Tech Expert Offers Advice to British Company That Plans to Ban E-mail for 80,000 Workers

Friday, December 2, 2011 - Company Release

Leading unified information access company, Attivio, suggests alternate approach to all-out ban

"Visionary companies must find ways to change the way e-mail is used; not banish it," commented Sid Probstein, Chief Technical Officer at Attivio in response to widely reported news that a ‘zero email' policy is underway at one of the world's largest IT. Thierry Breton, CEO of British-based Atos, wants to phase out e-mails over the next 18 months. In an interview with the Daily Mail newspaper, Breton maintained most e-mails are irrelevant. To replace electronic messages, he is calling for more phone and in-person conversations. Breton also mentioned the possible use of tightly controlled ‘real time' messaging interfaces.

Probstein offers prescriptive guidance for businesses facing similar challenges. "Workers are drowning in information overload, so Mr. Breton's reaction to the effectiveness and value of e-mail is natural and visceral; but reverting to phone calls and verbal conversations for most internal correspondence is not the answer. The reality is that businesses need to enable efficient collaboration amongst their workers, and they need to preserve and provide access to historical information. Otherwise, they are perpetually re-inventing the wheel each time similar issues arise."

While it's not perfect, e-mail can be an effective tool for capturing knowledge. Every worker, however, has struggled to find an important fact buried in their inbox, locate an old copy of a presentation that includes an important slide, or search for a mobile phone number in an e-mail signature. Leading e-mail applications only offer end-users rudimentary search. They also impose strict mailbox size limits, which, combined with clunky archiving, leads to loss of access to historical data. Worse, support for finding e-mail along other sources is limited, clunky or nonexistent, says Probstein.

Organizations can dramatically reduce e-mail volume by using it where it makes sense, but deploying Traction TeamPage and other advanced Enterprise 2.0 collaboration tools for specific tasks like project management, discussion groups and exception handling. The federal government, for example, has taken this path to reduce e-mail volume. A recent Department of Defense study reported a 50% reduction in time spent on electronic communications management after implementing Traction in a technology testing program.

"The key to effectively managing e-mail is to retain the right information and enable users to control it as they do any other important corporate resource," explains Probstein. He provides tips for end-users to create value from e-mail:

• Link internal correspondence that relates to external communications from customers and partners;
• Use a Unified information access strategy to identify relevant, messages;
• Secure and index e-mails with other important files, E 2.0 collaboration tools, intranet pages, and content from CMS or competitors' websites;
• Discover e-mail through the normal process of search, running reports, or monitoring dashboards.
• Automate email surveillance to guard against regulatory compliance and security risks.

Attivio and Active Intelligence Engine are trademarks of Attivio, Inc. All other names are trademarks of their respective companies.

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