Take Control of Corporate Email

Upon further reflection, this served as an excellent introduction into thinking about email and its interference to corporate productivity. While this column does not have comprehensive answers to all of the challenges of email, let's review some of the issues that need responses.

The volume of email. The ubiquity of this form of communication is amazing. While studies are released periodically statistically detailing the disruptive effect of the volume of email many of us receive daily, few of us have perfected how to deal with it. Some users talk about organization of messages, method or timing of reading and responding to messages, or even email streamlining for reducing the number of messages being received.

However, these solutions are generally over-simplifications of a system that works for only a few. Too many of us are unprepared for the daily barrage of messages that need immediate response. There is no hiding behind the voice mail system anymore! How can I communicate with everyone fighting for my attention and still get my job done?

In addition, there is an element of self-preservation in email handling. This is not legal documentation of malfeasance, but near paranoia that something someone said or did not say in an email will harm us in our professional life. Some even print out and catalog every email they receive or send! This is despite being doubly careful about responding to mail in anger or with inappropriate content.

Suggestion: Aside from some of the great email organization ideas, including the 10 commandments of email that Intel has used internally (appearing in the March 2001 issue of Fast Company), I have no conclusive ideas. Does anyone else have any?

Corporate policies. Abiding with corporate email use policies is a challenge both in enforcement and in compliance. In the best case, we have customers and vendors that use the email systems of our respective companies to build interpersonal bonds -- and those exchanges may incorporate "personal use" mail that may even contain inappropriate and downright offensive (out of context) comments. Furthermore, in an effort to promote team-oriented awareness, "personal use" email may flow between employees. How do we realistically enforce those policies that I have discussed in the past as essential mechanisms to protecting our businesses from the risks of email?

Suggestion: Make sure that your policies are enforceable and realistic. While legally prudent, too many attorneys are pragmatically unrealistic in drafting these policies. With objective metrics of so many other business functions, there must be a better way of trying to be a compassionate Big Brother!

Complexity of email - IM. The corporate email system alone is not the only email challenge. Instant messaging (soon to be standard on Windows XP) and use of "free email accounts for personal messages" from vendors like Yahoo or Hotmail pose specific new risks. USA Today recently reported how easy it was for a security expert to hack into a Hotmail user account with one line of code! IM is notorious for opening channels into the systems running them.

Another risk is the poor control of virus protection with these technologies. We had a virus introduced into our network by someone checking a Hotmail account. This virus bypassed the anti-virus software component in the usual email software that we use.

Thankfully, the desktop anti-virus software immediately identified and discarded it. Both of these technologies provide new opportunities for improving communication within an organization, but also present increased risks of evil-minded people intent on causing as many unknowing people harm as possible.

Virus hoaxes. Vandals create every day new viruses or strains of existing viruses with too much time on their hands. The less creative vandals do not congest the Internet with spreading viruses or creating denial of service attacks on Web sites, they just congest the Internet with emails of fear. Ironically, with all the real threats of viruses, many of the commonly circulating warnings are hoaxes. Especially since the Lovebug virus, it seems that everyone must inform the universe of the next apocalypse.

Suggestion: Establish a coordinator in your business to field all virus scares. That person should research the veracity of a threat (a few sites including Symantec.com have sections on hoaxes), the risk of harm to your corporate resources, and then issue a warning within the company if appropriate. Establish a policy that the only person circulating warning messages should go to is your Virus Triage Specialist.

Relay of email. Finally, let's return to what started all this thought. Orbz.org, though unpopular, is a Web site created by a group of Internet Service Provider (ISP) administrators to test Web sites for relay capabilities in an effort to reduce spam addressed to users of email on their servers.

What are relay capabilities? One of the insidious techniques used by broadcast emailers, to avoid drawing attention to the server and ISP that they are sending the email from, is to send it from an unsuspecting server. Instead of sending the thousands and even millions of messages from their own starting points and likely being quickly shut down, they identify servers that are not tightly closed for only employee senders. These servers are configured to allow email to be relayed through the server (generally a default setting) nearly anonymously of the original sender. Interestingly, more than 50 percent of the servers that Orbz.org tested are able to relay mail. These ISPs use the test to shut out all email sent from these servers -- even genuine communication!

Suggestion: Check your email system for relay capability and then visit Orbz.org to make sure that your server is not blacklisted on it or a few of the other similar sites that they will search when you visit. To do this, you will need the IP address of your email server.

The confounding nature of the above issues may be closer to universal resolution as we share our experiences and fixes to improving email efficacy in and for our businesses. I look forward to hearing suggestions from you, the readers, of how you've addressed any of them or in the trenches experiences that can be shared with all readers.

Chaim Yudkowsky, CPA, is president of Byte of Success Inc., a technology consulting company specializing in helping small and mid-size business grow. In addition, he is chief information officer of Textilease Corp., a Beltsville, Md.-based uniform and first-aid services company with a focus on the Southeast. Previously, he was a vice president and director of the Management Consulting Services Division of Grabush, Newman & Co., a Towson, Md., certified public accounting and management consulting firm. He can be contacted at cyudkowsky@ByteofSuccess.com.