eSolve Blog
The Real Cost of email
Feb. 16, 2009 17:35
A recent 2008 study by the Radicati Group indicated that respondents spent 25% of their day with e-mail, sending 38 messages, while receiving 102, with 17% containing attachments. Of this email, 1/3 was determined to be useless. This translated into 6 hrs/wk wasted or, on average, $10K/yr/worker. Further, it was found that workers were being interrupted every 3 minutes by email and phone and this caused them to lose focus on priorities, become less productive, and lose track of the “big picture” for their business.
Although this emphasizes the continued reliance and easily measurable cost of email, it overlooks the fact that much of the actual work PROCESS is lost, since email is not a permanent record for information. Even though the end result of the work process may be captured, the steps to arrive at the final product are not being retained. Besides dramatically reducing the amount and need for email, data and process retention is a key benefit that Internet-based project collaboration tools offer. Internet-based project collaboration tools also improve work flow by allowing everyone to have a place to work throughout the work process, so they can see the big picture and monitor the progress. This improves communication, information management, and process flow.
Also, since collaboration tools are often text-based, users focus first on content rather than form when developing shared documents. They don't get caught-up creating documents with fancy formatting and layouts, which are easily exchanged via email. Instead, they present limited text files that uses a minimal amount of storage, are easier to search, and are more suited for group collaboration. The final formatting is addressed last, after the content is agreed upon by the work team.
eSolve offers a project collaboration solution called The eSolve Office that can help your organization break the "email habit". Contact eSolve Solutions to schedule a free assessment of your work situation and help you make Internet-based project collaboration work for your organization.
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Dr. Guy J. Cortesi
Director of Technology and Chief Information Officer
eSolve Solutions, Inc.
Feb. 16, 2009 17:35
A recent 2008 study by the Radicati Group indicated that respondents spent 25% of their day with e-mail, sending 38 messages, while receiving 102, with 17% containing attachments. Of this email, 1/3 was determined to be useless. This translated into 6 hrs/wk wasted or, on average, $10K/yr/worker. Further, it was found that workers were being interrupted every 3 minutes by email and phone and this caused them to lose focus on priorities, become less productive, and lose track of the “big picture” for their business.
Although this emphasizes the continued reliance and easily measurable cost of email, it overlooks the fact that much of the actual work PROCESS is lost, since email is not a permanent record for information. Even though the end result of the work process may be captured, the steps to arrive at the final product are not being retained. Besides dramatically reducing the amount and need for email, data and process retention is a key benefit that Internet-based project collaboration tools offer. Internet-based project collaboration tools also improve work flow by allowing everyone to have a place to work throughout the work process, so they can see the big picture and monitor the progress. This improves communication, information management, and process flow.
Also, since collaboration tools are often text-based, users focus first on content rather than form when developing shared documents. They don't get caught-up creating documents with fancy formatting and layouts, which are easily exchanged via email. Instead, they present limited text files that uses a minimal amount of storage, are easier to search, and are more suited for group collaboration. The final formatting is addressed last, after the content is agreed upon by the work team.
eSolve offers a project collaboration solution called The eSolve Office that can help your organization break the "email habit". Contact eSolve Solutions to schedule a free assessment of your work situation and help you make Internet-based project collaboration work for your organization.
----------------
Dr. Guy J. Cortesi
Director of Technology and Chief Information Officer
eSolve Solutions, Inc.
