A popular article that is being referenced by many blogs right now is “Tech Firm Implements Employee ‘Zero Email’ Policy” from ABC News.  I just became aware of it from the popular “Beyond PLM” blog by Oleg Shilovitsky (a former ENOVIA employee).  When I read this article, it got me thinking about how email has been used during my work career and how it is used in PLM systems like ENOVIA.  I believe that most of the frustration over email is due to the fact that (a) it is impersonal and common business etiquette can easily be forgotten, (b) it is too easy for a person to ignore or delete emails and never respond, and (c) it seldom leads to decisions – but people often use it expecting decisions to be made.

Even if a company was to eliminate emails, it does not mean that it will eliminate requests for information or completion of tasks.  It also does not mean that the need to record “commentary” about an idea electronically will be eliminated.  What it does mean is that companies are searching for a better way to meet these needs.  I think many of the existing PLM techniques for collaboration can support a “zero email” policy.  I could imagine the “task” functionality (whether based on formal projects and/or informal workflow) used in all PLM systems could and should become the prominent way to get work done within a company.  I also believe that the more frequent use of discussion or comment threads (similar to the one below used with SwYm) could and should become the prominent way to discuss an idea and reach consensus.

If a company was to universally adopt this approach to collaboration with no emails, I believe the following business benefits would occur:

• Reuse and knowledge transfer would increase.  Employees would no longer be able to create a new document and just email it to people they think needed it.  As soon as one person needs to receive their document (or design) electronically, the author would be required to upload it to the PLM system first.  Of course, as soon as the document is uploaded to PLM, it is now visible to many more people who can potentially benefit from it, learn from it, and potentially reuse it.  This goal would also be better realized if FTP sites were restricted to external file sharing only, and could not be used for exchanging files between employees.
• Decisions will be reached quicker. An interesting aspect of using a task list to get work done is that everybody involved in the project or workflow knows where the bottleneck is for completing the work.  The peer pressure becomes immense to contribute in a timely manner.  Likewise the use of discussion threads to “discuss” an idea makes it obvious if a person has a reasonable or unreasonable position for reaching a decision.  Once again, peer pressure would cause people to rethink their positions and consider other opinions.
• Product development benefits from more perspectives and contributions.  A “zero email” policy would force an employee to log onto the PLM system at least daily and probably check for updates throughout the day.  In this scenario, one cannot help but think some of these people will become more active in the PLM processes.  The system would no longer be “just an engineering” tool.  PLM would become an essential business system for all functions in the company.

In closing, I thought a business environment without email at first seemed far-fetched.  Then, the more I thought about it, I could appreciate some of the outcomes of such a policy.  Do you think such a policy could work in your company?