HUB TechMinutes

Let’s face it - you’d be hard-pressed at this point to find someone who wasn’t fairly confident about their use of email in the office. However, the way they are currently using their email may not be the most efficient. This week, we’re focusing our tips on how to better use your email.

Email is a presence in almost every business, but some businesses use it better than others. Some use it as a be-all, end-all business communications solution, while others use it for correspondence that isn’t time sensitive. No matter how your business uses email, managing it properly will go a long way toward improving your efficiency and productivity.

Ever get an email with the subject line “No Subject” and not feel compelled to open it? Us too. Your email subjects are crucial to getting a user’s attention and helping them understand what the email is about. We’re here to help you develop more effective email subjects to ensure your messages are opened and responded to.

Communication is imperative to the success of your business, but sometimes it’s easier said than done--particularly if your organization relies on technology-related communication that can make context and subtext difficult to detect. Here are some tips to ensure that your employees are as clear and concise as possible with your communication mediums.

Of course, moving to a cloud-based email solution might seem a little intimidating--especially if you’ve never dealt with a cloud-based service before. We’ll help you make the jump with four tips and tricks to consider for this process.

How is Your Email Being Hosted?
First, you’ve have to determine whether the solution will be hosted in your own personal on-site cloud or if a service provider will host it. If you opt out of managing your own cloud-based email solution, you’ll have to determine if a public cloud is the best place for your email, or if you’d rather have it hosted privately by a managed service provider like HUB.

Be Sure to Include Archiving and Backup
If you’re not taking advantage of archiving and backups for those archives, you could be putting your business in jeopardy. What if you ever have to refer back to past emails to determine who said what in the event of a disaster? You should be sure that you are routinely archiving your emails, as well as backing up those archives to make sure they are always available when you need them.

Don’t Forget About Security
If you’re storing your organization’s email infrastructure online in the cloud, you’ll have to worry about the security of it. Make sure that it’s protected--a firewall, antivirus, and especially encryption. With the amount of sensitive information found in most inboxes, you need to keep it secure.

Consider the Devices Used
When choosing an email solution, you should think about which devices will be accessing it. Most of the common email applications out there, including Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, and so on, will have mobile applications that can be downloaded to devices for on-the-go access. After all, if you’re implementing cloud-based email to improve access, you want to make sure your employees actually have access to it.