The business world is an extremely competitive place, and companies need to take additional steps to make sure hackers can't get into their email systems and cause trouble. If this ever happened it has the potential of costing a business millions of dollars. Secure email systems can help you protect your business by keeping your secrets safe while encouraging a better flow of information between employees. Then there are situations when employees are let go from a business. What happens if they had access to important emails? Can they be trusted not to let the information leak to the public? This could also be devastating to a company, but it is something that could be avoided if there was a secure email system in place. There are also the times when business executives check their email at WiFi hotspots. Can you be sure the email is safe? Public connections are notoriously difficult to keep secure, and that is why it is a good idea to enlist a program that will give you the extra security on your email activities. The daily demands of modern businesses combined with generally busy lifestyles can cause people to cut corners and take risks. That could leave a lot of important data vulnerable to hackers, and that is just one more reason to find a secure email plan that will let you protect all your information. What should happen if you find yourself in a situation when, after spending hours on a report, it gets stolen on its way to the final destination? What if the perpetrator was someone in the company? Unfortunately this is a very real possibility and happens more than it should in companies where the competitive environment encourages employees to take any advantage they can get. Most companies espouse some sort of ethical code, but they are not always followed. There are many employees that could tell plenty of stories about observing other behaving in unethical ways. If you are working with people like that, they could very easily get a hold of your information if you don't use secure email. If someone really wants to get a look at your important information (whether in a business or personal situation) it really isn't that hard. It may be illegal, but that doesn't stop some people from attempting to get into your personal data. Secure email solutions, though, can help you prevent this from happening. Secure email is a simple but very necessary step for businesses and individuals who want to avoid most of these problems. If you take the time to find a quality solution you can be sure that your information will be safe. Photo Credit: Solid Blogger Source: Ezine Articles

If your email volume is anything like mine, it's totally insane. Thousands of messages constantly streaming in and, only a tiny fraction of those are messages you need to see. Surprising then, that only a few years ago I was literally living inside Microsoft Outlook. Rigid folders, the nightmarish rules "wizard", and that annoying inbox chime that dings regardless of which folder your new distraction message ultimately wound up. I completely believe that Gmail saved my life. Okay, that's pushing it. Gmail didn't save my life. What Gmail (and a little bit of GTD-inspired respect for my own time) did was save my attention span. Some careful filtering and a bit of common sense returned a half hour or more of uninterrupted concentration per day. That's 2.5 hours a week, over 10 hours a month and more than one whole day per year. So, how did I do it?I follow five simple rules. These rules are gospel, and if you want your life back you're going to have to treat them like your life depended on them. Email organization is easy, the commitment to continue is the hard part. Five simple rules for keeping the inbox clean:

1. If you don't need to read it now, it shouldn't be in your inbox.
2. If you've already responded to it, it shouldn't be in your inbox.
3. If it comes from a known source (some person, retailer or mailing list that sends you mail more often than once every few months) it should be labeled automatically.
4. No one needs to look at their own inbox more than once an hour (and for many, once every 2-3 hours).
5. To borrow from the cult of GTD, re-factor constantly and mercilessly.

