88% Yes
12% No
The Big Question is an initiative between Computer
Weekly and recruitment consultancy PSD. Each week we put the Big
Question to top IT professionals to get their take on a current
talking point.
IT professionals are in strong agreement that the growth in
volume of e-mail and the associated tide of spam is undermining the
usefulness of e-mail as a communication and productivity tool,
according to this week's poll.
The surprisingly one-sided result saw respondents voting nearly
nine-to-one in agreement that e-mail is these days more of a
hindrance than a help.
Peter Thompson of LHS International said e-mail had overtaken
the phone as the main communication tool, but needed to be refined.
"As it stands, it requires time, tools and dedication to manage
well on a daily basis," he said.
Thompson said associated issues were cost, remote access, better
spam filters and other security or compliance controls, especially
with the advent of instant messaging. Improved archive, backup and
restore functions would address growing volumes, he added.
IT director David Barry agreed that more structured storage,
such as content management systems, intranets and databases, would
help improve e-mail management levels, "although people often curse
mailbox size limits," he said.
And an anonymous respondent echoed the overall view that
managing e-mail volumes is the main factor counting against any
productivity gains.
"I have had to resort to sending larger files to my personal
e-mail to free up space. It seems ridiculous that web-based e-mail
systems give away hundreds of megabytes for free but my own
employer limits it to 80Mbytes."
Managers failing to control information
What do you think? E-mail us at:
computer.weekly@rbi.co.u