Unlimited email storage
July 4, 2008
Talk about email storage to IT managers and they tend to start going this funny colour. Users can’t seem to manage their Inbox apparently, although not the exact words they use.
This has come up time and again, where, on behalf of the user experience, it is up to me to persuade I.T that voice messages have to reside in the email store.
During the conversation you can see this assume huge proportions in the minds eye, and I always show my own mailbox to calm them down……a bit.
So its an area of interest.
I just saw that in my personal email, on Google, that I’ve used 93MB of 6 Gig. In a year and a half.
So I check my Exchange work mailbox, I now have ALL historical emails saved locally - although I’m good at deleting very large emails first - I have 2.5 Gig, in 3 years. Including unified messaging.
By my calculations then Google are effectively giving me unlimited storage. They seem to put it up every month, I could easily have 7 years of email before deleting anything at all. Which is surely what most people would ever need. Or am I behind the multimedia times.
You gotta love that.
Recalling emails doesn’t work
February 25, 2008
It’s Funny when you see someone try to recall an email.
Of course, the recall function serves only to highlight the original email to be read more closely, just to see where the rickett has been dropped, and how loud the clang was.
Another example of a terrible email mistake here at email tide
There are three Matt Lambert’s in the UK around the technology field, one at Microsoft and one at a telecoms company. So, I do get voicemails from people I’ve never heard of every now and again….although nothing interesting. But the more people you are ‘acquainted’ with, the less well you might know them, and this is going to happen more often.
In the comments in the linked article, there is a Thunderbird plugin that is designed with the ‘are you sure you want to send this’ button built in. Not bad, but possibly subject to the similar address blindness after a while.
What this highlights (again) is the fact that Email is a fairly blunt tool with which to be handling sensitive documents.
Surely there must be some enterprise 2.0 software that could handle a central repository, and sharing mechanism for messages, without overloading the user with yet more passwords. It makes you wonder if any other legal companies have gone with Google Docs for this?
Is Sharepoint the right vehicle - I’ve heard varying reports. I’ve got another Avanquest training session on this next week, perhaps it will sink in this time.
Talking of Passwords, methinks it is worth another look at OpenID again.
Gmail for business - Google Apps mini review
February 10, 2008
When I looked for free web based email, I knew Gmail was going to be the best option.
With huge amounts of storage, accessible from my various PC’s, Spam filters and desktop notifications (so I don’t have to check for new mail, which is the most important), plus Gtalk Instant Messaging on the same login - so it proved.
Thus, when I wanted to have separate ‘blog’ email, I took a look at Google Apps (it’s free, so why not).
Google Apps is Gmail, but with your own domain - (e.g. mail is sent to name@company.com) but with all the above benefits, and more. Being free, I think it’s great value, and even at the premier edition at $50 per user per year - compared to the cost of running premises based equivalents is a no brainer.
Setting it up does mean you need your own domain, and access to the control panel to follow google’s instructions in moving the Email MX records…..it’s easier than it sounds though, and knowing someone who can help is useful.
On first impressions, it was good. But last year…..
I had the problem of trying to access two separate Gmail accounts from the same machine - it turned out to be very unwieldy flicking from account to account and notifications weren’t as timely if I wasn’t logged in.
It’s amazing how the little things prevent you from using and being completely happy with software.
Recently however, Google Apps and Gmail have both moved to supporting IMAP, and my problems have been solved. It’s brilliant!
One of the most useful additional applications is Docs - great for sharing information between boundaries….accessible from anywhere. I haven’t worked out my three different calendars yet, but there are apparently synching apps available.
I’m now using Thunderbird to receive and send mail from multiple gmail accounts (as well as a separate email account for work!). I can still be logged in to my primary gmail account (personal) for most of the day.
With all the above facilities, Google Apps is aimed at companies - but I always wondered whether companies would get over the trust issue. That is, trusting Google to look after their email.
I figured for my own part that if Google let any information go, their share price would slide, and therefore they had more to lose than I did.
Email server, Software, support, Spam software, archiving, the list of savings just goes on.
If you don’t need to support a LAN to run documents and email (with failover support), this tends to help free up both funds and the staff from looking after it, not to mention users who can literally work anywhere with mobile broadband.
It has to be worth most small companies time in having a look at this, and if Legal companies are happy to trust their customer’s information, then that shouldn’t stop anyone.
The question of what replaces multi-person email
November 6, 2007
I caught sight of a post by chip griffin, arguing that the stuff he saw at the defrag conference - which seems to be a collaboration technology show - wasn’t compelling enough to replace email.
Email is simple and ubiquitous, so why replace it.
I think that’s a contentious point - and probably purposefully so. These bloggers eh, always stirring the pot. As if I didn’t come across his missive through RSS.
But Chip looks from the point of view of a user - and I happen to agree with that point. Complicated isn’t good.
My own view is that email is great when it’s one to one, and when the extent of the interaction is easily defined. Question - Answer - Done.
But Email can go horribly wrong where there are multiple parties, or where an ongoing conversation is required.
So - what problems are there with email? Here’s a few I can think of, feel free to suggest more.
- Where can I look to see progress around a topic that involves a few of us - where can anyone look to see progress? I know….lets send another email and ask.
- Email is fraught with the following problem: If I email you with a question about the project and you haven’t responded - who’s responsibility is it that the action didn’t get done? It’s mine of course….but email blurs the lines and makes it difficult. “He didn’t get back to me” is something you hear over and over
- Email hides what is important, and gives you what is urgent (your newest emails) instead.
- If someone joins the conversation late, where can they look to get up to speed
Have I missed anything?
In short, I don’t think the email problem is actually a myth, but just what we do about it isn’t exactly clear. I thought it was going to be SharePoint - but from what I read, the jury is still out there too.
There are no shortage of new innovative companies looking at the issue. Anything topic based catches the eye. From that acquisition of Parlano, perhaps Microsoft still think there is more work to be done around collaboration too.
Google email again
July 8, 2007
The google email blog is always useful to keep up on new development - I’ve said before that this product has the potential to disrupt the market and gives SME’s excellent reasons to not spend a fortune on email software.
I could bang on about why I switched my personal mail to google very quickly, but they’ve done a silly video to help explain. Funnily enough, it’s on You Tube and not google video. Read more
Google disrupts corporate email
January 10, 2007
I don’t suppose many companies have taken much notice of Gmail, google’s email application. In terms of how relevant it may be to them, the notion must intitially be alien - after all, security is such a barrier for enterprises when considering hosted applications.
However, with the ability of google mail to support a companies existing email addresses - instead of user@gmail.com, companies should perhaps then look at the costs that can be saved, here - $8M per year is pause for thought! Plus, gmail is even available on your blackberry.
A recent article in the economist (which is premium content) provides further arguments, and Rod Boothby looks in more detail.
The ability for gmail to deliver instant disaster recovery is for me probably the most persuasive of arguments for smaller to medium companies.
The fact that gmail also reduces the difficulty and cost of introducing collaboration technology (IM) will also be important to organisations, as the Return On Investment case for collaboration is rarely instantly visible, and has resulted in slow adoption.
This article is the crux of google’s disruptive technology at work, which is a huge competitive advantage.
Disruptive technology happens where an incumbent supplier makes things so feature rich (complex), and charges, or induces costs that are more than customers are really prepared to pay.
The popularity of outsourcing means that companies are finding IT hard to manage themselves, now we’re an ‘always on’ society, gmail makes things a bit easier.