Managing project correspondence: Want to save 25 seconds per mail?
Along the same lines as my recent 'Man vs Machine: The Race to Revise Documents' post, one of our clients has taken out their stopwatch and done some research into the time it takes to perform common information management-related tasks using an online collaboration system compared to using their internal document management tool and email.
The results make interesting reading and (unsurprisingly) reinforce the greater efficiencies of using a collaboration system. When comparing how long it took to file a project mail (e.g. an RFI, advice, notice, instruction, variation, etc.) using each system, here's what they found...
| Internal document management tool & Email | Online collaboration system | |
| Step 1 | Read email in Outlook | Read email |
| Step 2 | Read attachment | Read Attachment |
| Step 3 | (Switch to document management system) | - |
| Step 4 | Navigate to the folder the email should be stored in | - |
| Step 5 | Select to import email | - |
| Step 6 | (Switch back to Outlook) | - |
| Step 7 | Drag email from Inbox into document management system folder | - |
| Step 8 | Delete email from Outlook | - |
| Time Taken | 32 seconds | 7 seconds |
Table: Filing a received mail using an internal document management system and email compared to using an online collaboration system
Because collaboration systems automatically index and archive all incoming mail through one central platform, the process is six steps and 25 seconds lighter. When that is multiplied across dozens of mails a day and an entire project team, it's easy to see where the gains in efficiency lie.
A couple of our clients have done other 'side by side' comparisons on tasks such as drawing review and searching for info, so I'll try to track down the data and add one or two more. Anyone out there heard about or done similar comparisons?
Labels: Technology
Result is that it is more comfortable and also ensures auditability and logging.
: May 28, 2009 5:19 PM
<< Back to home
