Managing the constant flow of emails can be time-consuming and frustrating. Failing to find a crucial message in a crowded in –box can increase stress levels further. This article describes how an integrated email, calendar, address book and file management application made a significant difference.
Most organisations need to deal with a stream of emails from customers, suppliers and employees. Yet, as most will testify, juggling the need to respond, sort, file and act on messages which all hit at the same time with other work-related tasks can be extremely time-consuming.
Tao Content is a small business involved in specialist content production for corporate websites, newsletters, books and other media. The firm has four employees and uses a further four freelance workers. Five years ago, it implemented an advanced email client application from EverDesk to help manage emails relating to client projects.
“Our work is strongly email-oriented, so I needed an email client which would help me store messages as separate files,” explained Tao Content operations director Jorge Watanabe.
“Previously, we had used Outlook but the PST [personal store file] frequently crashed, which I was really unhappy about. And because we have to manage dozens of projects at the same time, it was also hard to keep track of deadlines or track whether or not a customer had responded to us.”
Having looked around for an alternative, Watanabe found EverDesk, an integrated email, calendar, address book and file management application (or ‘advanced email client’), which is specifically designed to avoid the loss or corruption of files and messages. “I needed a crash-free solution and EverDesk really fitted the bill,” he said. “EverDesk manages all messages as individual files, so if one is corrupted, it won’t affect the others.”
As well as being a safer alternative, the EverDesk solution also enabled Watanabe and other business users at the company to organise, preview, view and edit messages and different file types using a single desktop interface. “It helps me manage all my work without having to use separate applications for emails and other files,” he added.
“It also allows me to group emails and files in a way that makes sense and is very easy to follow up, which is a massive help. In particular, having visibility over our projects allows me to work much faster and more productively, giving me time to spend on making sure the work we deliver is really high quality. If I didn’t use EverDesk, I’d have to employ an assistant, which would be a huge cost for the business and probably wouldn’t be as effective in helping me to manage my mail.”
Having recently migrated his firm’s PCs from Windows 7 to Windows 8, Wanatabe was also impressed with the flexibility EverDesk offered: “Everdesk’s flexible structure effectively makes it a portable application,” he says. After copying Everdesk data to new system, everything was working perfectly, with no reconfiguration needed and most importantly, no time lost.”