DYSE Structural Engineers

The challenge

DYSE was built cloud-native from day one: Microsoft 365, SharePoint Online for project files and Microsoft 365 Groups for role-based permissions. No legacy systems to work around. But email remained a gap. 

Before Ideagen's Mail Manager, DYSE used Outlook Public Folders. The approach never achieved full adoption and had a critical flaw: when multiple team members received the same email and all filed it, multiple copies appeared in the system. Storage bloated and searching became unreliable. 

The deeper problem was visibility. Team members could not access emails that directors were receiving. If co-founder Jonny was on holiday, critical project context was locked away. Early briefing emails and project history sat in individual inboxes rather than with the project. For a structural engineering practice where professional liability extends years beyond completion, these blind spots represented real risk. 

The solution

The turning point came when Barry, a new associate, joined DYSE having used Ideagen's Mail Manager at a previous consultancy and recommended it. Ed had previously shortlisted six or seven solutions. Ideagen's Mail Manager met every requirement: project-oriented filing, integration with Microsoft 365 Groups permissions so existing access rules applied automatically to emails, automatic deduplication and speed. For someone receiving over 100 emails daily, filing quickly without disrupting workflow was essential. 

Implementation was lean. Ed spent around an hour deciding on the folder structure, one evening configuring SharePoint and Ideagen's Mail Manager, an hour of training with the Mail Manager team and 30 minutes briefing the team on how to use the system. Total director time: around seven to eight hours. The existing folder structure could be dragged directly into Ideagen's Mail Manager, with a find-and-replace to swap local paths for SharePoint paths. As Ed describes it: "Setting up was an absolute doddle." 

The firm rolled out fully around three to four weeks after starting the licenses. In the four months since implementation they had received four software updates. 

The results

DYSE has filed 43,000 emails across 900 locations with zero duplicates. The search function returns results almost instantly thanks to local indexing rather than cloud queries. 

The visibility problem is solved. Team member Mark had been particularly frustrated by his inability to access emails that Jonny was receiving. Now anyone can search the full project history and review early briefing emails even when directors are unavailable. As Ed describes it, there was no resistance at all: the team is young, welcomed having a proper tool and picked it up without issues. 

Key outcomes

• 43,000 emails filed across 900 locations with zero duplicates 
• Full project email visibility for all team members regardless of who received the original email 
• Emails remain in Outlook inbox as well as being filed, so staff can use familiar Outlook search if preferred 
• Emails saved in native MSG format, fully reversible if needed 
• Local indexing means search is near-instant regardless of archive size 
• Four software updates delivered in the first four months 

What this means for firms like yours

DYSE proves that even firms that build their infrastructure correctly from day one still hit a wall with email. SharePoint, Microsoft 365 Groups and cloud-native architecture do not solve the fundamental problem of getting project correspondence out of individual inboxes and into a searchable shared location. 

For structural engineering practices, professional liability extends years beyond project completion. When a question arises about what was specified or agreed, the answer needs to be findable by anyone on the team, not trapped in a director's inbox.