If you're a pack-rat at the core of your being -- or a control freak with organization issues -- you may be experiencing heart palpitations after reading the rules. It's ok, just breathe; I'm here to help you. DLS readers are smart cookies and, being one of them, you've probably noticed a pattern among the rules. Your inbox should be empty. "What?!", you exclaim, "That's impossible!" True. The real world probably won't ever allow you to have a completely empty inbox. If it does, you're probably not busy enough. However, the empty inbox should be the ultimate goal. Think of it as the monster at the end of the final level of the incredibly popular video game that is Gmail. It my take time and patience to beat it, but the feeling of accomplishment when your inbox is clean (the the monster is slain) is unmistakable. Let's go through the rules one by one and expand on them. 1. If you don't need to read it now, it shouldn't be in your inbox. Listservs, newsletters, sales fliers, we get them all. They're a useful part of our work and social lives but, left to fester in your inbox, they are a horrid waste of productivity. Added to which they make easy procrastination bait. The answer is simple, it's all in the labels. Create a label for each listserv you subscribe to, apply the labels with a filter, and auto-archive each message. I thought we all did this (then I saw my wife's Gmail inbox); Turns out, more of us than you'd think could use this simple bit of advice. Tip: Instead of filtering your lists by subject, (i..e filtering for messages that contain "[downloadsquad]" in the subject) filter them by the To: (i.e. thelist@downloadsquad.com) field. This serves an additional purpose, if someone replies to you off-list, it will end up in your inbox, rather than being lost in the mess of a thread you're no longer following. 2. If you've already responded to it, it shouldn't be in your inbox. When you respond to something, archive it. It will reappear when/if there is a reply. This can really help clear your head-space in your inbox. By which I mean; You'll find that the more diligent you are, and the "cleaner" your inbox becomes, the quicker you'll be able to decide what to do with each individual email you receive. Having less in your inbox to weed through pays you mental dividends, you'll notice this almost immediately. This rule really comes down to a very simple and almost all encompassing directive : If it's been responded to or didn't need a response, it should be tagged and archived. Which brings us around to... 3. If it comes from a known source it should be labeled automatically. Family is fantastic, and I love mine very much; I'd just prefer to deal with them outside of office hours. This is made doubly important for me since I work freelance, and use one email address for absolutely everything. I created a label named family, and a filter for each of my relatives. For an extra level of mid-day ease, you can set your filter for each family member to archive automatically. The messages will still appear as unread, only they'll be found under the label you applied. When you're ready to check in with your family's favorite email memes and well wishes, they'll still be there. You can do the same thing with all sorts of predictable mail. Amazon fliers, domain renewal notices, community newsletters; they all fit this rule well. (Tip: For predictable mail you want to see immediately, create the same filter but don't set the "Archive it" flag. This will ensure that you still see it in your inbox, but also allow you to easily archive it without losing the message. ) No one needs to look at their inbox more than once an hour (and most of us once every 2-3 hours). This is the hardest for me. I'm obsessive about checking my email (and, about everything else). If I let myself I can waste a half hour of my day just periodically looking at Gmail. The only way to get past this is, to make yourself trust the system. If you follow the rules really diligently, you'll find that it becomes easier to let your email "go" for a few hours at a time. Even when you do return to your inbox, your rules and filters will have done most of the mindless busywork for you, leaving you with emails that actually need your attention. To borrow from the cult of GTD, re-factor constantly and mercilessly. Any organization system is only as good as your persistence. For the rules I've laid out above to work for you continually, you must constantly be on the lookout for emails that get past your filters and into your inbox. Just like in Centipede, if they get past your front line defenses, you've already lost. Make sure you keep up the diligent work of creating new filters whenever something meets one of the above rules. Easier email and, more of your own clock cycles to use any way you see fit. Who can beat that? Source: Download Squad

Do You Make These Mistakes in Your Emails? A subject like the headline above can irresistibly pull readers into opening your message and reading its every hypnotic word. Often, it will not - and what if you don't have anything to sell? Your email's subject line is, next to your name, the first thing the recipient sees. It is important. In your email subject, do not:

• Arouse interest and curiosity.
• Say "Hi".
• Be wordy.
• Respond without giving context.
• Be vague or general.

Write a Good Email Subject To compose the perfect email subject:

• Give the message's bottom line. If your email comprises multiple topics, consider breaking it into multiple messages.
• Summarize the message - why you are writing and what you want to be different after the recipient has read your email - instead of describing it. If you invite somebody to a conference, use "Invitation: Email Efficiency Conference, Bangalore Aug 14-16" instead of a plain "Email Efficiency Conference".
• Be precise. Include detail that allows the recipient to identify what you are talking about quickly and unambiguously.
• If your message requires the recipient's action, say so; preferably with the first word.
• Leave out unnecessary words.  Email subjects need to be concise. Skip articles, adjectives and adverbs.

In Taroby, the "Email Subjects" are editable, and hence any inappropriate subject can be replaced with a good one anytime. We can also revert back to the previous subject line using the history feature. Source: email.About.com

One way to beat e-mail overload is to do away with spam and other unwanted messages. If you are getting an inbox full of spam, take these steps to end it.

