Email is a publicly recognized form of communication. The New York Times in September 2002 reported that over 7 billion email messages are sent per day. Over 86% of workers in the US consider email an important part of their working day. email is used to keep co-workers in the loop with respect to office events, project schedules. It is the fastest way to send documents for reviewing and editing. Generally, one gets a picture of people buried in tons of email leading to longer working hours, stress and work distractions. However, this is not so. Pew Internet Research group (www.pewinternet.org) in their very interesting study on email at work notes that power emailers today have evolved efficient email management techniques that actually boost their productivity. email is an essential tool without which things would be much more difficult. Historians rate email as the greatest invention in communication technology after wireless. If inventions like the telephone and the wireless radio enabled people to talk across oceans, email has enabled people and computers to talk to each other across space.

Documentation
Thoughts, ideas, decisions, comments of users are written down and can be archived for future reference. This is not possible with telephone (unless all calls are tapped). Because it is in electronic form, it makes use of paper records redundant. One of the most used application of email is the transfer of documents to co-workers and associates for reading, reviewing and editing. It beats the cost and inconvenience of taking print-outs, faxes and couriers. The email message itself is considered as a written expression. emails have been used as evidence in a number of court cases in the US. The celebrated investigation into the Enron-Arthur Andersen scandal drew people's attention to the importance of emails as records of transactions. E-commerce websites deliver invoices, order status alerts and receipts via email. Harvard University sends out admission notifications to student applicants via email.

Speed
Email travels via the Internet set-up. The complex infrastructure of under-sea fibre-optics, high-end servers and satellites ensure email travels across the globe in seconds. As a medium for automating business processes, this is crucial as acknowledgements, receipts, replies, etc. come back immediately

Cost Effective
Not just the fact that Internet access is cheap, but analyse the effectiveness of it all. The speed at which information flows, the enhanced productivity, the optimisation of resources – they all add up. With everyone using email to share documents, there's money saved from reduced paper, printing, faxes, shipment and delivery costs. Long-distance calls are avoided by using email to send orders, updates on project schedules and office tasks, request for appointments, problem resolutions (in the case of Customer Service departments), etc. across country and the world. Customer service, generating new business, running a newsletter service, etc. become easier, cheaper and more effective with email rather than print or telephone.

Convenience
In a world where computers are as much a part of the essential furniture as chairs and tables, workers find it easier to send and receive emails. It merges with their daily computer related work causing minimum distractions and disruptions of workflow. Universal Internet access allows workers to access their mail not just from the office but from their homes and cyber cafes. So out-of-office executives can stay in touch with events and work back in office by periodically checking their mail.

Mass Media
Email is not just a one-to-one medium, it can also be a mass medium. The same email can be sent to as many recipients as required. Compare this with the offline world, where you need to take photocopies of your documents to send to many people. The biggest application of email is in the area of email marketing.

WorkFlow Management
Business processes can be made efficient with alerts, notifications, work orders moving around thru email. Now there is no need to wait for human intervention or bureaucratic red tape to be cut. The performance of a particular event can trigger an alert email to the concerned department who would perform the next action. The chief use of company email is to keep employees and co-workers updated about events in the work place. This covers projects, meetings, jobs, etc. Bulk of the email generated in a day deal with internal work of a company – memos, minutes of meetings, office announcements, discussions, document reviews, etc.
In general, most power emailers feel good about email. It saves time, creates affable worker relations, smoothens work flow and overall leads to individual professional-well-being. By sharing work information with co-workers, it increases team work and also cements relationships within the office. Co-workers working in different offices can be the closest of friends as a result of the various email conversations that they may have. Apart from business, even government departments have taken to email. It makes officials more accessible to the citizens and vice versa. Citizens actually manage to communicate and discuss issues with the government, something that was difficult to do earlier.
There is a dark side to it. Spam, viruses, those reply-to-all loops, the stress of handling large volume of mail, etc. Today organizations which make full use of email recognize the need to inculcate good practices amongst users. And from the available research, most power emailers, people who are “always on”, already follow these guidelines. Some of the issues that companies are wary off are – harassing co-workers with non-serious mail and jokes, transmitting email loaded with inappropriate content, misleading customers, falsifying information and using work email for personal use. Usually, corporates have reasonable tolerance towards personal use of company email. But the other issues can have serious repercussions.
Hence, it is not surprising that over 84% corporates have some kind of a basic email policy in place. This policy covers issue like language to use, dealing with spam, restrictions on content, penalties for violating guidelines, etc. Monitoring email is a major and essential exercise for most corporates. Thus, email management tools that help companies maximize productivity out of email have become extremely popular.