BLOGs
Email Management
Published August 16th, 2016 by

Declutter Your Mind and Your Inbox With Email Management Tools

A disorganized workplace is killing productivity among employees. Most businesses are so driven to compete and leverage their companies in the market by deploying almost all technologies and business tools, but ended up frustrated and unsuccessful. Sadly, many don’t realize that the root of the problem is inside their offices – covered in piles of paper, and surrounded by a messy desk.

Declutter Your Mind and Your Inbox With Email Management Tools

Minimal productivity and efficiency can cost more than you think. Disorganization can cost you your time, your money, opportunities, your talented workers, your customers, and your peace of mind.

According to statistics, an average employee can lose at least an hour of his work time by looking for something in the office – maybe a paperwork. One hour a day translates to about 2 weeks in a year. It’s like having a 2-week paid vacation for a year, just how much is that?

Another interesting survey asking business leaders the possible reasons why companies lose money and time. More than half could actually lose in as much as 9 hours per week due to lack of organization in the workplace. Time is also a valuable asset for business, but has a defined amount for everybody. They say it is a great equalizer, but one can earn better and be more successful if he knows how to use it wisely.

Inefficiency and stress in the workplace can echo to your customers by the way you handle them. Customers are more informed nowadays, and won’t hesitate to look for better business that can cater them better if met with this kind of negative interaction.

Businesses should make a big deal about improving the productivity and efficiency of its workplace. There are many ways to achieve it – proper motivation, expanding learning opportunities and using technology based tools.

Benefits of Going Paperless

The concept of a paperless office was conceived already in the 1970’s, which is still considered a futuristic idea back then. Decades later, the world is seeing it overtake the traditional methods of executing transactions and engaging in communication. The explosion of digital technology shifted the concept of paper based business into a non tangible network of electronic processes and documents, that functions and flows in a streamlined manner.

While the majority of businesses has yet to embrace the idea of going paperless, it was reported in a 2015 survey that the number of organizations active enough to look for ways to eliminate more paper transactions has actually climbed from 9% in 2014 to 16% the succeeding year. The steady climb is strengthened by the growth in the adoption of digital processes in the workplace. One market research said that about 78% of marketers believe that marketing will transform significantly in the next 5 years, accounting to analytics, mobile and digital as its top key drivers.

The benefits of going paperless aren’t just about the less clutter or a systematic way to organizing important documentation. It can also become time and money savings in the long run, even promoting a healthier and happier working environment for employees who are struggling for productivity and efficiency amidst time consuming tasks as paperwork management.

The full potential in going paperless is yet to be felt, but the future is promising indeed. As many business people are looking for a well structured and systematic management systems in various aspects in the business, the precepts of digital technology will still remain to be a logical solution.

Electronic Document Management Systems

Doing manual filing, which is prevalent in paper documentation, is a tedious and time consuming task to execute. It is also an inefficient management practice that would need extra space considerations. It will also entail a comprehensively categorized system in order to become useful when something is needed to be retrieved. Capturing all business documents as hard copies are also an added burden, which just piles up storages with no direction or specific purpose for it rather than as records.

Converting everything to digital, is a practical solution in order to make it easier to store, organize and manage business documents under one platform. Also called as digital assets, electronic documents can now attain a more purposeful function by serving as references, or even legalized evidences of transactions in a business. Through the application of technology, the whole electronic document management system becomes automated, which translates to faster electronic document filing and categorizing.

Other Benefits of Electronic Document Management

Electronic documents are also automatically captured across emails, which is the more prevalent communication medium that has the capability to include attachments. Electronic documents are also automatically stored in a central repository for easy backup, search, reuse, retrieval and archiving.

Electronic document management isn’t just about document capturing, retrieval and storage, it is also effective as a collaboration tool in order for employees to share data and work collaboratively. Electronic document management then becomes a shared service – which integrates not just documents, but processes, employees and even internal clients as well. Collaboration eliminates data duplication for a smarter electronic document storage and use.

The bottom line advantage which businesses gain from electronic document management systems is the increased productivity and efficiency in the workplace. It is not a far fetched dream anymore, especially when working in an automated and intelligent system. Paperless transactions are easily secured, which also saves more time and money in the process.

Email Management System

An email is considered to be the most preferred medium of communication in the business today. Having an email management system is the first step in capturing and sharing important business records across the business organization. It can also function as part of risk mitigation, which can secure documents by automatically depositing it to an integrated central repository or document database upon receipt of the email.

Areas of Email Management System

An email management system works by integrating all processes involved in managing emails across the organization, or a particular department. It can significantly improve the function of emails as important records such as conversation histories, document attachments, agreement clauses, common customer concerns, marketing engagement, etc. An effective email management system should define the role and scope of the following areas:

  1. Workspace

The email management system workspace is actually a virtual network that promotes collaboration through a shared email inbox. It can also help in assigning and transferring emails from one agent to another, enabling more efficient response when calling for a more expert answer. A digital workspace is functional in email management system.

  1. Processing

Email workload distribution is automated using email management tools. This is done to increase the productivity of agents with their tasks and processing of email tickets.

  1. Email Classification

An email contact center may receive various kinds of emails, but may be classified under these 3 broad categories:

  1. Marketing – in the business perspective, these emails serve as the counteraction of customers upon receiving marketing emails. This could be in a form of an inquiry, or a request for more information about the company’s products or services.
  2. Notification–for marketers, these emails serve as alerts when potential customers or leads responded for certain campaigns like opting for a newsletter or joining your social media circle.
  3. Transactional–these are the most critical emails, which may hold important attachments as proofs of transactions. It should be regarded as highly classified emails, and must be dealt accordingly.
  1. Email Filing

Email management should have a strong filing system, which incorporates automation and intelligent organizational tools such as filters and email routing. To be more effective, document attachments are automatically captured from emails, and goes to a centralized electronic document database.

Email Management Tool Capabilities and Benefits

Email management is increasingly important, when dealing with large volumes of data, such as a customer service department or a company contact center.

Top email management tools are capable of executing various email management related features, which benefits managers in managing the whole email contact center with greater efficiency. An email management software is a powerhouse of capabilities which can turn emails into a more purposeful business asset.This in turn can be useful as a source of customer information, important in tailoring processes and solutions according to their needs and preferences.

An email organization software is also capable of incorporating these abilities in email management:

  1. Automatically captures document attachments and sends it to a central repository for sorting and archiving.
  2. Reinforcing of email policies, standards and best practices.
  3. Supporting the email management system’s regulatory compliance such as eDiscovery.
  4. Applying of necessary security and audit to the email management system processes and documents.
  5. Organizing, as well as automating the actions, basing on the content of emails.
  6. Effectively centralizes management among records (electronic document management) and email correspondence (email management).

An inbox management software deploys filters and an intelligent capability to automatically sort and categorize incoming emails according to specified criteria.

An email tracking software reports back metrics based information based on the number of clicks made from email marketing emails sent. This is useful in measuring the effectiveness and performance of deployed campaigns.

Declutter your mind and your inbox for your business’ benefit. For more information about email management tools, take it from personal client feedback from these email management tool reviews.

Keith Moore

Keith Moore has worked with several leading Android development agencies to build customized mobile apps enabling businesses to extend the use of their services to smart phones and mobile devices.

Our rankings are completely independent, transparent, and community driven; they are based on user reviews and client sentiment. These email management companies had to earn their way up and didn't just pay their way up.

View Rankings of Best Email Management Companies