And it’s as easy as that! You can then use this inbox exactly the same as your normal mail, and it will replicate automatically so that your iPhone and desktop both stay up to date. Lotus Traveler will also merge your Lotus Notes Calendar with your iPhone Calendar, you are able to create and respond to meetings and events on the fly.

However, unless your users are particularly well-trained at dealing with email, most of the mail they receive will remain in their mail file or archives – accessible only to them (& maybe their assistants), and generally out of reach of other users.

That’s OK, because mail is a personal data store, in that if you received the mail, you’re allowed to know about it – other users might also have received the mail, but only if they’re allowed to know about it too.

Users often categorise mail into folders, or make lists of the most important emails, but generally it’ll be a vertical well of information, sorted by date, and probably with one or more archives for the really old stuff.

Over time, finding such information becomes more and more difficult – because users need to know roughly where it is. If they forget that, it can take a long time to find, or just not be found at all. It’s surprising how much time (and therefore money) is spent looking for information “I know is there somewhere”.

A comprehensive mail search facility is essential to ensure that each user can efficiently use the data that they & only they have – in their email database.  And for real efficiency, users need be able to search that data at the same time as public data, and in its entirety (not by opening each mail file/archive and searching separately).

Outside of implementing a policy/procedure whereby all mail is managed, e.g. moved to another location (which is usually fairly ambitious as users have neither the time nor inclination), adding a mail search tool is the most effective way to make better use of your existing IT environment, without limiting you from implementing & receiving the benefits of newer, more social technologies.

At first I received a spam mail that said: You Qualify for a Gold Card. Right after that, another asked me: How many Credit Cards can you get? The wheels started spinning. As it turns out, I can get a lot of Credit Cards!!! I have replied to every one of these spams, so now my combined credit limit from the 100 or so cards is now $500,000! This is a lot of credit, and I’m not so good at repaying it, so it is good that the fine people who sent this mortgage refinance offer, Refinance without perfect credit, do not check my credit.

I am a big fan of learning, so when I got many emails touting UNIVERSITY DIPLOMAS, I started working on my first PhD. It wasn’t my last PhD, though. I now have 12 PhDs in every subject imaginable, and I have more brains than the Scarecrow in “The Wizard of Oz”. I am truly a doctor of “thinkology”

Along with my newfound brains I have money rolling like never before as I Make a Fortune on eBay! selling all the junk in my house!!! I am now starting to sell my neighbor’s junk, too.

I have become a world traveler now that I can Get Your 2 FREE Air Tickets, 2 FREE Hotel Nights, $100 FREE Cash. I travel from city to city, and as long as the spam keeps rolling in, I may never return, sort of like “Johnny on the MTA”. I am also snapping pictures like crazy now that I will soon Claim Your Complimentary Digital Camera.

Because I print out every spam message that I receive, I use a lot in inkjet cartridges. But, not to worry, I get 50-75% OFF your Printer Ink- Ink Blowout Sale!

Now for my personal life. I have had my teeth whitened so much with Get Your Teeth Whitened that I really do Save a Fortune on your Electric Bill!

I have been keeping my libido going with Natural herbs that ignite the fire of desire. I have also sprinkled some of it on my wife’s cereal in the morning (when she is not looking). Now that my wife has left me, I am reading my newest reference manual: The Ultimate Guide to Meeting Women! I can also Attract the RIGHT girls with wonder pills which sounds a lot better than attracting the WRONG girls! Girls like this one, who is obviously the wrong girl: She’s 47 But Looks Like She’s 33…

As for my social responsibilities, I have single-handedly fixed the Health Care crisis by following the advice on this ad: $1 a day you can have real health insurance. Unfortunately, when I opened the package, I found that I had spent $365 for a jump rope…

Here’s a short summary of IDC’s white paper:

As social collaboration tools become more available and are deployed to more employees, some companies and individuals are looking for these tools to alleviate the growing complaints and irritation associated with the use of traditional enterprise communication tools, particularly email. Email is still one of the most prevalent communication tools used in business. While challenged to fill all of the roles that individuals have attempted to stretch out of it, email does fill an important role for businesses. As a one-to-one communication tool, email for non-real-time enterprise communication still has no peer. Because of its widely supported standards, almost ubiquitous access from any computing device, and availability through most enterprise security infrastructures, it has a role to play in the evolving social business. However, changing employee expectations combined with misuse of email are creating momentum for change. New social tools offer very important capabilities that can relieve some of the pressure on email, but they will not replace an important enterprise tool that has become the favored communication vehicle for many. The future of email is social, and the future of social collaboration tools includes email as an integral part of the enterprise communication suite.

I highly recommend all business email users have a read through this white paper before implementing their social email environment. It’s great to see companies like IBM integrating “social” into their existing email systems. If you’re a Lotus Notes user, check out the latest social plugins for Lotus Notes and IBM Connections here.

Litmus, who provide an application for email previewing and campaign analytics, have recently put together the following infographic outlining the crucial elements in creating beautiful and functional designs – as well as the pitfalls that can affect performance. This resource is a must have for all email marketers looking to turn the ordinary email into the extraordinary mobile-compatible email!