• Use a reliable Internet service provider. Your ISP should be using the best technologies to block spam on the server side. Also, make sure your Web host meets the same requirements.
• Keep your clickable e-mail address off the Web. Spambots scour the Internet (they even look at online PDFs) looking for the @ symbol and all that comes with it. Instead, spell out the "at" when you post your contact information. Google all of your e-mail addresses to see where they show up, and then remove them. Also sign up for Google Alerts so you'll be notified if they show up anywhere later.
• Avoid using auto responders. Out of office replies are common but contribute in a real way to e-mail overload. By auto responding you're letting the spammers know that yours is a legitimate e-mail address.
• Get a powerful spam blocker.
• Turn up the security volume in your e-mail software. Set your security at High.
• Get a new set of e-mail addresses. If after all this you're still getting a lot of spam (which is not likely), try changing your company's e-mail addresses, and start over.

Taroby has an inbuilt junk/spam filter system that keeps learning all the time when you train it. All you need to do is mark junk messages first for some time, until Taroby has learnt what "junk" for you individually means. Check out Take the tour to learn more... Source: Inc.com

With the rising concern on global warming, enterprises are planning, and working on reducing their carbon emissions. Training the employees and inspiring them to work together on carbon reduction is very important. Small changes can add up to making a big difference in terms of carbon reductions, whether through turning lights off after leaving a room, offering a friend a lift to work or reusing your scrap paper, or using bio diesel as fuel for your vehicle . Every company has a responsibility to reduce its carbon emissions, but it should not become a burden. By educating staff and encouraging their involvement, the responsibility can be shared and a sense of ownership achieved. Adopting work flow methods which save carbon footprints, by saving time and electricity can of course help the "green cause". A huge chunk of business communication occurs through e-mails, even now. While forwarding an e-mail to a team mate, we actually are leaving many copies of the same e-mail on the hard discs; one in our inbox, one in our sent folder, and one in our team mate’s inbox. This is not an efficient way as it doesn’t save us any time and we are using unnecessary hard disc space. Taroby handles this situation more efficiently by allowing teams to share e-mail accounts among the team mates. With Taroby the need to forward the mails doesn't arise within a team, as everyone sees the same inbox. It saves everyone a considerable amount of time, and hard disc space thereby reducing power consumption. A lot of employees travel long distances to reach their work places. This travel consumes a lot of carbon in terms of fuel for their vehicles etc. Taroby provides opportunity for such employees to work from home more often, if face to face communication is not much required for their job. Virtual teams can be promoted by enterprises by using tools like Skype, Taroby etc in order to cut the transportation cost.

Don't miss the following video about Information Overload Syndrome (IOS): Use Taroby's Information Overload Strategies instead to manage your complete Communication and Messaging needs. Visit Taroby for more details.

1. At the beginning of each week, try to have an inbox without a „scroll bar“. It helps a lot to plan your week and have a real overview over all matters related to email.
2. Do email in the afternoon, not in the morning. Except for the dispatching of works and urgent things that need attention because team members are waiting for, that do in the morning. Otherwise think of mornings as your most productive hours, so don't use them for email alone!
3. If you use folders, it pays to check which folders you really need and which not. A folder with three messages in it is probably not worth the administration! A yearly analysis is fine and saves time for searching and filing throughout the year.
4. Put out of sight what you don't need to see within the next 4 weeks – or even months. It just hinders you to work effectively. But make sure you create a followup if you want to be remembered or find it eventually.
5. Use email as email, don't treat it like a phone! If you want an immediate reply or need a real conversation, call – or use an instant messaging facility. Otherwise you end up with a number of „micro-emails“ that all just need your attention eventually in terms of moving or putting them out of sight.
6. Don't let email "get to you". If you have followed idea number 1, you most likely can let your inbox grow over the week and do only those things which are really important. Use labels, tags or flags to mark them appropriately and be disciplined in answering those only. Leave the rest for the end of the week cleanup!
7. Change company related mail from individual mail into a team environment. Stop using personal email addresses such as alex@stressinternational.com (with exceptions) and replace them with generic email accounts (info@, sales@, support@ and so on) and share those with the members of the team.
8. Newsletters, RSS Feeds, Twitter Followers and so on which you don't read anyway, unsubscribe!
9. Don't permit yourself emails in your inbox which have „passed“ the expiry date of 12 months. Chances are that if a mail is older than one year, you have just avoided making the necessary decisions what to do about the matter. So simply „decide“.
10. Finally guide your staff on how to use email effectively, if they can't cope with it, you also suffer. But be practical: would you listen to anybody who has not mastered the subject himself?

