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Improving the communications process: the costs and effectiveness of email compared with traditional media
online resource
posted on 2005-09-30, 14:01 authored by Tom JacksonTom Jackson, Ray DawsonRay Dawson, Darren WilsonA cost-benefit analysis of the use of email was carried out at the Danwood Group at
Lincoln in the UK. This was a pilot exercise forming part of a larger exercise to
evaluate the costs and benefits of the whole IT infrastructure at the company.
The times taken to read, write and carry out other functions with the email were
measured for a sample of employees. The email content was also monitored to
determine which emails were business related. It was found that nearly two thirds of
all emails sent were non business related and the pattern of behaviour when sending
and receiving these emails was quite different to that for the business emails.
Overall the findings indicate that despite the fact that only one third of email use
was productive, the time taken is still worthwhile compared with other, traditional
communication methods. However, it was not possible to fully quantify the benefits
of email over these other methods, as the data for the alternatives has not yet been
collected. The study showed that further research is necessary in this respect.
The paper concludes that the analysis has been a useful learning experience for the
company showing the value of cost-benefit research and highlighting the difficulties
involved. It has also identified the possible benefits that could be obtained by
educating employees in the best practice for the use of email.
History
School
- Science
Department
- Information Science
Pages
90861 bytesCitation
Jackson, T., Dawson, R. and Wilson, D., 1999. Improving the communications process: the costs and effectiveness of email compared with traditional media. In: Hawkins, C., Georgiadou, E., Perivolaropoulos, L., Ross, M. and Staples, G. (eds), Fourth International Conference on Software Process Improvement Research, Education and Training. British Computer Society, INSPIRE'99, Crete, September 1999, pp 167-178.Publisher
© British Computer SocietyPublication date
1999ISBN
1902505166Language
- en