Reducing email and related storage at the source

I have written recently about the scary cost of storage and the rate at which it is exploding. The biggest storage sucking app in most companies is email –- with multiple copies replicated everywhere, and increasing compliance related time bands for archiving email.

Sam Diaz quotes HyperOffice suggesting we move 4 types of email into a collaboration environment:

• Coordinating Schedules — Deciding upon common times for meetings and events
• Document Collaboration — Working together on documents by sending them back and forth as attachments
• Managing Tasks — Sending or getting tasks requests and updating status.
• Group Decisions — Using email to discuss issues or as a voting mechanism to build consensus

In most organizations items 2 and 4 would probably bring the most bang in terms of de-duping efficiencies.

Worth trying.  With HyperOffice, a wiki, shared folders, whatever

Another thought – just like many folks now remind you not to print their emails unless absolutely necessary, we should remind each other not to email unless necessary. And cut out the cc all, return receipts and other bad habits we picked up over the last couple of decades.