The volume of corporate e-mail is becoming too large for many IT
departments. After Phones4U banned the use of internal e-mail, will
other firms be following suit?
The decision last month by mobile phone retailer Phones 4U to ban
the use of internal e-mail across its entire business signalled a
renewed determination by companies to clamp down on rising e-mail
volumes.
Phones 4U predicted that the e-mail ban would free up three extra
hours a day per employee, worth £1m a month in increased
productivity.
With 13,000 internal e-mails passing through its system every week,
individual e-mail accounts were taking up too much of the IT
department's time, the company said. The Phones 4U head office and
its stores now communicate by telephone and the company intranet,
which is used for ordering equipment and services.
The move, which follows similar smaller-scale e-mail bans at Nestl'
Rowntree and Liverpool City Council, is already showing positive
results, said Jenna Jensen, marketing manager at Phones 4U.
"It has really helped increase operational efficiency. The people
working in the stores are no longer distracted by e-mails," she
said.
"The ban also ensured that people take responsibility for their
actions. E-mail was being used less for genuine communication and
more as a tool for back-covering and buck-passing."
Corporate e-mail volumes are growing relentlessly. Analyst firm
Gartner said the volume of e-mail is growing by 50% every year and
has forecast a world total of 35 billion e-mails a year by 2005 -
with more staff time being soaked up to deal with it.
New regulatory requirements that aim to make companies more
financially transparent, such as Sarbanes-Oxley and Basel 2, will
also drive up e-mail volumes through long-term data
archiving.
Inside the IT department, e-mail growth creates pressure across the
board, from servers to storage and support.
"It is storing e-mails, not sending them, that is the big cost
driver for IT," said Neil Barton, director of global consulting at
benchmarking specialist Compass Management Consulting.
Even so, e-mail accounts for only 2% of the IT costs for each
end-user. "On average, IT costs per user are about £10,000 a year.
Providing an e-mail mailbox and support can cost about £200 per
user a year," Barton said.
E-mail management expert Monica Seeley said the problem of e-mail
overload can only be solved with a twin-pronged approach. Users
must change the way they use e-mail and the IT department must make
checks on usage and set limits.
E-mail abuse falls into two categories: unnecessary and
ill-targetted messages and using e-mail as a tool for office
politics.
"It is used as a political tool. People CC everyone to cover their
backs. It is also used as a catch-all communication method," said
Ian Charlesworth, a senior analyst at Butler Group.
E-mails sent in the workplace and any restrictions imposed on staff
also have legal implications. For example, some firms have been
forced to pay out compensation as a result of libellous e-mails
originating from corporate systems.
In April 2001, ex-Schroder Securities employee Julie Bower was
awarded almost £1,400,000 after an employment tribunal ruled that
she was forced to resign as a result of sex discrimination. A
number of internal e-mails were produced as evidence that helped to
show that Schroder Securities was guilty.
However, legal experts have warned that policing personal e-mail
can be a problem as human rights legislation gives staff the right
to privacy at work.
Others have argued that the problem is the result of companies
becoming over-reliant on a communication medium that is sometimes
ill-suited for the rigours of the business world.
"E-mail has become the cornerstone for corporate communications.
That was never the intention but it has happened," said David
Smith, an e-mail analyst at Gartner. "What companies need is e-mail
usage guidelines."
Companies have a variety of options to reduce e-mail volumes,
ranging from a ban on staff sending and receiving personal e-mails
to a banning e-mail on certain days.
Option 1: Ban personal e-mails
Banning personal e-mail could cut out up to 80% of e-mail in one
stroke, said Alan Pelz-Sharpe, research director at Ovum.
The downside is that the effort of implementing the ban by
screening out, for example, internet provider e-mail addresses on
the assumption they are personal e-mails may be erroneous.
The amount of time spent policing e-mail traffic could also
outweigh any benefits and jeopardise staff relations.
Nevertheless, said Pelz-Sharpe, "Staff need to be told what is
acceptable and what is not. Although that is basic management, most
companies do not do it."
