Finding e-mails should not be a project in itself
ComArchive has brought the Danish Institute of Food and Resource Economics bang up to date when it comes to e-mail documentation and project overviews, according to the Institute’s management
The Danish Institute of Food and Resource Economics (FOI) is a project-based organisation, which, in common with other public companies, is subject to an ever-increasing demand for documentation, record-keeping, etc. This need for documentation was the main reason why the Institute decided to use ComArchive.
“For the future it is very important that our Institute has an IT tool that makes it easy to document correspondence and agreements with our customers and partners,” says Søren E. Frandsen, Director General of the FOI. E-mail documentation is a key issue for the FOI, as around 95% of correspondence takes place via e-mail and because more than half of projects are externally financed. This means that the Institute needs to keep control of things.
“That’s why we decided to reinforce our record-keeping system with the ComArchive solution,” says Mr Frandsen.
The FOI is a research institute that forms part of Copenhagen University and it employs 100 staff and has a turnover of DKK 70 million. The Institute carries out projects for a wide range of public authorities within Denmark and the EU. Its customers draw on the Institute’s competence in the fields of basic research, training, statistical analysis and research-based advice, including economic analysis for a number of government ministries. This means that it is very important to have an overview of contract negotiations and commitments to and relationships with customers, for example.
When asked why they chose ComArchive, Mr Frandsen replies, “ComArchive is a particularly good provider for public sector managers who want to be at the cutting edge of development in terms of documentation requirements – for the good of management, employees and the Institute as a whole.”
ComArchive ensures compliance
“ComArchive has made it easy for us to document in detail what has been promised, said and done and when, and what reply has been given for any particular issue,” says Mr Frandsen.
According to Mr Frandsen, ComArchive fulfils all efficiency requirements that follow in the wake of the growing need for documentation at public authorities:
“I have found ComArchive’s search engine to be significantly better and more effective than Outlook’s search options. With ComArchive it takes only a few seconds to find an e-mail from among 5 years’ worth of e-mails,” says the Director General, who sees ComArchive playing a key role in the FOI’s ability to meet documentation requirements in the future.
“I anticipate that ComArchive will be able to help us meet the vast majority of our documentation requirements. The only question is whether the FOI will use any other record-keeping systems at all. As well as handling e-mails, ComArchive also enables us to scan ordinary letters and save them as PDF files,” says Mr Frandsen.
Increased efficiency = cool cash
In addition to providing easy access to documentation, ComArchive has also improved efficiency. “Quite simply, employees spend less time looking for e-mails, which means they have more time to spend on their core tasks of research and development. This is a cool cash benefit and ensures a rapid return on investment,” as Mr Frandsen puts it. He continues:
“At the same time, the system can be rolled out in such a way that the employees see it as a bonus – a positive initiative that makes their daily work easier by providing more efficient search options for the vast number of e-mails that we receive every day over long periods."
Opportunities for effective knowledge-sharing
In the near future, the FOI will look into how it can roll out Project Binder, ComArchive’s supplementary solution which enables e-mails to be stored in an easily accessible location where project workers can find them easily, i.e. under a particular project.
Mr Frandsen sees great potential in implementing Project Binder. “Over the last couple of years, we have invested a huge amount of resources in making knowledge-sharing more effective. One of our measures has been to implement the use of Microsoft Share Point, with which ComArchive can integrate seamlessly,” he says.
Mr Frandsen also sees ComArchive Project Binder as a lever for creating even better flexible cooperation across the FOI. “Once we are able to introduce the Project Binder tool, employees will no longer have to continually copy other project workers in on e-mails or reply to basic status queries for larger projects,” he thinks.
Project Binder will enable the FOI’s employees to archive e-mails under a specific project, where they can quickly be found by project workers with the appropriate access rights. “This will provide a wide range of benefits. But first we just need some experience in how we can help project workers to connect, not just across the Universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, but also with researchers in the USA, China, Japan and elsewhere.”
Optimise the use of storage space
Mr Frandsen sees major benefits in ComArchive in terms of data storage capacity – simply because individual employees can delete their e-mails safe in the knowledge that everything has been stored securely and in an accessible way. “It will significantly reduce our data storage requirements and ultimately cut costs and improve the overview we have. What ComArchive provides is extreme data compression, without compromising search and retrieval functionality.”
