Despite other messaging tools that have come out in recent years, email is still the #1 method of communication for most offices. 86% of surveyed professionals prefer email over other communication methods.
But being the main channel for communications also brings challenges. Inboxes get filled up and messages for a specific subject can be hard to find. This is especially true in the AEC industry where a firm can be juggling multiple projects at a time and questions often need to be answered as soon as possible to keep projects moving.
The average office worker spends 3.5 hours per day in their email program. That’s nearly half the workday spent reading, replying to, and searching for emails. When you don’t have any type of system to help organise emails, it can mean many of those hours per week are trying to locate information in your inbox.
Project-based businesses can have a particularly difficult time with unruly email because they are interacting with so many different people in different projects throughout the day. Trying to keep those emails organised isn’t easy.
When emails can’t be found or responded to in a timely manner it negatively impacts things like:
- Project timelines
- Answering a project dispute
- Meeting an RFQ deadline
- Managing claims
- Customer satisfaction
Spend Less Time in Your Email Inbox
One tool that helps those in the architectural, engineering and construction industry stay on top of emails and easily find what they need when they need it is Mail Manager.
This is an Outlook add-in that is designed for industries that work on multiple projects. It helps them gain better control of their email, save time that had previously been wasted searching for messages, and make email communications overall more efficient.
Here are some of the key features that make Mail Manager a game-changer for the AEC industry:
#1 Get Where You Need in Three Clicks
Imagine you have an urgent question about a plan change you sent to a client. You need to find your original email with the trail of communication showing which person at the client’s company requested the change. You’ve got an upset project manager on hold while you frantically search through your email to find that message.
Searching for the right email to the right project can be frustrating and steal minutes away from your day, all day long. Mail Manager’s organisation process eliminates this problem by making it possible to get to any email on any project in just three clicks.
#2 Intuitive & Automatic Email Filing
Most AEC professionals have the best of intentions about keeping emails organised and may start filling them in a certain folder as they are responded to. But as soon as the day gets busy (which can be most days!), the filing process goes out the window, and emails all stack up in your incoming box.
Mail Manager has an intuitive process that learns your behaviours and how you file your mail. It will prompt and predict where emails are filed and file them as you are sending and receiving emails so you don’t have to.
#3 Fast Email Searching
Once you get too many emails built up inside your email application, trying to do a search can be time-consuming. Outlook can have memory issues causing you problems finding what you need fast.
The search engine in Mail Manager is designed for speed and can search through two million emails in just 2 seconds!
#4 Improve Staff Productivity
Because Mail Manager reduces the time it takes for your team to communicate via email and find the project-related messages they need, they’re able to spend more time on billable work, instead of administrative.
There is less time spent searching for communication trails and or trying to find an email that you know was sent, but someone didn’t see. Project communication is improved as a result.
#5 Social Mapping to Improve Communication
Mail Manager gives you access to important team communication data that allows you to identify communication trends and potential gaps throughout your organisation.
This social mapping data can help you improve overall communication habits, and better communication means better project outcomes.
#6 Integrates With Multiple Tools
Whether you file your Outlook emails on an on-premises server, in SharePoint, or another storage platform, Mail Manager can integrate and accommodate your workflow.
This add-in is designed to complement your infrastructure and integrates with multiple 3rd party storage solutions, such as Teams, OneDrive, Synergy, Procore, and many more.
Let Mail Manager Help You Take Control of Your Email
NetCare can help your AEC business implement Mail Manager to make email handling much more efficient. You can be up and running with the add-in within 24-hours, and we also provide support and training.
Contact us today to learn more. Call (02) 9114 9920 or .