Is email good for business?

The top down model of corporate communication is changing, and changing fast. While email remains king, for now, the memo and mailing list mantra is being replaced with a non-hierarchical and far less formal one of debate and feedback. Blogs, Wikis and perhaps most of all Instant Messaging are all threatening the email grip.

Email Aid

It's not often that I find myself in agreement, in terms of business advice, with Sir Bob Geldof. However, when speaking at the end of last year he suggested that getting a job done is directly proportionate to the number of emails you don't answer, well I was, and I'm not alone, Gary Anderson-Jones, VP of mobile audio conferencing specialists Mobix agrees, telling me "46 per cent of UK executives surveyed claim that reliance on email has slowed down the decision making process."

A recent survey of 1468 business professionals by ntl:Telewest Business revealed that 78 per cent of people couldn't live without email in the workplace. Hardly surprising when you consider that it also found 40 per cent using it for gossip, 54 per cent for socialising and 60 per cent dealing with issues surrounding relationships with colleagues. If this wasn't enough workflow interruption, the business etiquette of email adds fuel to the fire: 77 per cent said it was rude not to receive a response within 24 hours, 44 per cent giving it just a morning.

A rationale for rationing?

Phones4U outgoing owner John Cauldwell even went as far as to ban email among his employees! I wouldn't advocate going quite that far, but some kind of rationing is most definitely in order for huge swathes of the smaller and mid-size business marketplace, where email is most out of control. Remember when your business was task driven, or perhaps more to the point when your workforce was task driven?

Back in the day, it was the height of workplace rudeness to interrupt that workflow by thumping on the desk and demanding attention. Yet that's exactly what is happening in enterprises up and down the nation, thanks to the 'miracle' of email.

The constant interruption from email and increasingly Instant Messaging at work is threatening to undermine business processes and could be costing you dearly (literally) unless you do something about. Of course, all this is in my never humble opinion, so I thought I'd ask others 'in the business' what they thought.

Getting the message

George Parapakis of enterprise content management supplier FileNet reminds us that new communications technologies might be powerful, but "companies need to consider their adoption from a compliance perspective or they could find themselves in hot water." In order to comply with FSA and governance regulators such as SarbOx and MiFID systems are in place to log and retrieve all business records. IM adds another layer of complexity to the task of proving compliance to a regulatory body.

As Parapakis says "until a business is able to integrate these new communications technologies effectively, they should be wary of the risks they introduce by using them for business critical applications."

While John Stanners, MD of email messaging software company Gordano told me that while their customers are able to IM sales staff directly from the web page "this almost invariably leads to an immediate telephone conversation." Which may not be a bad thing, what's wrong with talking anyway?

As Ipswitch Director of Product Management, Kevin Gillis, was quick to point out "calling often means you end up talking to voicemail as increasingly fewer people pick-up at work." Pre-emptive IM increases the chance of hitting the person you want, first time, without the voicemail barrier.

Trend Micro Chief Technologist of Internet Content Security, Dave Rand, isn't convinced that IM is the answer either, mainly thanks to the limited deployment of IM scanning technologies that creates a hole through which new threats can enter the enterprise rapidly. Obviously such things as the Microsoft Live Communications Server which enables encrypted IM in conjunction with Office apps is a step in the right direction, as are dedicated IM firewall applications such as launched recently by Barracuda Networks.

Summary

But ultimately I think that Darren Adams, IBM Lotus Notes Sales Leader UK, has it about right when he says that this 'isn't a technology issue, it's a cultural one. Email shouldn't disrupt business processes it should compliment it.

Too many people live in email and see that as their control centre but should recognise that email is just one provider of the information artefacts people access day-to-day." One thing is for sure, until we mange to truly manage our corporate email in a way that is less disruptive to workflow, no matter how revolutionary the technology the conclusion is going to increasingly be that email is bad for business.

Email to a friend

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