(Click to enlarge)

Designing your email signature or email marketing campaign in Photoshop is easy; having it render correctly across many email platforms, however, is another story. We recommend always re-creating your signature or campaign in HTML – for complete control over how your design is received – and following the 10 guidelines as above. Another helpful resource is our email coding limitations PDF, which offers a complete guide to HTML and CSS code limitations across multiple email clients.

Yes, email is still king, check out this infographic to read a few incredible stats such as “Nearly 4 times as many emails are sent each day as the total number of Facebook/Twitter updates, Google/Yahoo!/Bing searches and Internet pageviews combined” – completely eliminating any rumours of email dying off!

Nevertheless, much like a Toyota Corolla, email does what it needs to most of the time, but don’t expect the same luxuries you might from the latest Mercedes-Benz. Through all its years of use and popularity – email remains a functional tool, particularly for business users as a professional form of communication.

A colleague of mine facebooked emailed me last week to complain about how “backwards email is” as well as sharing a few great insights into the typical email user’s experience with their email software. Here are the points he made:

• Email signatures should be classed as separate entities by the email program (e.g. Lotus Notes or Outlook), enabling them to be removed or hidden by the user if desired.
• Email thread headers (e.g. “From”, “Sent”) should also split along the same lines as the email signature to be viewed or not as desired.
• These changes should, in turn, allow users the choice to hide these fields for personal contact or show them for business use.

These days it’s all about user experience, so why is email lagging so far behind the conveniences of chat or SMS? Let’s have a look at one particular conversation compared across the two different mediums…

To quote Tom Lynch-Watson, “The phone still tells you who it is and exactly when each message was sent. Email sucks”. We know that emails require a professional look as well as remaining 100% compliant according to the latest regulations, but surely email clients could become slightly more user friendly. Sure, certain email clients have developed a chat interface (e.g. Sametime for Lotus Notes), but that’s not email – it just doesn’t work the same.

We still want to email each other, we just don’t want a five minute conversation to look like a 100 page business take-over contract!

The Email Charter was created in response to a discussion similar to the one in our group, where it was agreed that email is getting out of hand for many people. It started life as a blog post by Chris Anderson and Jane Wulf. Since then, more than 45,000 people have read the post and it has generated hundreds of tweets, comments and suggestions. That is how the final Charter has been shaped, consisting of the following ten rules to battle the problem:

• Respect Recipients’ Time

This is the fundamental rule. As the message sender, the onus is on YOU to minimize the time your email will take to process. Even if it means taking more time at your end before sending.

• Short or Slow is not Rude

Let’s mutually agree to cut each other some slack. Given the email load we’re all facing, it’s OK if replies take a while coming and if they don’t give detailed responses to all your questions. No one wants to come over as brusque, so please don’t take it personally. We just want our lives back!

• Celebrate Clarity

Start with a subject line that clearly labels the topic, and maybe includes a status category [Info], [Action], [Time Sens] [Low Priority]. Use crisp, muddle-free sentences. If the email has to be longer than five sentences, make sure the first provides the basic reason for writing. Avoid strange fonts and colors.

• Quash Open-Ended Questions

It is asking a lot to send someone an email with four long paragraphs of turgid text followed by “Thoughts?”. Even well-intended-but-open questions like “How can I help?” may not be that helpful. Email generosity requires simplifying, easy-to-answer questions. “Can I help best by a) calling b) visiting or c) staying right out of it?!”

• Slash Surplus cc’s

cc’s are like mating bunnies. For every recipient you add, you are dramatically multiplying total response time. Not to be done lightly! When there are multiple recipients, please don’t default to ‘Reply All’. Maybe you only need to cc a couple of people on the original thread. Or none.

• Tighten the Thread

Some emails depend for their meaning on context. Which means it’s usually right to include the thread being responded to. But it’s rare that a thread should extend to more than 3 emails. Before sending, cut what’s not relevant. Or consider making a phone call instead.

• Attack Attachments

Don’t use graphics files as logos or signatures that appear as attachments. Time is wasted trying to see if there’s something to open. Even worse is sending text as an attachment when it could have been included in the body of the email.

• Give these Gifts: EOM NNTR

If your email message can be expressed in half a dozen words, just put it in the subject line, followed by EOM (= End of Message). This saves the recipient having to actually open the message. Ending a note with “No need to respond” or NNTR, is a wonderful act of generosity. Many acronyms confuse as much as help, but these two are golden and deserve wide adoption.

• Cut Contentless Responses

You don’t need to reply to every email, especially not those that are themselves clear responses. An email saying “Thanks for your note. I’m in.” does not need you to reply “Great.” That just cost someone another 30 seconds.

• Disconnect!

If we all agreed to spend less time doing email, we’d all get less email! Consider calendaring half-days at work where you can’t go online. Or a commitment to email-free weekends. Or an ‘auto-response’ that references this charter. And don’t forget to smell the roses.

