Hefferlin + Kronenberg Architects

Hefferlin + Kronenberg Architects (HK Architects) is based in Tennessee and have been around for over 21 years. Following their commitment to sustainable design and construction, they have been able to build an extensive portfolio with some of their work being widely recognised, including honours from the American Institute of Architects, the American Society of Interior Designers, Regional Planning Agencies, and Product and Trade Organizations.

Their collaborative process allows them to work with structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing and civil engineers and coordinate their efforts. In addition, by working frequently with landscape architects they have been able to achieve unified designs.

Clif McCormick, one of the Owners, joined the company in 2000 and was responsible for the implementation of Mail Manager.

HK Architects was drowning in unfiled emails. The company had employees, some who had worked for them for over 21 years, with the same account from their first day, who were not filing information. This resulted in emails being automatically deleted after a period and lost forever.

Following the need to keep information to refer to in the future, they developed an internal procedure. Clif described this process as “tedious” as the process involved dragging every sent and received email into a folder in Outlook and periodically archive it on the network. This made searches slower as information was stored on their PC or within Outlook.

Clif explained: “The problem was, nothing prompted the team to do that, and when you’re in a busy day and you don’t want to file information in that day, or don’t have time, eventually you realise you have 5,000 emails that haven’t been filled. When that happened, I rolled my eyes and, on a day when I knew no one is sending emails, for instance, a Saturday morning, I would spend 4 hours filing emails, which is frustrating. I did that but most of the team didn’t file at all.”

Another scenario that highlighted the lack of filing was an issue was when a staff member left the company. The team were unable to find out what had been discussed and agreed with the client and no one was able to follow up on conversations that had been discussed prior.

After joining a demo of Mail Manager, Clif was impressed and gave the green light to go ahead with the solution. Since installing Mail Manager, it is now, by default, that everyone in the company files emails. Clif said: “You almost have to work to not file it, so this tiny little shift has made all the difference.” Being able to search in the software without leaving Outlook has made it especially helpful for them and has instantly transformed things.

Clif gave an example: “When a project manager is on holiday for a couple of days and the urgency of the construction business brings up needs that must be addressed instantly, we can now find anything we need within seconds, which in turn eliminates the need to disturb people on their holidays.”

In order to address the issues they were facing, HK Architects tried other software but none of them were quite as intuitive, simple and cost-effective as Mail Manager. Clif explained: “It is a small change that makes a huge difference. Just the fact that you are prompted to file makes you file it, and that’s all it takes, so it’s very simple and that’s what is great.”

When asked about his favourite feature of the software, Clif replied: “It’s so simple to use. I would say Mail Manager is my favourite feature of using email.”

For Clif, Mail Manager turns emails from just a communication tool into a memory tool. He finished with: “It’s a simple add on, a simple programme. While there are too many software that try to be everything to everyone, you feel there’s always going to be more than half of that software you don’t know and will never fully understand. That bothers me as it’s too huge for me to take time to figure it out, so I really appreciate the simplicity of Mail Manager.”