PIM-03:PIM Email Management: Tips & Tricks from a Customer Perspective

Michael Lightstone & Ian Matthew, Valcoustics Canada Ltd.

Valcoustics – Who We Are

• Consulting Engineers - Specializing in Acoustics, Noise and Vibration since the

early 1950’s

• Firm Size – 25 people

• Active projects – Approximately 500 at any given time

• Clients – Architects, Engineers, Contractors, Developers, Builders, Industry,

Commercial establishments, etc.

About US

Michael Lightstone - My Role

• Business Development

• New Proposals

• Contract Management

• HR Management

• Financial Management

About US

Ian Matthew - My Role

• Senior Engineer

• Project Manager

• Department Head

Agenda

• Previous Data systems

• Problems to be solved

• Possible solutions

• Case studies

• Best practices

Previous Data Systems

Previous Systems

Files Email Collaboration

Windows Server

• All files (analysis, models, memos, letters, reports, sound measurements)

• Some emails (see later)

Previous Systems

– File Server

Previous Systems

– Internal Communication

Microsoft Teams

• Internal email communication has been shifted to teams

• Mix of person-to-person chat and team/project based conversations

Office 365 Platform

• Small company with limited IT resources

• Emails are stored on staff laptops and in the cloud (IMAP)

• Staff organization of project emails/structure are local only inconsistent

Previous Systems

– Email

• “Important” emails saved to the file server

• What is “important”?

• Time required to save and organize is not trivial

• Limitations on file naming and meta data

• How to find them later?

Previous Systems

– Email

What was the problem?

What was the problem?

• Email has become the main

source of communication

• Email is taking up a bigger

and bigger part of our work

day

What was the problem?

• Estimate 246 Billion emails per day by

end of the 2019

• 2016- 205 Billion emails per day

• 72% of consumers prefer email as their

source of business communication

[Source] https://blogs.constantcontact.com/email-marketing-

stats/

Why is email such a problem?

#1: Email Volume…but also

• Staff on vacation

• Staff who leave the company

• Internal project members aren’t copied on email (incoming and

outgoing)

• Liability (paper trail, loss prevention)

So what is the solution?

Proposal - PIM

Full Implementation?

• The office is already experiencing a lot of

change

• Concern regarding changes to existing

work flows

Proposal - PIM

Email Implementation

• All outbound emails to external parties

• All inbound emails from external parties

• Some internal communication

Improvements - PIM

• Staff on vacation

• Staff who leave the

company

• Internal project

members aren’t

copied on email

(incoming and

outgoing)

• Liability (paper trail,

loss prevention)

Consolidation of project e-mails in

one central location

Searchability of project

and Company E-mails

• Enhanced ability to ramp up

team or individuals to cover

vacation or unexpected

absence

• Ability for non project staff to

answer Client questions

• See last communication

• See if we are waiting for

information

Case Studies

Case Study #1 - Vacation

Pre-PIM

• Admin spends time trying to track down staff that would be able to respond

• Response to client is slow and incomplete

PIM Environment

• Admin can see all project communication

• Admin finds the email in which client was asked for updated drawings, but PIM shows that they have not yet been received

Client Calls claiming that

report is due and has not

been received

PM is on vacation and other

project staff are not

immediately available

Pre-PIM

• Use paper records for call sheets (may

not be able to be found)

• Relationship between the two calls is

based on memory

PIM Environment

• Call sheets published to “LEADS” pool

• Information in leads pool is fully

searchable by everyone with access

• Documents can be tagged to a specific

project if/when appropriate

• Can quickly access background

information that was previously provided

Case Study #2 – Telephone Call Sheets

Potential client calls with

possible new work. Asks

admin a few questions, gives

some details, but does not

request a proposal

Same potential client calls

back 2 months later to

continue the conversation

Case Study #2 – Telephone Call Sheets

• Use PIM to record call sheets and meetings

• Allows full project team to see client communication notes

• For potential new work/cold calls, we use a “Leads” tag that does not need to be associated with a project

• Once a project file is made, we retag the lead to project communication

Pre-PIM

• No good solution

• Response to client is delayed

PIM Environment

• Anyone can access any published email

and respond to the client

• Further, any team member can respond

to any email, regardless of the original

recipient list

Case Study #3 – Not Copied on Email

Staff sends email to client

and copies internal team

Client replies only to sender

Client calls to ask a question

but email sender is not

available

Pre-PIM

• No good solution

PIM Environment

• Easily collect all documents/emails

related to a project

Case Study #4 – Loss Prevention

Lawyer requests all

communication related to a

given project. Provided with

very short timeline to deliver

(such as Construction Lien

Act milestone dates)

Pre-PIM

• No good solution

PIM Environment

• Search for the text content in PIM

• All document text is indexed (including

text within most attachments)

Case Study #5 – Unknown Text

Client sends a snippet of text

with no reference to the

project or document

Pre-PIM

• Receptionist gets as much information as

possible and then starts to poll the office

to see who can help.

PIM Environment

• Type key words (ie. client name, any

project descriptors) into and PIM and see

all correspondence with the project to

see who can help.

Case Study #6 – Phone Call Triage

Client calls with very cryptic

information about a project

and needs to discuss with

someone.

Need to decipher the limited

information provided to

determine the project

reference.

Pre-PIM

• Based on memory only

PIM Environment

• Search based on keyword across all

projects

• Filter according to file type (ie pdf)

Case Study #7 – Info Across Projects

You want to search for all

generator data of a given type

across all projects

Email Implementation Best Practices

Outlook Management

• Publish ALL incoming and outgoing email to the correct project/pool

• Publishing required almost no extra time

• “Archive” emails once published (don’t file to local project folders)

• Inbox becomes a list of items requiring more follow-up (inbox should

be tidy)

Pool Design/Structure

• Give priority to the email implementation

But…

• Plan for the future (full implementation)

• Non-project pools

• Document pools for future document types

Scenario 1 – Searching for a

known email sent/received by

you and you want to

review/reply

• Search in the outlook client

(and click reply if required).

Publish the reply to PIM

• Outlook will natively search the

“Archive” folder and emails are

not removed from the archive

folder (size limits may apply)

Scenario 2 – Not sure about

the specific communication

• Search in PIM under the

correct project or by client or

full system email search

• Use keywords and document

pools to filter results

Searching for Emails

File Server

• Analysis

• Models

• Measurement data

• Some emails

• Document Preparation

(reports, letters, memos)

• Word Docs

• PDFs (including enclosures)

PIM

• Incoming and outgoing email

• PDF copies of transmitted

documents (outgoing

attachments stripped as

separate documents)

Document Management – Email

Implementation Only

Transmittals

• PIM has a specific transmittal system

• Email implementation mimicked the PIM standard system

Pool StructureTAGS- 1 – Contract Administration

Pool StructureTAGS- 2 – Project Management

Confidential ProjectsTAGS- 3 – Confidential Projects

Setting Up the Dashboard

Use Favorites in Outlook

Our Best Practices

• Tag deliverables sent as a submission document

• Save all emails, even ones that don’t seem important at the time

• Use the “Details” section to assist with finding email again

• If searching for an email, add a “detail” to it once you find it

• First person to open a received e-mail to tag the email

Searching

• Easy to search across the office with keyword

search, filters and document submittals

Searching

• To click through emails quickly to search for right

email, use preview tab (as opposed to downloading

each one)

Onboarding

1- Start with showing people the Utility

• Power in searching

• Power in Consolidated Project depository

2 – Teach how to tag E-Mails

• Show company tag map

3 – Teach how to search

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