So far over 22,000 votes have been counted for or against the Email Charter, enter your vote here. We think the Charter lays out some very good points that can make the working day a lot smoother and your inbox a lot friendlier! And if you want to share the Charter with your fellow email users — think about linking to it from your email signature… Something like “Save our inboxes! http://emailcharter.org” or “Too brief? Here’s why! http://emailcharter.org”

1) Open the “Crossware Mail Signature Config” Application in Lotus Notes:

2) Select “New Email Signature”:

3) Select whether you want the Signature Type to be “Default” (applied to everybody) or “Group” (applied to select individuals/groups). If you have chosen “Group”, go on to select the group within your address book, and add a description of the email signature for your own reference:

4) Enter your signature details between the blue lines using the Rich Text field and applying “Lookup” rules as required. You may also import an HTML or Plain Text Signature if necessary. Finally, click save:

5) Your Lotus Notes email signature is complete! You may wish to test it out – Click “Send Test Email”:

6) Select whether you want the test email to be sent from a user or a group, whether you want it to be in Rich Text/HTML/Plain Text format and who you want to receive the test email. Click “OK”:

7) The test email will appear in the recipient’s inbox. Crossware Mail Signature has searched your Domino Directory to match lookups with contact details, and your email signature will look great!

8) And you’re done. Now when you send an email, all you need to do is type what you need in the text field, and click send. No need to “insert signature”, no need to configure anything locally, and in my case there’s not even a need to sign-off with “regards” — It’s all done for you, correctly appended email signatures 100% of the time. The brilliant thing is that this includes emails from Notes, iNotes, Blackberry, and any Traveler device such as iPhone and iPad… as all your emails still have to pass through your Domino Server!

If you would like to learn more about Crossware Mail Signature, visit our website at www.crossware.co.nz and help yourself to a free trial. If you would like to get in touch about a quotation or specific information for your company, please email sales@crossware.co.nz or contact us here.

Exhibitors around the world have been frantically pulling together the last of their marketing campaigns. Speakers around the world have been rushing to polish off their presentations. And the attendees? Well, the attendees have been excitedly confirming receptions, dinners, functions and parties – in amongst all the invaluable sessions already noted in their calendars.

If you haven’t yet planned your entire week, you’d better get onto it ASAP. Click here to download the LS12 Pocket Agenda, which covers session times, locations, conference maps and everything else you may need to know to plan for Lotusphere 2012.

Our own planning for Lotusphere this year started all the way back in September/October 2011 with a whole lot of brainstorming. We’ve decided to bring a whole new concept to 2012, where you’ll find “Team Crossware” at Booth 536. You can expect to see racing red shirts, a whole lot of checkered flags (and chocolates) along with many conversations surrounding the “turbo charging” of one’s email signature!

Here’s a glimpse of what to look out for down in the Solutions Showcase:

And to help you find us within the hundreds of other exhibitors in the Solutions Showcase, you can view the floor plan here (click to enlarge):

Most people know that Crossware Mail Signature never appears at Lotusphere without an incredibly awesome prize, and this year we have THREE! Yes, that’s right, we are giving away an iPhone 4S each day of the Solutions Showcase. So make sure that you come to our booth and get scanned for your chance to win an iPhone 4S, there are three to be drawn at 4pm on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

An overview of the awards

“The Eighteenth Annual IBM Collaboration Solutions Awards are now open and accepting your nominations. The 2012 IBM Collaboration Solutions Awards will be presented to IBM PartnerWorld Business Partners that have left their mark on our dynamic industry.

The IBM Collaboration Solutions Awards will honor winners and finalists who have dedicated their time and energy to building innovative solutions using IBM Collaboration Solutions software (social collaboration, content and analytics) to help their customers become a Social Business.

Winners and finalists will be recognized throughout 2012 by IBM and at Lotusphere 2012, held at the WALT DISNEY WORLD^® Swan and Dolphin Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, from January 15 – January 19, 2012.

Don’t miss out on this great opportunity, nominate today!“

The nomination categories

For nominations open November 7 – November 30:

• Leveraging the Social Business AGENDA – Business Transformation through becoming a Social Business – New in 2012
• Delivering Better Business Results Through Social Business Solution in the Cloud – New in 2012
• Innovation in Social Business Application Development Utilizing the Social Business Framework – New in 2012
• Enabling Business Innovation through Social Collaboration
• Delivering an Exceptional Web Experience driving Business Value
• Extending Social Collaboration to Mobile Devices
• Enhancing Business Value through Sametime Solutions
• Best Industry Oriented Social Business Solution
• Innovative Leadership by a VAD*

For nominations open November 21 – December 16:

• Best of Lotusphere: Cutting Edge Social Business Solution Utilizing Cross IBM SWG Capabilities – Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Award – New in 2012

Visit the IBM Collaboration Solutions Awards website here

Read about the award categories here

Enter your own award nomination here

Best of luck to everybody who has entered for an award. It will be great to hear the finalists and winners announced at Lotusphere 2012!