Deliver us from email

By ensuring that filing of email is part of the process of sending and receiving rather than a task to do later, Arup's software designers Oasys were able to de-stress the process and take critical communications out of personal inboxes

According to US research firm, The Radicati Group, office workers send and receive an average of 156 emails per day. So it is no surprise that the focus of some attention has been on reducing what comes in. Often spam gets the blame and not surprisingly, Spamnation show that by the end of 2007 a single machine was receiving over 1000 per day. Spam filtering has improved dramatically in response to demand and now only a small percentage get through. For example; of the 38.5 million messages received by Arup’s London office in one week in November 2008, 98.3 percent were filtered out, leaving just 643,000 untainted messages. Whilst the quantity of email will remain a problem if people continue to prefer it over other forms of communication, the problem Arup wanted to solve was that of finding a given message.

I know I’ve got it somewhere
Accenture report that managers currently spend up to two hours per day searching for information. If the information is required to support a legal proceeding, the pressure is high and the costs can rise. IDC estimate the cost of identifying, preserving, collecting, processing, reviewing, analysing and producing information for litigation (e-disclosure) at $12bn and Gartner estimate that the average e-disclosure event costs $1.5m. Yet few organisations take steps to organise their data for easy retrieval.

In 2002, Arup realised that they had to confront this head on. An initial search revealed that five offices had already developed their own unique tools to address the problem. Agreement was reached to combine the best ideas and develop one tool. Everyone involved knew that if it didn’t make people’s lives easier, staff would not use it. So human performance and efficiency were very much primary factors in the design of the software.

Arup did not want yet another system and were well aware that new tools can quickly become legacy applications which are costly to maintain. So it was decided that the messages should simply be placed in normal file systems folders and in Microsoft’s own file format. To ensure future compatibility, the files were created by Outlook and not by the filing software. In this way, if the software is replaced in future years or falls into disuse, the data is readily accessible and does not need the original software to read it.

The ‘me-centric’ approach
Although there was, and still is, an IT fashion for centralising data, it was felt that a ‘me-centric’ approach better suited the end-user and provided other advantages. So while the software was designed to store the messages in centrally managed folders, the search index and list of locations was held locally, with the software caching user requests. This ensured responsive operation and allowed people to file messages whilst out of the office; as the system would quietly file the messages when reconnected to the network.

In the early stages, a simple search tool was of adequate use. Yet once the number of emails in any one folder increased to 1000 plus speed became an issue. In line with the ‘me-centric’ approach, it was decided to create a search index on the user’s own machine and only index those areas that were relevant to the user. This ensured that searching worked while away from the network and results were targeted and quick to obtain.

It was clear that users would not file messages if they had to open another application or perform an additional task in order to save time. So the Oasys team built the application in Outlook and to a large extent
hid it the user’s view.

They also made it part of the email process so that upon sending an email the user is asked where they would like to file it. As an added aid to the user, the system was designed to learn where he/she liked to file messages from a given person and suggest those locations rather than the full list of options. Filing thus became something that you did as part of sending or receiving an email and was often one simple click.

Added value
Anecdotally, users quickly embraced the software because it saved them time and provided the feeling of security that comes from being organised and knowing you can quickly find what you want when required.

Now that the messages were being filed alongside other project documents and would be backed up by the regular backup system, the messages on the email server could be deleted upon filing. This greatly reduced the cost of email server space, which typically three times more expensive than regular disk space.

The new tool was able to check for duplicates, so whereas earlier attempts to use ‘public folders’ had resulted in many people filing the same email, the new system was able to prevent duplication.
Back-up restoration also benefited as everything to do with a project was then in the project’s folder structure and hence in one backup set rather that scattered across many personal inboxes.

The BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, iPhones and more recently Google’s Android platform are allowing mobile workers to access their email on the move. This brings a new set of challenges. How can the mobile device save to the project folders when by-design it does not have access to the company’s folders? How do you keep the PC and mobile device in synch? How do you cope with one device accessing multiple email accounts?

Arup’s software engineers have created a BlackBerry version of the software and are planning to support multiple other devices in the future as and when they are developed.

For more information on Mail Manager, developed by Arup’s software house Oasys Ltd, visit
oasys-software.com/mailmanager