1. It’s secure – e-mail isn’t. It’s that simple! To explain, when working on a cloud-based solution, invariably the communication between your PC or Mac and the server that you connect to will be encrypted (check out the httpS in the web address on your browser -the S means secure). E-mail transmissions are not encrypted but are sent in plain text, furthermore, the e-mail transmission will invariably not go directly from your PC to the person you’re sending the e-mail to, but rather will be bounced from one server to another (possibly through several countries) before it reaches its destination. Meaning that a plain text, un-encrypted email is open to interception at any point along the way!
2. Login from anywhere. Unless your e-mail is cloud-based, you won’t be able to connect, send and receive from anywhere, just from your usual work location (if you’re lucky you may have more than one normal work location). If you’re already using a cloud-based e-mail solution you’re already benefiting from this advantage even if you haven’t realised it yet!
3. Information is out in the open-rather than buried at the bottom of somebody’s inbox.
To explain this, when a question is posed and answered via e-mail only the people directly involved in that communication can see the results. By communicating in an open forum, all contributors get to see the same information they can comment on it, absorb it, learn from it and react to it. It’s an online open plan office! “E-mail is where knowledge goes to die“
4. A place for everything and one version of the truth.
Have you ever e-mailed an attachment to a few colleagues/contacts? Someone will reply typically with a few modifications or suggestions, maybe someone else will too, then someone else will “reply to all” with their version. Multiple comments, multiple threads, multiple versions that then even need to be collated together by someone (presumably you!) And then redistributed only to see the whole process start all over again!
5. No need to worry about the size of attachments, viruses or Spam.
E-mail systems can still automatically reject e-mails with attachments over a certain size, if you’re lucky your system will tell you that your e-mail has been rejected and all too often you will even now that your recipient hasn’t received it. Cloud-based solutions simply e-mail a link, guaranteeing receipt of your e-mail and making it easier for your recipient to view the content you have sent. Access to online collaboration systems tends to be by invitation only. Consequently this communication channel is not an open door invitation to anyone who wants to sell you anything! In other words no more spam or viruses.