The Intelligence Behind Email Patterns

Researchers recently discovered some astonishing corporate email patterns when sifting through Enron's publically available email database. While they expected to see elevated chatter during moments of crisis, they found that email volumes picked up significantly more than a month before the company's downfall was common knowledge.

They also noticed that, as stress builds within a company, employees start talking directly to the individuals that they feel most comfortable with, which means they stop sharing information widely. Rather than hammering out long email threads with multiple recipients, this research shows that employee correspondence quickly becomes one-on-one emails to their most trusted colleagues. That is, in the midst of a pending crisis - these individuals form "cyber cliques" via corporate email.

Why is this important? The study suggests that email patterns can serve as an early warning sign of growing discontent within an organization. According to Ronaldo Menezes, one of the study's researchers, "Human resources folk would probably find this extremely useful."

This research only starts to hint at the value of having an email archive. By storing all of your email in a central, searchable repository, you can unearth important trends - sometimes without even looking at the contents of the email.

• Managers can monitor email communications with key clients to ensure proper follow-up and make sure that your customers are being treated appropriately
• Sales managers don't have to miss a beat if one of their sales representatives leaves since their email history can be quickly transferred to another rep
• Human resources can ensure that employees are using email appropriately (i.e., devoid of profanity or sexual innuendo) and address potential problem employees proactively (there's something to be said for ye ole sentinel effect)

Curiously, none of these are usually cited as reasons for adopting an email archiving solution. But given time, perhaps they will. I think part of the problem here is that the term "email archive" is a bit of a misnomer as it connotes an impenetrable vault (i.e. a place where emails go to die). But in actuality, email archives are active repositories where messages can be easily searched and retrieved on-demand. In today's information-centric world, email archiving goes way beyond just storing emails and meeting regulatory requirements - it's an organization-wide tool for increasing efficiency.

Email archives can unlock valuable company information and expose trends. This information, in turn, can fuel better customer service, improve the use of email as a professional communication tool and perhaps even foreshadow a coming crisis.