A survey has found that 70% of corporate information is on email, and of that 35% is ONLY on email, so it is a critical activity within most businesses, one addressed by eLink email management solution.

Emails are addressed to an individual

As in the case of traditional letters, email correspondences typically comes in addressed to one person in the company, whereas the company as a whole may need access to the information, not just that person.

To overcome this some companies print all their emails and they become part of their paper-based system, sometimes with 17 copies (the average number of photocopies made of any document) and this is one way of solving the problem of email management.

Emails 'filed' on central server

Email is typically filed on an individual's PC or on his allocated space on the main server. In most instances there is no way of easily finding a specific email as each person has their own idiosyncratic way of indexing the files and there is no easy way of ensuring that critical emails are retained whilst the rest are deleted.

Normally each person files their own copy of each email, meaning many copies stored inefficiently giving massive storage problems and duplication of effort.

Emails filed for disaster recovery

The majority of companies who suffer a disaster never recover. To recover, businesses need to ensure that every piece of data, every email, every letter can be recreated. Not just recreated, but recreated in a timely manner, as even two or three days can be a catastrophic delay in a sales cycle, in purchasing or in projects.

eLink email management solution is an integrated business management system

eLink integrates with MS Outlook and MS Exchange Server and has special routines so that each email can be integrated directly into the business process, being converted into a document (for simple filing) or into a diary entry or an action. If your sender is a 'known' contact on the system, the system recognises the email address and attaches the email to that contact and if your contact is linked to a company then it is linked to that company.

It can then be linked as necessary to a marketing campaign, to a sales opportunity and / or to a project. If there are any attachments these are automatically filed as a document including those where the attachment is an .xls, .ppt etc format file. This process also automatically builds up an audit trail of all contacts with a prospect, customer, supplier etc and in so doing starts to create the corporate knowledgebase.

At this stage in the process the user can re-assign the action to another member of the team or to a group, or if it's a diary entry can invite other users to join the meeting or event and without having to create any extra emails. The result is that every email becomes a formal entity within the corporate management system and also that you virtually eliminate internal emails. Every email itself becomes part of the business process; total email management.

Faxes are dealt with in the same way and as with other documents which have been scanned in, can be attached to one or more actions or diary entries.

Future-proofed solution

The system stands on its own as your email management solution or because of the interconnection with other modules available within the eLink system, it can be used as a starting point for a more comprehensive business management system. Your solution can be amended and extended by you on-demand, live on your system at any time, it will grow and adapt to match how your organisation grows and adapts to your market needs.

The benefits of the eLink email management solution are:

• Increased knowledge of products and services in your business through the automatic creation of the corporate knowledge base

• Reduced space required for filing whether paper-based or electronic filing

• Faster delivery to relevant executives and directors

• Higher security for important documents saving losses and confidentiality

• Improved access to all relevant documents, as authorised, wherever and whenever, all leading to

• Improved productivity for all staff and executives

• Improved customer service

• Improved profitability