Copyright by Toby Ruckert, certified Taroby Consultant.

Startup Company from Waiheke Island launches new Product designed to improve the Workflow within SMBs by reducing Information Overload. Auckland 12th May 2009: Email is one of the most efficient ways of communication in our time. At least you'd think so. But in recent years, increased email traffic has resulted in jammed inboxes, unfinished work and frustrated workers. “Email is the thing that now causes us the most problems in our working lives”, says Karen Renaud of Glasgow University. With a team of academics including a computer scientist, psychologist and a statistician she surveyed 177 people and found that it takes an average of 64 seconds to recover your train of thought after interruption by email. This means that people who check their email every five minutes waste a whole working day - or 8.5 hours a week - figuring out what they were doing moments before. As a result, more than one third of workers feel stressed by the sheer number of emails and the obligation to respond quickly. Toby Ruckert, a serial entrepreneur who came up with the concept of TAROBY says: “Such findings confirm what we've been predicting for several years now. When we first came to New Zealand in 2002, we already had established business operations overseas, but New Zealand and its people fascinated us. My wife and I wanted to stay. The biggest difficulty for us was to retain an effective means of communication with our different businesses on the other side of the world without being personally present at all times. However there was simply no suitable software available so we had to completely reinvent the wheel.” After years of development and beta-testing, this new application which could completely change the way we look at email today, will finally be unveiled on the upcoming Bizzone Business Expo in Auckland. “Gone are the days when the stream of incoming messages could create havoc, because no one knew who is handling what. TAROBY is a new generation email client that makes your inbox a “Team Dashboard” and allows you to create, manage and share email messages among team members and access them anytime, from anywhere - helping organisations to improve their internal and external communication.” says Aby Varghese, CTO and Co-Founder of TAROBY International Limited. Research indicates that Ruckert and Varghese are on to something: Latest findings of Basex, a leading information analyst firm suggests that today's “Information Overload” costs the U.S. economy alone a minimum of US$ 900 billion per year in lowered employee productivity and reduced innovation. A study conducted by the Henley Business Management School in the UK says that the average manager loses 3.5 years of his entire life attending to completely unnecessary emails. TAROBY stands for “Team Automated Response Optimisation – BY YOU” and aims to change this stressful outlook by putting people back in control of their workspace. But come and see the future of email for yourself: Visit TAROBY @ stall 148c on the Auckland Business Expo in Greenlane from 27th - 29th May 2009. ENDS About TAROBY International Limited TAROBY International Limited is an IT startup company on Waiheke Island. It was founded by Toby Ruckert and Aby Varghese who already own a software development company “AMT” (Advanced Millennium Technologies) in Bangalore, India. Toby and Aby started working together purely via the internet in 2002 and quickly realized the need for better communication software in the future which eventually lead to the development and foundation of TAROBY in New Zealand. The mission statement for Taroby is "to universally connect people and cultures; to make private and business lives easier, by developing creative software solutions that focus on innovation, design, usability and efficiency, thus enabling the individual user to spend time more meaningful every moment”. For photos or further information, please contact us.

The following numbers are based on the results from various reknown research institutes and analysts and quite interesting to read.

• 80: The percentage of emails sent which are actually 'spam' - unsolicited adverts, many of which are fraudulent or otherwise illegal.
• 62: The percentage of workers who check business emails while at home or on holiday.
• 10: The points fall in IQ experienced by workers distracted by email (more than twice that found in cannabis studies).
• 3.5: The years a manager spends of his entire life attending to completely unecessary email.
• 33: The annual energy consumption produced by spam (in billion kilowatt hours).
• 0.3: The average CO2 emission for a spam email (in grams).
• 868: The Internet's globally estimated carbon footprint (in billion kilowatt hours).

As of April 2009.