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
• “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
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
Deltek PIM at Insight 2019
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