What is the future of email?

The use of email continues to grow, but there are suggestions across the industry that its popularity will begin to decline quickly if measures aren't put in place to guarantee access, availability and security.

According to research from technology service provider Star, email is still regarded as being "very important" to UK business by 82 per cent of respondents to a recent survey into corporate attitudes towards email.

However, this suggests many, if not all, of the remaining 18 per cent of companies surveyed are already exploring avenues away from email - possibly having become disenchanted with spam and the headache of managing storage and security.

This also means that if problems such as spam aren't brought under control email could see a significant exodus of users onto other applications, such as instant messaging (IM), according to some.

Dan Scobie, strategic technology officer at Star, said: "A lot of issues around email have been accentuated by the proliferation of spam, but I don't think it's reached a point where we are really going to see people move away from using email."

However, Scobie agreed that managed email services reaching the market now, such as Star's own On Demand Mail Collaboration service, are finding success because managing email has become too much of a full-time a job and too much of a headache for many companies to handle in-house.

However, he refuted suggestions that even those companies who go alone will be tempted to ditch email in favour of other tools.

"IM does have a lot of potential and should be embraced," said Scobie. "But I think we just need to see some more maturity," he added, citing security concerns over web-based IM applications.

But there are plenty who believe email will eventually be surpassed by IM, especially if enterprise level secure IM services promise a way to cut through the spam and the management headache.

According to research conducted on behalf of secure IM service provider FaceTime, more than a quarter (26 per cent) of London firms believe IM will replace email as the most common communication tool by 2008 - with 38 per cent already allowing staff access to internal and external IM.

Ken Charman, director EMEA at FaceTime, said: "Email has been great but the time lag, the management problems, the inefficiency and the way in which people communicate via email means it is no longer as relevant to businesses as it was. Many companies have lost patience with email and are realising now that IM increases productivity."

"You can't be verbose in IM and there isn't the uncertainty as to the availability of the other person," he added. "IM gives you presence."

Charman added: "I see IM allowing companies to reduce their dependence on email."