This topic has already been addressed and is available in the archives at http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/PSVillage/messages
However, there’s probably lots more to say on the topic and I too am very interested in hearing what other products people are using that haven’t already been mentioned (please check the archives before repeating what’s already been discussed).

We (PSVillage Technology Advisory Board) are currently evaluating collaboration products for our members and plan to eventually move us off of Yahoo Groups.  We are looking at several different options.  A new very cool product coming on the market but still in stealth mode is “Pseuds”. You won’t find much about them on the web, but I’m happy to broker an introduction to anyone interested in learning more about their product.

As we learn about new collaboration products, we will do our best to share the details with all of you.

Regards,

Terry

The best ways I’ve found to avoid “email hell”

1. Prioritize emails using rules (Lotus, Outlook, Thunderbird have this functionality)
- All emails from direct client and management are made important and highlighted
- All emails I’m cc’d on go to another folder (ToRead - for those of you fans of GTD*)
- Only emails TO me are left in my InBox (and are shown on my blackberry)
- Sort emails by time - most recent first
If it takes less then two minutes - handle it else move the email to “Awaiting Action” (again modified GTD). Use your downtime
(airports when the plane is late) to go thru Awaiting action.

2. Remove all email lists - Preference: move to RSS, get an RSS reader for your blackberry. You can catch up on those while in queue
for security/taxis, etc. Second best is to get a daily or weekly summary.

3. Move/Delete emails from InBox /AwaitingAction when complete

This has dramatically reduced the number of emails for me ; when you get to your “ToRead” folder it is great to see 20 or 30 emails in a
thread that you can delete immediately because the problem has been solved. I’ve shown this to a number of clients and they have
immediately adopted. One woman had over 900 unread emails and now she gets a much smaller volume that can be handled within her work week.

Best Regards

Karl W.

Depending on the detail of the client’s requirements, another possible may be to implement a CRM solution where all the communication with customers and about customers is done through the CRM solution. This is then available as a ‘pull’ to those people (typically via a report) when they need it rather than bombarding their in box.

A good CRM solution will contain all the Sales, sService, Marketing data, and can often also contain timesheeting and other aspects which are very capable of filling too many people’s inboxes if not contained.

I am happoy to discuss this off list if required.

Thanks

Gill

In addition to establishing rules per the previous post, turn off all automatic alert pop-ups for your email. It is distracting and often
causes people to jump over to email to respond - thereby not completing the task at hand.

Barbara T.

One more good resource on the topic is a book called “Send” by Will Schwalbe and David Shipley. You can also read an interview with the authors of the book here:

Behind the Scenes of “Send”

Hope this helps.

Best,

Rajesh

Hi,

Thanks for such an excellent forum, with outstanding past and current discussions. At a big picture level, the following overview for various stages for enterprise collaboration might be helpful:

http://intranetmaturity.pbwiki.com

I think the “the best combination of knowledge management software/solutions” is very dynamic. So priorities of the organization should be identified and the tradeoffs involved are discussed prior to the discussions around any product per se.

Thanks again for this forum!

Michael