Ban "reply all". Simply disable this function.
Install a spam filter. "It is a big ticket item, but the cost is
only £10 to £20 for each mailbox. And users will thank you for it,"
said Barton.
Option 2: Set e-mail limits
Limit the number of CCs permitted. Cut out the kneejerk copying
frenzy.
Impose a usage hierarchy. "Think carefully before deploying
e-mail." said Charlesworth. "For example, blue-collar workers may
not need e-mail, whereas in marketing, where people need to bounce
ideas off each other, a higher volume of e-mail may be acceptable.
It varies from department to department."
Use other means of electronic communication. Instant messaging,
unlike e-mail, is presence-aware and can be a better substitute.
However, instant messaging may also soon be subject to the same
regulatory requirements for archiving, warned Charlesworth.
Do not use e-mail for sending document attachments. Docu-ment
management systems and corporate intranets are more efficient ways
of making docu-ments available to staff and control of the version
of the files used is improved.
Option 3: Use an alternative
Use corporate portals more. Set up intranet team chatrooms and
bulletin boards, for staff to use both for business-related and
personal messages.
Adopt e-mail-free periods or days. Rather than banning e-mail
totally, introduce compromises such as letting staff check and send
e-mails at set times of the day. "Like the old document cart that
used to come round departments," said one IT director.
E-mail-free days are a similar way of proving to staff they can
survive with less e-mail, which can also lead to a revision of bad
e-mailing habits.
Option 4: Outsource e-mail
E-mail is not free, so charge for it. "For example, do you want to
pay for a 50Mbyte mailbox, or pay extra for one of unlimited size?"
said Barton. This can also offer the possibility of some real
savings via the outsour-cer's economies of scale, he added.
Whatever method companies choose to police e-mail usage, a change
in employee behaviour is needed, which will not be instant.
"You have to reinforce the message all the time," said Seeley.
"E-mail is here to stay, but now is the time to start deciding how
to manage it like a business tool."
With the corporate cost of e-mail going nowhere but upwards, IT
directors will find e-mail management on their agenda until the
problem is solved - whatever the cultural obstacles.
What happens if you ban e-mail?
Liverpool City Council introduced e-mail-free Wednesdays more
than one year ago.
"Internal e-mails had doubled," said the council's chief
executive David Henshaw. "Up to l9,000 staff were sending 100,000
e-mails every day."
Wednesday e-mails were not banned completely, but anything
non-urgent is heavily discouraged, such as an e-mail sent to the
whole council looking for a home for a cat.
"The initial staff reaction was 'How will we cope?'" said
Henshaw. "At first, we saw a 50%-70% drop in e-mail on Wednesday,
but that has eased a bit to about 30%-40% down. We were concerned
that staff would simply send their Wednesday e-mails on Tuesday or
Thursday instead, but that did not happen."
Henshaw said the main aim of the ban was staff communication and
time management, rather than reducing costs.
However, Henshaw does not want to see paper back as a substitute
for e-mail. "We have a very ambitious e-government programme," he
said. Alternatives to e-mail include posting reports on the
intranet, bulletin boards and Blackberry handhelds for senior
managers. Henshaw's advice for those considering an e-mail ban is,
"Be brave and give it a go - if it does not work you can turn it
back on."
Ten tips for better e-mail usage
Keep e-mails brief and use meaningful subject
lines
Re-read messages before sending to check for
clarity and to make sure they contain nothing that will embarrass
the organisation or make it liable
Understand how to use, and do not mismanage,
the CC and BCC functions: only copy in people that really need to
receive the message
Never add an attachment unless it has been
specifically requested. Avoid sending them if you can include the
text in the main body of the e-mail
Attach Word documents in rich text format to
remove any program scripts and macros, and make sure that the
recipient has the application to open the attachment
Use file compression software for large
attachments or send them using an alternative method
Archive effectively: use folders and only save
relevant messages
Do not overuse the "urgent" flag as it will
lose its value
Never reply to spam
Use the e-mail program's junk filter, making
sure not to set the rules so high so that useful e-mail is
lost.