and 65 per cent are spam.
Having an effective strategy to manage your emails has never been so important. For legal practitioners, one common method used to manage emails is to set up a folder for each client or matter. Emails that you want to retain are then stored in the relevant folder.
In what might be a surprising conclusion to some, IBM researchers have found that users who employ this method of managing their emails are no more successful at finding them than users who simply let their inboxes grow and use the inbuilt search features of Outlook. Further, the study showed that it actually took “marginally longer”.
When you consider the effort that it takes to file the emails – estimated to be 20 minutes a day – this approach to email management is consuming one hour of your week in what could be considered a pointless exercise.
What is the better way?
We recommend you create a small number of folders that all emails are filed to. Some suggestions are:
- Follow up – to store any email that requires a follow up
- Client – to store any client-related emails that have been actioned
- Admin – to store any administration emails that have been actioned
By using this approach, it takes minimal effort to determine where to file an email, find the folder and then file it. By removing emails from your inbox that have been actioned, your inbox becomes a to-do list.
Using Outlooks searching features; search by
- from,
- to,
- date,
- attachment and
- any text
you are able to quickly find an email.
To learn how to search we have provided practical examples for lawyers and a quick usage summary click here…
Hosting Desktop
Your Desktop in the Cloud includes the following in a standard package
- Microsoft Office Standard
- Company-wide configuration
- File Storage
- TrendMicro Security
- Monitored, Patched & Backed Up
Contact Innessco to learn more
Click here to learn more…
Hosted Exchange “Archive Special”
Provides AntiSpam, Mobile Sync and Web Access as standard. Innessco Hosted Email extends standard email to provide:
- Signature Management
- Email Archive
- Shared Contacts
- Microsoft Enterprise Feature Set
Contact Stewart and mention, “PROMO CODE 23” to receive “Archiving” free for 1 year.
Click here to learn more…
| Core Functionality and Features | Windows File System | M-Files | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Store documents of any type | 3 | 4 | M-Files provides simple storage of emails into the DMS via improved integration with Outlook M-Files can force users to store documents in your organisations predefined labelling, coding or filing system |
| Unique document identifier | 2 | 5 | M-Files provides a unique id that can be displayed in the document; Windows File System only records the full file path that changes when the document title changes |
| Read / Write / View Security | 3 | 5 | M-Files provides an interface that allows users to easily specify the security for a document |
| Version Control | 2 | 5 | All versions of a document can be stored with M-Files; Windows File System can provide some but it is not comprehensive, nor persistent |
| Audit | 1 | 5 | Windows File System does not provide any read or view audit and only limited write audit |
| Search / Browsing | 3 | 5 | Windows File System does allow document properties and content to be searched M-Files provides a simpler interface for searching and allows for custom document properties to be stored |
| Compliance | 1 | 4 | M-Files can be configured to force all documents and sent emails to be stored in the system |
Scale 1 to 5 (5 is full featured), takes into account ease of use
Next Steps
Innessco is able to immediately assist your business by:
- Improving the configuration of your existing Windows system to improvement document management functionality; or
- Demonstrate the M-Files system and show you the benefits of this document management system to easily store, retrieve and manage your documents and emails.
Please call or email Robert Cox for further information.
Hosting Desktop
Your Desktop in the Cloud includes the following in a standard package
- Microsoft Office Standard
- Company-wide configuration
- File Storage
- TrendMicro Security
- Monitored, Patched & Backed Up
Contact Innessco to learn more
Click here to learn more…
Hosted Exchange “Archive Special”
Provides AntiSpam, Mobile Sync and Web Access as standard. Innessco Hosted Email extends standard email to provide:
- Signature Management
- Email Archive
- Shared Contacts
- Microsoft Enterprise Feature Set
Contact Stewart and mention, “PROMO CODE 23” to receive “Archiving” free for 1 year.
Click here to learn more…
Compatibility Matrix
The following Document Management Systems are compatible with Innessco’s Hosted Desktop
- Interwoven, iManage, FileSite
- M-Files
- World Docs
- Open Practice Document Management
Disaster Recovery Services
Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) extends the concept of an offsite backup, to deliver full application access to your offsite backup should a disaster occur.
- Low Monthly Payment
- On-Demand costs that include Server resources and Microsoft licenses
- Data is kept in Australia on physical servers owned and managed by Innessco
Contact Stewart and mention, “PROMO CODE 24” to receive “First 3 Months free”
Download our DR as a Service product brochure from here…