ClearContext IMS Released to Help Users Gain Control of Their Inbox and Save Hours
IMS v4 provides consolidated project views across entire messaging system; complementary email best practices released.
San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) November 5, 2007 -- ClearContext Corporation today announced the release of Information Management System (IMS) v4, the first application to create a project-based view of the existing information within Microsoft Outlook and automate the management and filing of incoming email by prioritizing contacts and organizing information. ClearContext also unveiled a best practice methodology for email management developed based on feedback from thousands of customers.
ClearContext is focused on making Outlook users more productive and solving the multi-billion dollar information overload problem faced by corporations. Unnecessary interruptions consume approximately 28 percent of a knowledge worker's day, costing U.S. companies $588 billion per year, according to Basex. Email overload along with multi-tasking, constant interruptions and ad-hoc projects are taking a physical and mental toll on workers and creating an enormous financial impact on companies. A recent study done by Intel researchers showed that "infomania" causes a damage of about $1 billion annually for a knowledge-intensive company having 50,000 employees. ClearContext IMS revolutionizes the way users interact with email, enabling them to work more productively with less stress.
Best Practice Methodology for Improved Email Management
The IMS Daily Workflow is a simple three-step process to help users save an hour or more per day managing their email and get more work done by focusing on their projects with minimal interruptions. IMS v4 software automates each of these steps within Microsoft Outlook. The best practice methodology follows:
- Identify (start of day) -- Review the day's appointments, tasks, and actions to evaluate priorities for the day. Review any outstanding alerts for important messages requiring immediate attention. Identify the highest priority emails to get started on.
- Manage (twice daily) -- Process the inbox by either responding to messages, filing them, creating tasks or appointments from emails where required or deferring the messages to deal with later.
- Succeed (throughout the day) -- Turn off email alerts and focus on getting specific projects done. Be sure to have all the information on hand needed to focus on a project without switching between windows or searching for information.
ClearContext IMS v4 is a fully integrated solution comprised of a simple yet powerful information management workflow process and software to automate the process. IMS is able to look across multiple message threads, contacts, tasks, and appointments to provide a consolidated project-by-project view across the entire messaging system. The product takes advantage of implicit information contained within emails and Outlook to pull together multiple types of contextually-linked information. This functionality organizes previously unstructured information that was stored separately in multiple silos to give users more useful and complete project views, resulting in a more productive use of email.
Following are some of the new features built into the latest release of IMS:
- IMS Dashboard -- Provides users with a consolidated view of all of their emails, tasks, and appointments related to a project, from multiple folders and data stores within and across Outlook and Exchange. This presents knowledge workers with a complete view of their projects within Outlook.
- Alerts -- Allows users to set reminders on contacts or email threads so whenever there are unread emails in important threads or from important contacts, the system will proactively notify the user with a pop-up alert on those messages. This new alert functionality helps users avoid missing important email threads that require attention or messages from important contacts.
- Do Not Disturb -- Gives users single-click functionality to turn off new message notifications from Outlook so users can focus on their work without continuous interruptions from incoming email.
ClearContext is part of an important technology shift seen in "semantic web"
technologies and "mashups" that integrate and present related information to the
user based on context. This evolution can be seen online in many instances such
as Google search results tailored based on context and webmail services that
link emails with contextually-related information. ClearContext is the first to
bring this capability to the workplace from within Microsoft Outlook.
"ClearContext IMS allows users to view information within Outlook in a way that
has never before been possible by determining the importance of your email
contacts to prioritize messages and combining these messages with tasks and
appointments linked to the same project," said Deva Hazarika, CEO of
ClearContext. "Users are constantly distracted and interrupted by a never-ending
stream of emails. ClearContext IMS eliminates these distractions by
automatically creating consolidated views of information that allow users to
focus on projects, not emails."
Pricing and Availability
Available immediately, ClearContext IMS v4 is priced at $89.95 per single-user license. A free 30-day trial can be downloaded at http://www.clearcontext.com .
About ClearContext Corporation
ClearContext, based in San Francisco, CA, was founded in 2003 and develops applications to help individuals efficiently manage their time and information. The company's flagship Information Management System product is an Outlook add-in to help individuals automatically prioritize, organize and manage information. For more information, please visit http://www.clearcontext.com .
Press Contact:
Carmen Hughes
Ignite P.R.
Work: 650.592.1768
Mobile: 650.576.6444
carmen@ignitepr.com
