The Well-Tailored Computer Network

The following article is reprinted with the permission of Nation's Business magazine. Nation's Business serves as a resource to the owners and top managers of small businesses (fewer than 100 employees) by providing practical, how-to information about running and growing a business. To subscribe to Nation's Business, call 1-800-210-8149.

By Tim McCollum

Every few hours when he's away from the office, attorney Charles Rosolio fires up his laptop computer and dials via modem into the electronic-mail system at the Baltimore headquarters of his firm, Rosolio, Silverman & Kotz.

E-mail is the tie that binds for Rosolio, allowing him to conduct business communications at any time of day, from any location--whether it's across town or across the country.

``Some people laugh when I take my laptop with me,'' he says. But the modem- equipped portable computer and its e-mail software are no laughing matter to Rosolio's colleagues and clients, who, he says, ``know if they call and I'm out, they'll get some kind of response'' within a short time.

Rosolio, whose 12-person firm specializes in corporate and small-business law, is one of the growing legion of small-business people who use e-mail as a communications tool. E-mail allows people to exchange messages by computer with employees, clients, and potential customers.

About 23 million people used e-mail at work in 1994, compared with 12.2 million the preceding year, according to a recent study by the industry's trade group, the Electronic Messaging Association, in Arlington, Va. Indeed, an e-mail address is becoming a common feature on business cards.

Until recently, e-mail systems were used mainly in big companies where large numbers of employees in one or more business locations needed to communicate with one another over computer networks. Small companies generally didn't need--or couldn't afford--expensive network hard- ware and e-mail software packages.

But hardware and software prices have dropped lately, and small-business owners have begun re-evaluating e-mail as a partial alternative to telephones, faxes, and letter mail for expanding their reach beyond the office to employees, contractors, business partners, and customers.

``I think [e-mail] is definitely going to be more important for a small business'' in the coming years, says Mary Cronin, author of Doing More Business on the Internet. ``E-mail is very effective'' not only for serving customers, she says, but also for ``getting better service for yourself.''

It also encourages greater collaboration among employees and may increase productivity by streamlining communication through reduced reliance on paper, she says. In addition, e-mail makes it relatively easy for companies to distribute work to temporary workers, independent contractors, or telecommuting employees.

``It's been pretty incredible as far as being another communication tool,'' says Joel House, manager of information systems for Louis London Inc., a St. Louis advertising firm that adopted e-mail two years ago to improve communications among employees and with clients.

E-mail has relieved some of the firm's recent growing pains, House says. In two years the firm has doubled in size to about 100 employees; it has opened regional offices in Milwaukee, Dallas, Raleigh, N.C., and Reston, Va.; and it has taken on major clients such as Miller Brewing Co., in Milwaukee, and trading-card maker Upper Deck Co., in Carlsbad, Calif.

Having employees and clients in several locations makes it tough to coordinate advertising projects, but Louis London's e-mail helps by allowing people to exchange messages and files quickly and easily. To make this possible, the firm has equipped the computer networks at each of its offices with GroupWise e-mail software, from Novell Inc. of Provo, Utah. To communicate with clients, Louis London contracted with AllegroNet, an e-mail provider in Dayton, Ohio, that links GroupWise users to the Internet via an 800 number.

Like some other companies, Louis London has combined its local, private messaging networks with e-mail over public networks such as the Internet or commercial on-line services, including America Online, CompuServe, and Prodigy. By extending the capabilities provided by an internal computer network to a public network, companies can communicate with people outside the firm.

Because the Internet is a global system that consists of thousands of local networks and because e-mail messages travel over the Internet at very high speeds, these missives can give a small company an effective international reach.

Quantum Books of Cambridge, Mass., used e-mail to develop a reputation throughout the engineering community as a leading source of information about forthcoming and current books on emerging technologies.

``We basically have become a conduit between technical-book buyers and any publishers of technical books'' worldwide, says owner Bill Szabo. ``People want to know electronically'' if a given book is available, he says, ``and it's just more efficient for us'' to serve customers in that manner.

Szabo says the store set up an e-mail link through a local Internet-access provider five years ago at the request of customers at nearby Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Now Quantum Books has one full-time employee responding to customer e-mail requests from around the world and is compiling a database of technical-book information to make it easier to respond to such requests.

Other technology-oriented companies have had similar experiences. For example, Pittsburgh computer reseller Dakco PC Products Division Inc. has combined e-mail and a World Wide Web site on the Internet to market computers and computer parts. Dakco has compiled a database of 10,000 customers and people who have inquired about Dakco products through e-mail or by telephone, and it sends catalogs and special product offers to them via Internet e-mail.

``They say repetition is the essence of communication,'' says Dave Kolarik, the firm's executive vice president. ``The great thing about the on-line medium and a vehicle like e-mail is that the cost of repetitive communication with the customer approaches zero.''

That's because once a company has bought the required hardware and software and has paid the monthly Internet access charge, its e-mail is virtually free.

Dakco isn't the first company to try direct marketing by e-mail, and it has learned from the experiences of the pioneers. The basic lesson: Target your market; don't just send e-mail to everyone.

Direct marketing is frowned upon by many Internet users. Tempted by the large Internet user base, some marketers have sent mass mailings--``spams,'' in Internet parlance--to Internet users, only to have their e-mail boxes overwhelmed by angry protests, called ``flames.'' In fact, most Internet-access providers now include clauses in their user agreements that discourage or prohibit such mailings.

A more recent concern is the use and sale of e-mail lists. Generally, companies such as Dakco send mailings to people who have provided their e-mail addresses voluntarily. The trouble comes when the lists are sold to other companies. Internet users are notoriously concerned about their privacy, and receiving unsolicited information tends to raise a red flag, according to author Cronin.

Despite a cultural skepticism about direct marketing, Cronin says, there are signs that the Internet is becoming more tolerant of it. ``I don't think it's become as big a problem as people were worried about a year ago,'' she says, noting that part of the reason is that users' interests have been shifting from news groups to the World Wide Web. Still, she says, given how easy it is to reach people by e-mail, ``it's surprising there's not more of it.''

Establishing e-mail in a business isn't without its potential problems, however. If not managed properly, it can consume a great deal of time and energy. It's not that people will spend their time using e-mail for personal use (although some will); it's that e-mail messages can accumulate--and fast. Generally, the more you send, the more you receive.

The key to coping is to develop a strategy for dealing with incoming messages on a regular basis. That often means deciding which messages to read, which to answer, and which to jettison into cyberspace.

It's also important for companies to set policies on use of e-mail. Cronin says such a policy should define appropriate uses for e-mail and establish rules of etiquette, such as not sending copies of messages to everyone on a company network. Some small-business owners may want to limit the number of employees with access to e-mail.

From a legal standpoint, companies should also establish policies on e-mail privacy, say attorneys in the field. Employees often expect their e-mail to be private, but case law is still unclear as to whether employee e-mail is private or whether business owners or managers have the right to read these messages.

Another concern is the security and confidentiality of e-mail received via the Internet. Small-business owners such as attorney Rosolio are playing it safe by adopting closed-end or limited-access e-mail systems that don't involve the Internet.

Ultimately, companies will choose their e-mail strategy based on their needs. Despite all the hype that's been connected with it, e-mail is just a communication tool, and as with the telephone and the fax before it, the value of e-mail will come down to its usefulness in a given business situation.