The largest repository of
unstructured information deriving from Internet use must surely be the
countless emails that have been sent, received, and moved into folders
over the decades.
Is it correct to call the mountains of
archived emails unstructured? All data is structured as it arises, in
its original context, imbued with relevance. The question is, can data
retain relevance within its broader, surrounding context? Growth of
data is the test of structured or unstructured information.
Robin Harris has been pondering the untapped value of archived email.
“Email adds value because it adds context – metadata
– to raw files and communications. Context that is human readable and
human memorable. That fits the relational database in our brains, not
our computers. That provides metadata that people use, like names,
conversations, topics and words that mean something.
“Email servers weren’t designed to provide email
users with the services that users actually want, like infinitely
expanding mailboxes and fast search for five year old emails. Nor do
they provide the services that managers and owners would like to have,
such as all the emails that went to a certain email address or URL and contained attachments.” – Email value management
Harris points out that email archiving
software vendors sell the process of saving dead emails to their market
as a kind of insurance. They could be focusing instead, says Harris, on
the question, “how can you maximize email’s business value?”
This
is a good point. Many people have a decade of business and personal
correspondence stored in their email programs, or outside if they’ve
managed to employ an archiving system. What kind of analytics-derived
dashboard views could we bring to bear on our own lives and
relationships, both personal and business, if we could sift and sort
through all that legacy data? We could bring business intelligence into
our own individual dealings.
Email is generally stored
according to some rudimentary classification system, in named folders
that identify the person or client, or the project, or the year, or any
one of a host of meaningful designators. But usually this is the extent
of the metadata that gives meaning to the data within. A lifetime of
meticulously ordered effort comes to reside as unstructured
information, in a huge heap that is just waiting to have some pertinent
algorithms thrown at it.
Robin Harris expresses the hope
that perhaps the archive software developers will see this buried
treasure in email and morph their products to preserve and maximize its
value.
As Email search and analysis becomes more
feature-filled and productive of new insights, some people will choose
to archive their email offline and seek desktop analytics. Others, like
Zoli Erdos, will move all their offline legacy data to the cloud for
the value of services available only online.
Zoli is one
of those people who have noted the value of searchability when it comes
to an email archive. He writes about his decision finally to migrate
all of his legacy data from Outlook into Gmail. Having the enabling
tool to make the transfer was the clincher, but the desire existed in
part because of Gmail’s powerful search capability. See How to Import All Your Archive Email Into Gmail
The
comparison between online and offline services continues as Dovetail
Software engineer Kevin Miller critiques the latest edition of Outlook.
See Google Desktop vs Outlook 2007
Email
is the killer app of the network age. It has long been important to
Dovetail Software, in the task of upgrading and enhancing the Amdocs
Clarify CRM system. Some of the greatest
early acclaim that came from customers revolved around what we had done
with email for them. See, for example, The Dovetail Advantage: Email and CRM
Also:
“Dovetail’s SEC.NET
(SuperEmailClerk.NET), implemented as a Windows service, allows
operations to be performed against the Clarify database by email. This
is a lifesaver for many, because the Amdocs Email Manager has long had
issues with performance, reliability, and scalability.” – Dovetail Makes the Difference
The definitive story of what Dovetail
Software does with email within the Clarify environment is told by
Director of Software Development Gary Sherman, in his comprehensive
overview: Email Integration with Clarify.
