There’s no getting away from it; email is today’s de facto standard for business communication. The ease with which they can be created and forwarded means that the sheer volume of messages involved dwarfs the number of other communication types to such an extent that many people are spending a large part of their working day reading, responding, and collaborating via email.
The graphic on the right highlights some mind-blowing statistics showing how much email has taken over our business lives. For some organisations it’s reaching the point where email is becoming a hinderance rather than a useful business tool.
Tens of thousands of man-hours are being wasted dealing with superfluous emails and the situation is only likely to get worse. About the only thing that hasn’t reduced in the current climate is the volume of email we all get, and as we seek to share information with colleagues who are working remotely the likelihood is that we’ll be sending and receiving even more email in future.
All of this is making email management a hot topic and an ever-increasing challenge for all sorts of organisations.
So, what’s the answer?
Search the internet for “email overload solutions” and you’ll find numerous blogs and articles full of tips, advice and best practice on how to use email more efficiently and effectively – I’ve even written a couple myself! The advice they give will help improve your email discipline and help you rid your inbox of any truly unnecessary emails you might be receiving. It won’t, however, address probably the biggest contributor to the problem of excessive email - The “cc” List. For many people over half the emails they receive are ones they have been copied on “for information” (for managers that percentage can be significantly higher). These emails, whilst being related to what you do, aren’t actually relevant at the time they’re received. They fill up your inbox, take valuable time to read and distract you from those emails that do need your attention.
MailXmaster is designed to address this issue!
Who to copy on emails is a quandary we all face every day. The problem is if we copy everyone that might possibly have an interest, we’re contributing to email overload & risk important information being lost in the clutter. However, if we don’t copy someone and they make a bad decision because they weren’t in possession of a particular email that’s equally bad. Faced with this dilemma the vast majority of people err on the side of caution; copy everyone and then fall back on the “I copied you on the email” excuse if something goes wrong.
MailXmaster solves this problem by making it easy to share emails without actually copying everyone. Instead of copying individual people, emails are only sent to people who have an action or immediate need to know whilst being “filed” in a shared workspace within MailXmaster. Put simply, information is filed using your email program and retrieved using your browser. Every shared workspace has its own unique email address so “filing” is as simple as adding a MailXmaster email address rather than all those who would have traditionally been on the “cc” list. Because all emails are filed by topic all stakeholders can view them as and when required.
The result is not only a significant reduction in the number of emails in your inbox, but also an increase in the relevance of those you do receive. At the same time, MailXmaster’s automatic reporting means that all those 100s of “for information” emails can be replaced with a single daily, weekly or monthly email summarising newly added content and making it accessible with a single click. Since you can set your own schedule for these reports you are in full control of how and when you stay informed
At a conservative estimate, MailXmaster will reduce the volume of email received by >25% and save half-an-hour per person per day. This represents a massive productivity improvement with the added benefit that all information related to a particular project, client or department is consolidated in one place for easy reference.
MailXmaster is a completely Cloud based solution that works alongside whatever email program and web browser you currently use to create a fully searchable database of your organization’s emails. There is nothing to download or install and getting started is easy. Simply fill in a webform & you’ll be emailed a link to your very own MailXmaster system which can be configured however you like (we can even do it for you if you prefer). You can trial the system free of charge for up to 3 months* to find out just how MailXmaster can revolutionise the way you use email. At the end of the trial period you can either upgrade to the paid version or simply walk away.
If all this sounds interesting why not contact us for more information or book a demonstration?
* Subject to data and user limits.