Office Productivity
Messaging, Collaboration and the Virtual Office
Published December 19th, 2008 by Jennifer LeClaire
If you are running a virtual office, then keeping the lines of communication wide open is vital to your success. You can’t practically manage a virtual office and a distributed workforce without messaging and collaboration.
Indeed, when it comes to the pros and cons of virtual offices, the foundation of your experience is built on messaging and collaboration – and all the factors around it. Security, archiving, instant messaging, wireless e-mail and even business social networking software are all issues to consider when developing your virtual office model.
Perhaps you haven’t considered those factors in relation to choosing the most suitable virtual office provider. If not, then take a moment to reflect on what vital role messaging and collaboration play in virtual businesses.
Half the Day Checking E-mail?
The Radicati Group just released a study on the topic. It’s called, “Messaging & Collaboration - Business User Survey, 2008.” The study provides the results of an in-depth survey of corporate user behavior and attitudes with regards to messaging and collaboration technologies. The results are worth reviewing.
Based on the survey, respondents spend an average of 25 percent of their day sending and receiving e-mail. Depending on the line of work you are in, spending a fourth of your day on e-mail alone could be a major productivity drain.
Radicati also offers an interesting insight into the issue of information overload. On average, survey respondents send 38 e-mail messages per day and receive 102 e-mail messages per day, 17 percent of which contain attachments.
I’ve heard it said that for every e-mail you send you get an average of three back. I am not sure if that’s an old Internet wives’ tale, but the Radicati study certainly points to something near that. What’s more, with nearly one in five e-mails containing an attachment, that’s even more time spent downloading and reviewing files.
Essential E-mail
But look at it from another perspective: What if you had to print those files, stuff them into an envelope, stamp it, send it, wait for it to get to your intended recipient, etc.? Even though e-mail may seem like a time drain, it’s still much more efficient than snail mail or even fax machines if you use it wisely.
One of Radicati’s conclusions was that e-mail continues to be important in the corporate world. I would add to this to that: It’s even more vital in the virtual office world.
Radicati also concluded that e-mail was still important, even in the face of other collaborative tools, such as business social networks, IM, web conferencing software, and others. E-mail and instant messaging were some of the first social networks, if you will, and it seems these tools remain among the most efficient means of communicating in virtual office settings.
The bottom line: a virtual office is only as good as the technology that supports it and the people who use it. So when you are exploring the pros and cons of virtual offices, be sure to examine the technologies that will support your messaging and collaboration.
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Rob Zeus December 19th, 2008 at 7:36 am
The Radicati Group does great studies around messaging and collaboration. Tying this into virtual offices and what to consider when choosing a virtual office — the technology underpinnings — is vital. All businesses rely on technology, but when messaging and collaboration tools fail in a virtual office we’re back to the telephone. That an be a back breaker when you need to collaborate on a PPT or web development project that demands a higher level of interaction.
Mike Sullivan December 19th, 2008 at 10:22 am
One solution that I know is very effective is a simple application created by usability expert and digital guru Mark Hurst. It is called gootodo, and allows users to create a to do list, then (here’s the innovative part) allows them to send emails to a future date to address. So no more filing away and forgetting or stopping everything you’re doing to address the email, knowing that if you don’t you will forget to address it later. Any emails you receive that can be addressed later, you simply specify the date you want to be reminded, and voila… you can keep on working on the task at hand.
Elizabeth Sanchez December 22nd, 2008 at 9:53 am
We are indeed in the Age of Information overload. A few years ago, they just called it the Information Age. I think any services that can help entrepreneurs better manage this information overload are going to pick up steam. Virtual offices are more challenged on this front, as are distributed workforces, because of the sheer reliance on technology and collaboration tools to do business. I haven’t tried Gootodo. I will check it out. Strange name. I thought it was a type and should have been GotToDo.
Maggie Correta December 23rd, 2008 at 1:40 pm
E-mail definitely is the heart of collaboration. But we’ve come a long way in the virtual office with services like GoToMeeting and WebEx. I haven’t used GoToDo, but it seems to be yet another value-added service for mobile professionals and distributed workforces. The bottom line, though, is this: I could live without WebEx. I don’t think I could do business without e-mail.
Bill Brookshire December 31st, 2008 at 6:58 am
You know, I was thinking. The whole concept of virtual office technologies is just as needed in your traditional office space. Serviced office providers could offer features like GoToMeeting as part of their package to differentiate themselves in the office rental market. Most executive office suites already offer high-speed Internet access, so e-mail is not the issue. But these conferencing technologies could be a great way to differentiate serviced office developments.
Melanie Jones January 1st, 2009 at 11:53 am
E-mail is essential, but I get so many every day there’s just no way to open them all. Since I work with various vendors that have given me internal e-mail addresses with their URL attached, I get the spam that’s associated with each address. That equates to about 1,000 spam messages a day. Sometimes, I fear I’ve deleted legitimate messages because they looked like spam and I just didn’t have the time to open them. Didn’t Bill Gates say he was going to eradicate spam?