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Handling the General e-Mail in an Organization?

Posted by Cliff on from the message-routing dept.

cheezycrust asks: "I'm part of a small organisation (four staff members, seven board members), and we get a lot of mail on our info@... email-address. Some of the questions are complex, and require input from several staff and/or board members. I'm looking for a way to track and handle these messages. It seems to be a combination of a bug tracking and a groupware system. It should be very simple to use, be platform-friendly (Windows, Mac, Pocket PC), and work on- and off-line (if I want to handle 50 messages on a train ride, this should be possible). I have a preference for free software, but the administration of the software itself should not take too much time. What solutions have you used in your organisation?"

3 of 31 comments (clear)

  1. Exchange Server by RussHart · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Know it'll be shot down here, but...

    Might only be platform independent on the client side, but is the best thing for this, giving access to mailboxes to those who need it.

  2. FogBugz by Screaming+Lunatic · · Score: 4, Interesting

    At my last place of employment we had support emails sent directly to FogBugz. After that they were organized by priority and severity, dupe checked, and assigned to a developer to resolve. You should probably be able do that with any bug tracking software.

  3. try basecamp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I absolustly adore Basecamp, which is a hosted project management system.

    It's mantra is "communication", so it's centered around posts and messages. But you can also set milestones and check off to-do's.

    It's really super-simple and flexible for different purposes. It's like the "Mac" of project management. Two fields to create a new project. One field to create a client. Three or four fields to add a new person on your team. Compare that with some other groupware or PM systems that have screenfuls of crap you have to fill out and complicated workflows that you just give up on after a week.

    It doesn't exactly handle your PocketPC (though they just added a mobile interface to their other project, backpackit.com, so they might add it to basecamp.. they are very open to user suggestions).

    And then offline thing doesn't seem like a big deal... just use text files and then upload/send them when get online?? However the basecamp folks ARE planning on letting you use email to create and respond messages someday, so that's another plus. You could just compose your messages on the train and then send them in.

    But do check out basecamp.