Sick of Email? Try These 3 Alternative Communication Apps

Since the dawn of the Internet, email has been that thing you love to hate. Email was meant to be a dynamic tool capable of replacing the odd fax machine and postal mail. Today, some workers dread even opening their inbox due to how much time they have to invest in it. Some might even wonder if there’s a better way to go about their work day.

These statistics aren’t exactly in favor of email as an inter-office communication tool:

• In the words of Monica Seeley, an email management expert, “Most companies are grappling with email overload. Companies are losing up to 20 days per person per year, dealing with email poorly.”
• Spam makes up a significant portion of emails sent. In fact, up to 100 billion spam emails are sent out on a daily basis.
• Over 60 percent of all emails sent worldwide are spam messages.
• On average, workers spend roughly two hours a week working on documents shared via email.
• Every day, workers receive and send around 15 email attachments; that’s 5,000 attachments every year. Considering how commonly viruses are found in attachments, this is a dangerous gambit.

In the defense of email, it does make running your business exponentially easier. However, there are also great alternative solutions out there if you’d like to replace it. Additionally, the replacement of email with other solutions might be inevitable, due to the overwhelming popularity of social media and texting amongst the younger generation of professionals.

Yammer
Sometimes you might feel like your business could use a private social network for itself, and Yammer is a completely viable solution for your communication needs. This is especially useful for those workers who you just can’t keep off of social media, as it includes some tools that are similar to those used by social media websites. Besides the obvious benefit of getting more done throughout the day than with email, you can appreciate its more-professional appearance; especially if you were previously asking your workers to use their own personal social media accounts prior to utilizing Yammer.

Jive
Jive is similar to LinkedIn in the sense that it helps you find other professionals in your industry with specific skills. As an enterprise-level collaboration tool, it takes cues from social media to help you find and share the best content for your industry.

Chatter
From Salesforce comes an efficient intranet tool called Chatter. It’s a communication tool that utilizes a wall similar to Facebook. Chatter allows for sharing documents, creating meetings, and even managing sales leads.

These kinds of third-party solutions can improve your company’s email experience. Instead of continuously checking an email application, your company’s internal communications can all be supplemented through a familiar social media-esque platform. Plus, these applications won’t be riddled with spam.

It should be noted, however, that all of these are only internal solutions designed to improve collaboration within your business. As business owners, we still need to contact clients, vendors, and other professionals within the industry. However, with the world becoming increasingly irritated by email, it may be a sign that email might not be around for too much longer; especially if adequate applications can be developed soon.

If your business is experiencing its own frustrations concerning email, Directive can provide your business with hosted email solutions designed to increase productivity. Our intranet tools can also improve inter-office communications between your staff. When it come to tools which jumpstart efficiency, there’s nothing better than a customizable solution from Directive. Just give us a call at 607.433.2200.