Email overtakes telephone in workplace

It appears that the telephone is no longer the preferred communication tool in the workplace. Email has overtaken oral communication, according to the results of a recently released Datamonitor report.

by Helen Leggatt

One hundred percent of workers surveyed for the Datamonitor/Dimension Data used email. The research surveyed 390 IT managers and 524 enterprise users across 13 countries within the United States, Asia Pacific and Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Fixed-line telephones were second to email with 80 percent of workers using it, after which came mobile phones (76 percent) and instant messaging (66 percent).

"In today's corporate environment there is a myriad of communications tools available, including desktop telephony, mobile telephony and email,” said Rob Lopez, managing director of solutions at Dimension Data. "However, our research indicates that end users prefer to communicate using electronic media rather than voice services such as telephony."

Email had a positive affect on productivity according to 70 percent of those surveyed, followed by fixed-line telephones (53 percent) and mobiles phones (52 percent). Instant messaging and blogs were deemed detrimental to productivity if not properly managed.