The e-mail false-positive epidemic

Wide Area Networking This newsletter is sponsored by Arsenal Digital Solutions Traditional Backup vs. On-Demand Data Protection Services: Critical Questions for IT Decision-Makers When deciding on a data protection solution, budget limits, service quality, and compliance requirements all weigh on the minds of IT leaders. A single overlooked issue can mean the difference between disaster and continuous operations. In this Webcast, Doug Chandler of IDC will explain how many companies have evaluated their data protection choices in today's market and made a successful transition from in-house backup and recovery operations to service-based solutions. Click here to listen to this webcast today! Network World's Wide Area Networking Newsletter, 07/24/07 The e-mail false-positive epidemic By Steve Taylor and Jim Metzler In this newsletter, we’re continuing the findings from our colleague, Peter Brockmann, concerning Brockmann & Company’s research on e-mail in business. Read the first newsletter in this short series here. Peter commented: “As part of our study of 475 business e-mail users, we asked them to describe their most valuable e-mail, and then to estimate the financial impact on their business if that e-mail had not arrived. We were most surprised to learn that the average most valuable e-mail was $12 million. Many were in the $1,000 and $5,000 range. A few outliers were in excess of $1 billion. That’s because they were the best and final bid responses where the customer insisted on e-mail-only responses! “Virtually all of the 300-plus anecdotes of the most valuable e-mail were e-mail delivering a purchase order, some transactional confirmation, a process change notice with revenue implications or otherwise business process-oriented notification. Yet, despite the value of these communication objects, and despite the fact that nearly everyone regards e-mail as very important to the success of our firms, over a third reported that their enterprise had lost business because an e-mail didn’t arrive. An average of 40 good messages per year are retrieved from junk folders. What about the good e-mails that we don’t know about? Are any of them our average ‘most valuable?’” Get Up to Speed on the Latest in WLANs Easily stay on top of the latest developments and issues in WLAN technology, standards, security, telephony, management and more with Network World's latest Executive Guide, "Keeping Up With the Wireless Whirlwind." Click here to download! In the next newsletter, Peter will discuss the empirical link between business performance and the spam index that was discussed in the previous newsletter. But we’d also like to hear from you. How do your experiences compare with those that Peter has been reporting? By the way, in the next newsletter, the word “spam” will not appear. Instead, we’ll use sp&m. And we’ll let you know why at that time. In the meantime, you may download a copy of 'The Problem with Email' report at Webtorials.   What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

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Contact the author: Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. For more detailed information on most of the topics discussed in this newsletter, connect to Webtorials, the premier site for Web-based educational presentations, white papers, and market research. Taylor can be reached at taylor@webtorials.com Jim Metzler is the Vice President of Ashton, Metzler & Associates, a consulting organization that focuses on leveraging technology for business success. Jim assists vendors to refine product strategies, service providers to deploy technologies and services, and enterprises evolve their network infrastructure. He can be reached via e-mail. This newsletter is sponsored by Arsenal Digital Solutions Traditional Backup vs. On-Demand Data Protection Services: Critical Questions for IT Decision-Makers When deciding on a data protection solution, budget limits, service quality, and compliance requirements all weigh on the minds of IT leaders. A single overlooked issue can mean the difference between disaster and continuous operations. In this Webcast, Doug Chandler of IDC will explain how many companies have evaluated their data protection choices in today's market and made a successful transition from in-house backup and recovery operations to service-based solutions. Click here to listen to this webcast today! ARCHIVE Archive of the Wide Area Networking Newsletter. BONUS FEATURE IT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered to your inbox each day. Extend your knowledge with a print subscription to the Network World newsweekly, Apply here today. International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: networking.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007