Over 100 businesses in the built environment have implemented Mail Manager in the last 3 months and one of the common queries that comes up is, 'should we implement in one team first, or go with everyone'?
We see both approaches being used well, and wanted to share the pro’s and con’s to help our clients make decisions which mean they implement Mail Manager at a pace which suits them!
Phased
Pro’s
- Allows you to test Mail Manager properly within a small team and understand the likelihood of staff adopting Mail Manager.
- Enables you to prove the return on investment Mail Managers delivers if leadership need convincing of this.
Con’s
- Naturally the actual change process goes on for longer, as the process of implementing Mail Manager & Training is then carried out multiple times as this needs to happen with any group implementing the solution.
- You may end up with some people or teams working differently to each other, meaning there is more inconsistency rather than less.
- There is often a new impetus, an excitement with a new solution which can fade if you’re implementing it over a number of months, rather than targeting the majority of the business in one go.
- Each department in your business is different, and just because one group quickly embraces Mail Manager, it doesn’t mean that this will apply to the whole organisation. The key question is whether your company feels it’s important for staff to file their correspondence and is it fair to expect staff to do it.
- Some teams can feel excluded, particularly if they start to hear of teams embracing Mail Manager and openly sharing the benefits of their new approach to managing their inbox.
- Per annum this generally carries a higher cost to the business due to volume discounting.
Big Bang
Pro’s
- The success rate of getting everyone in the business filing email correspondence quickly, is far greater. Within a day everyone is set up using Mail Manager, and within a week everyone is fully using the solution and has had any basic queries answered.
- This option carries a cost saving from 10-30% per year to you in terms of licensing.
- You’re able to very quickly identify if there is anyone not filing or following what’s expected of them.
- You deliver time savings almost instantly to the vast majority of your business, with most people saving at least 3 hours per week in searching for information, and managing an overloaded inbox.
Con’s
- This requires a greater level of commitment in the first instance, which you shouldn’t do unless the Directors in your company see real value in implementing an email management solution across the business.
- It’s critical to have a timeline for roll-out agreed internally and get 3-4 champions in place to attend the training sessions.
- You may feel that some people in the business need Mail Manager more than others, and the investment is less worthwhile for those not involved in Projects. This can be a mistake to make, particularly if you’re aiming for consistency across the company and your staff all exchange emails you need to be able to track and organise if they ever leave the business.
Mail Manager isn’t like most change management initiatives, it’s implemented across 500 plus person organisations in a day, and the next day people are filing - that probably sounds daunting!
Best of both worlds?
Here is a 5 step best practice guide for implementing Mail Manager:
- Present Mail Manager to a number of audiences before deciding whether it is the right solution for you, ensuring the leadership team are included in this, and they agree on the importance of staff managing their email responsibly.
- Try the solution on your machine to ensure you’re happy with how it works.
- Once you’ve decided it is the right solution for the business, install it on 2-3 people’s machines for a couple of days to ensure you’re happy with the standardised rules around prompting staff to file emails, attachment management, and that everyone has a standard process for what happens after an email is filed.
- Deploy on to staff machines, with a short 1 minute video on the filing process of Mail Manager, with a link to a more detailed recorded training webinar, as well as who to contact if they have any queries.
- Invite staff to the regular lunch and learn webinars with Mail Manager.
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