A few days back, Dennis discussed the need for Just One Version of the Truth – the need for sanity in knowing where the facts that matter are stored, reliably, always, definitively.

Along that same vein, here’s another culprit: email.  Information stored in an email system is a disaster waiting to happen, a virtual sword of Damocles: how often does something slip and you later find the email that was supposed to alert you to the hazardous material recall — with the ‘obvious’ subject ‘sorry I missed you at lunch‘?   How long have you spent searching through emails knowing one of the replies to a reply by somebody had the piece of information you need?

Email has clearly been asked to do more than that for which it was designed.  Check out articles like The Death of Email by 2018 for additional perspective.

Sure, email is great, and will be around for years — definitely beyond 2018.  After all, I bet you still have a fax machine — and that fax machine is a great example!  It used to be a critical centerpiece in every office, but now?  Similarly, email will fade out of its current role.   Email should only be a way to transmit and deliver;  the storage and organization of that information has to be left to a collaborative system, capable of providing intelligence, structure and retrieval to all interested parties.  A system like the Spitfire Project Management System uses email (and other means) to flow documents and notifications in, out, and back into the system — always keeping the authoritative, single version of the truth ready when and wherever you need it!

Is email getting the job done for you?