Binary Business

Your flight to the conference leaves in a couple hours. If you don't hustle you're going to miss your flight. You grab your laptop bag and make a mad dash for the door. You dart through traffic making it to the airport just in time. Jumping out of the car you perform your best speed walker impersonation through the parking lot, continuing just short of a run. Miracuously you make it through security and arrive at the gate just as boarding begins. A sigh of relief exits your lips and you relax knowing all is well. A couple hours later you pull out the laptop as you flop onto the hotel bed. No longer able to resist the urge you fire up your email. Only there is no new email. "Well that is a first," you mutter "I've never gone that long without any email." Then it strikes you like an anvil from Wiley Coyote. "I left the office computer on and it automatically downloads my email every five minutes." You suddenly feel lost and isolated knowing you will not receive any email until you get home.

The Problem

The lines between our business and personal lives have blurred and we now expect to have access to our email at all times. Initially we only had our desktop but now we also use laptops and cellphones to check our email. While we now have access to our email when we need it we also created another problem. In the past when we only needed to access our email on one device we never noticed the problem. However in the typical email setup the client permanently downloads the email from the server. Introduce a second device and suddenly the two are in a race to see which can download the email first. This phenomenon occurred because the first computer to connect to the server downloads all of new email and removes it. This scenario leaves portions of your inbox on all of your devices yet none of them will have the complete list. A work around was whereby a copy of the each email is left on the server. However forget to configure the client on each device and we are back to square one. Another side affect of using POP3 email servers is that there is no reliable way to track which emails you have read when multiple devices are used. The end result is that have to sort through your email multiple times.

Facts & Figures

• An estimated 62 Billion emails are sent every day.

• A typical business user receives dozens of emails that require their attention every day.

• Close to 113 Million Smartphones where sold in 2007.

• 228 million laptops were sold in 2007.

The Solution

Implementing the IMAP mail protocol will allow you to keep your email in sync. IMAP email servers keep a copy of all of your email on the server at all times. Email clients (Smartphone, laptop or desktop) download a copy of the mail and send status messages back to the server. These messages include read/unread, spam, flagged, and etc. The next time a client connects to the server the can not only see the message but also whether or not it has already been read and even if a reply has been sent. A great secondary benefit of this configuration is that your email is not lost if you should lose your phone or laptop. The email is safely stored on the server providing a built-in backup plan for that all important email message from your most important client.

To upgrade your business email to IMAP, please contact Binary Business.