Civil engineering firms have many reasons to evaluate how email is used and stored across their organizations. Any firm should ask the following questions:

• Is the way we use email helping to maximize project communication and minimize costly errors?
• Is the way we file and archive emails ensuring fast e-discovery?
• Does our email management system supplement our QA policy in regard to data retention?

Drop Folders allows users to manage email on most mobile devices, including iPhone, iPad, Android smartphones and tablets, and Windows Mobile 7, without installing any software on the device. Special device modules are also available for BlackBerry and Windows Mobile.

These questions were asked by decision makers at Vanasse Hangen Brustlin Inc. (VHB), Highland Associates, and Nitsch Engineering. They each approached the search for a solution with varying criteria, but found a common answer in Oasys Mail Manager. Since Mail Manager was created by engineering consulting firm, Arup, the software plug-in for Microsoft Outlook is designed to meet the explicit demands of the AEC industry.

VHB's goal: Transparent project communication
VHB has provided multidisciplinary planning, design, engineering, and consulting for some of the nation's most complex infrastructure and development initiatives for more than 30 years. With 20 offices to unify, project communication is a top priority.

Like many companies, VHB had an iron-clad system for document filing prior to the age of email communication. After email became a vital part of project communication, so did the need for a system to share project-related emails and to archive all project documentation in one place.

Any employee can find all project-related archived emails filed alongside with all of the other project documentation.

VHB's CEO spearheaded a corporate-wide initiative to improve overall project documentation in relation to email. Geoffrey Pangonis, messaging administrator, and Greg Bosworth, IT director, gathered the following criteria for the right solution for VHB's needs:

• not a proprietary document management system;
• all project documents and communications must be filed and archived together with team access;
• easy to implement, use, and manage across 20 locations;
• no reliance on outside server storage and connections that would impact performance; and
• cost efficient.

After reviewing several options, Pangonis discovered he could meet all of the criteria with Oasys Mail Manager. Mail Manager prompts users to file emails in Microsoft native MSG format into the correct project folder upon sending and receiving. Emails are accessible to the entire project team and saved alongside all other project documentation.

VHB successfully deployed Mail Manager and fully trained more than 800 employees in less than two months. Project documentation improved with increased retention on project-related emails. Additionally, by using Mail Manager, the sizes of users' inboxes consistently stayed smaller.

Highland Associates' goal: Cut e-discovery costs
Highland Associates, an architecture, engineering, and interior design firm since 1988, takes pride in proven quality control that reduces costly mistakes and delivers innovative results on schedule. As email use grew through the years, Highland realized the need to treat email with the same importance as all project documentation. Since many mission-critical documents were within and attached to emails, they needed to be stored in a logical order for easy and intuitive retrieval.

In the AEC industry, litigation and lawsuits involving both internal and outside project participants are commonplace. The company with the best documentation to support its position typically wins. E-discovery becomes a big part of the process and few organizations are capable of producing archived emails cost effectively.

For Bruce Sobocinski, IT/CAD manager for Highland, e-discovery requests meant hours of digging through personal PST files of employees to gain the information necessary to compile a complete record of communication on any one job. The same costly and time consuming e-discovery process was necessary to fulfill e-discovery requests from former employees' inboxes.

When Highland evaluated systems to handle email storage and filing, they agreed on the following criteria:

• a system that takes the data off of the exchange server to further secure the data; and
• no need to hire additional staff to manage a large system and fulfill e-discovery requests.

Highland chose Mail Manager for the following reasons:

• It was created to meet the e-discovery demands of the AEC industry.
• The software provides a simple process, behavioral patterns, and user interface.
• No exchange servers and no network storage are involved with Mail Manager – just plug it into Outlook and go.
• It is easy to monitor who is filing emails in a timely manner and who is lagging.

A Snap ‘n' Send feature captures any part of a PC screen area and, if required, allows addition of mark-ups such as highlights and text.

After Mail Manager, the e-discovery process no longer needed dedicated IT support. Any employee can find all project-related archived emails filed alongside with all of the other project documentation. Sobocinski estimates IT saves six to eight hours per week – 300 to 400 IT hours per year – by eliminating the need to be involved in e-discovery requests, and the firm is protected from gaps in communication resulting from employee turnover.

After email became a vital part of project communication, so did the need for a system to share project-related emails and to archive all project documentation in one place.

"Set it and forget it," said Sobocinski. "With Mail Manager's search feature, users can rip through 500 emails with large attachments like a knife through butter to find what they need."

Nitsch Engineering's goal: A simple system that supports QA
Nitsch Engineering specializes in providing civil engineering, land surveying, transportation engineering, sustainable site consulting, planning, and GIS services across 17 states and five countries. Nitsch saw room for improvement in how email communication was shared and stored. Too many valuable IT hours were spent on e-discovery needs for project clarification and to assure legal compliance on email retention.

"We were searching for a tool that wasn't overcomplicated and difficult for our users to adapt to," said Joyce Husseini, IT director. "We wanted something that would provide us the facilities to easily centralize our emails, supplement our QA policy with regard to data retention, and allow us to quickly retrieve necessary information when required."

After reviewing several options, Husseini determined that most email management products "scoop and dump" excess emails from the email server to their own proprietary servers. This approach was costly and locked information in a way that didn't allow for ease of e-discovery or future transition to another system.

Nitsch Engineering decided on Mail Manager because it met the specific criteria in functionality and usability. An additional selling point was how it worked in sync with Microsoft Outlook to integrate user habits for filing emails into the daily routine of sending and receiving email correspondence.

"We liked how Mail Manager learned the habits of each user and prompted them to properly file emails to standard network locations each time an email was sent," said Husseini. "This centralization of emails eliminated hours of time in e-discovery from both a user and IT perspective."

Husseini estimated Nitsch Engineering was storing 222 Gigabytes (GB) of data before Mail Manager, which was slowing down the email server. After implementing Mail Manager, that number decreased to 35 GB of data within three months – a saving of 187 GB.

"From a financial perspective, we have effectively saved ourselves in excess of $10,000 in storage costs and we continue to save staff countless hours associated with e-discovery," said CPA Michael Kenealy, vice president and CFO. "Since the AEC market, by nature, is highly litigious, Mail Manager also reduces our risk through improved legal compliance.

With the enhanced search capabilities we have effectively streamlined our procedure for locating and providing email documentation from a costly and time-consuming project down to a matter of a few minutes. That added security in this industry provides more than just cost savings – it provides peace of mind."

Alec Milton is CEO of Oasys Ltd., the software house of Arup Group Ltd., an engineering consulting firm with more than 10,000 employees in 90 global locations. He can be contacted at alec.milton@arup.com.