…And how to protect yourself in a dispute
Despite being the most used communication and collaboration tools in many industries, email also holds huge risks for businesses. Over 319bn emails are sent and received around the world every day, and almost everyone manages their inbox differently.
AEC firms are feeling the burn from poor email management. Failing to effectively manage your email means you don’t know where your business-critical emails are, how they’re stored, and you struggle to find the right information when you need it.
When is the last time you lost an email?
This is a stressful situation, to say the least. It’s not uncommon that you might spend hours or days looking or a specific project-related email that you’ve sent to a client. Or worse still, having to complete reworks because you can’t find what you’re looking for. Poor email management is a huge productivity drain.
What happens when things go wrong?
We see it happen all the time. Businesses don’t realise how important an email is until something goes wrong. The power of documents and correspondence is unparalleled, and we’ve personally seen several clients win legal disputes purely because they were able to locate correspondence from projects completed years ago.
Keeping track of all your project correspondence and having clear audit trails will always benefit you and your company. Every member of a team needs to ensure all project information, including legacy information from completed projects, is stored correctly and discoverable. These are the difference between winning or losing a dispute, should one arise.
Costs of disputes in the AEC
The latest Arcadis Global Construction Disputes Report uncovered that the average cost of global disputes was $30.7m, with the average dispute lasting 15 months. They also found that the overall volume of disputes increased in the last 12 months, citing poorly drafted or incomplete, unsubstantiated claims being the new number one cause for construction disputes.
In our own research, the 2021 State of the AEC Report, we found that 66% of respondents experienced some form of legal dispute since the beginning of the pandemic, and of these, the most common causes indicated were:
- Timeline changes.
- Payment issues.
- Project scope changes.
In the majority of these cases, the information the respondents needed to win these disputes were evidence of correspondence, contract management, and project information.
How to stay compliant
So, how can you ensure you’re able to produce everything that’s ever been said to a client or on a project? Filing emails is critical and has countless business benefits, including complete, end-to-end regulatory compliance and being able to easily locate any correspondence you need, saving you time and money should a legal dispute arise.
Never lose an email again
Mail Manager is the email management solution developed by Arup to help project-based businesses eliminate their email headache. We can help you find any email on any project within three clicks, saving you 30-minutes on average per day. Never lose an email again with Mail Manager! Download our 15-day free trial to see us in action.
Michele D’Andrea Rodrigues
Creative Manager
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3039 3764
michele.dandrearodrigues@mailmanager.com
Please note: this is a commercial profile.
