Tag Archives: email

Productivity begins by getting out of the email in-box

Posted on by Vaughan Rivett

Over recent days I have heard varying statistics about the amount of time the average employee spends in their email in-box.  While I have seen statistics as high as up to 6 hours, depending on job role, CNET News suggests that it is close to a quarter of their day.  It’s not an enjoyable place to spend your time, and it is no wonder that people are keen to guard their email application of choice.

I don’t know about you, but I often feel that email is like walking into a maze and having to find a way out.  Let’s face it, most people hate email.  That is why people are using social media tools to communicate with each other.

Last week I was in Orlando at an IBM conference (Lotusphere).  This was a good test for my in-box.  Was I going to be overwhelmed by hundreds of emails?  I did have access to email while away, but it wasn’t something that I could attend to as quickly as I normally would.  When checking my email, I had as few as 6 emails per day.  Most of them were just alerts which directed me to content on our intranet.

My habits have changed somewhat in recent months.  Now when I get to the office, I no longer open my email as my first task for the day, rather I review what has been happening on our internal social business site.  Within moments I can find the answers to questions which I have left through the use of a status update as I hurried out the door on the previous day.

Is Gmail really fit for business if users are being warned about hacked accounts?

Posted on by Vaughan Rivett

Over the past few years I have been using Gmail for my personal, non-work related email.  Surprisingly, because of the rise of Social Media such as Facebook, the amount of email I receive to this account is quite limited.  Most of it being alerts from other sites.

Over the past few days when logging into Google Mail I am greeted with a message across the top of the page: “Thousands of on-line accounts are hijacked every day. If you re-use your Gmail password on other websites, change it now”

Click on image to enlarge

Work smarter, be a Social Business – using wiki’s to increase productivity

Posted on by Vaughan Rivett

Today, I received an email which was copied to about 6 other people.  The email contained a table with customer information.  The person who sent the email wanted each person to populate it with information and send it back to her.  Right away, I could see that this was not effective use of her time.  She was going to have to look for a response from each person and then collate all of the information.

However, had she use the wiki feature in IBM Connections she would have been able to significantly reduce her work load.  This video explains what I mean:

Correct me if I’m wrong, but Lotus Domino Server and Lotus Notes is still RAD!

Posted on by Vaughan Rivett

Hardly a day goes past where I don’t have a conversation in which someone is comparing Lotus Notes to Microsoft Exchange.  The thing that I can never get over, is that the two are completely different.  Microsoft Exchange does email and does it really well.  Lotus Notes does email and again does it really well, but, Lotus Notes is also an application development platform.

So what do I mean by “RAD”?  It’s an acronym for Rapid Application Development.  Basically, what it means is, if you have a business problem which you want to address through the use of technology, you can quickly create an application and deploy it to everyone within the organisation just by sending them an email.

Take for instance, The Salvation Army in New Zealand.  When an earthquake caused significant damage and claimed many lives in Christchurch, The Salvation Army played an important role in relief work.  As a result people were being flown in from all around the country and managing who was coming and going was becoming hard to control.  Each person coming to assist needed flights and accommodation.  Overnight, an application was written to manage this process.  An application which could be used offline with synchronization to a central server.

Business changes from day to day.  It is important to be able to keep up with the demands which are driven by the market in which you operate.  To be able to use simple technology to support this, can take the headache out of having to create your business around an IT solution.  IT should not be dictating process to the businesses.  Through the use of Lotus Notes, even a novice computer operator can begin to develop databases and applications which support the requirements of the business.