Health Service Executive

Health Service Executive (HSE) provides safe, high-quality health and personal social services to the population of Ireland. Employing over 70,000 employees throughout the health services, Health Service Executive is committed to delivering top class healthcare to the community. Their staff are at the core of their healthcare services delivery, working within and across all care settings.

Martin McKeith, Architectural Adviser at Health Service Executive, shares how the Health Service Executive central corporate office has implemented Mail Manager after successfully adopting the solution within one of their regional offices.

HSE’s central office had problems managing the vast abundance of emails and accessing information stored in silos, but saw Mail Manager's value after seeing how it worked for one of their regional offices. Martin said: "Before Mail Manager, there wasn't a systematic way of finding our emails. There was an awful lot of silos. People were filing emails on an ad-hoc basis into project folders, or, even worse, some were filing their emails onto their own individual PCs."

"The argument made in order to roll out Mail Manager was that we needed a systematic way of filing our emails as a public sector body. We're often subject to freedom of information requests, we also have a legal requirement to hold certain communications for a specific length of time."

On the importance of being able to access correspondence, Martin said: "Either we will need access to them for contractors disputes or we will need them for if there's a freedom of information request by a member of the public." 

HSE saw the potential risks involved in not being able to file and retrieve information as being unable to provide the information being asked for and failure to meet legal requirements.

While Mail Manager continues to be implemented throughout HSE, everyone within Martin’s central office has now adopted the solution, which totals 22 users. On life since implementing Mail Manager, Martin shared: "It's helping us make sure that people aren't operating in silos anymore."

He added: "In parallel to getting Mail Manager, we're also putting all emails on a shared drive which is properly backed up and supported. So, you know that there's no risk of loss of information if there's a physical problem."

With Mail Manager implemented and having emails on a shared drive, they have less risk if any incidents occur, such as an individual’s laptop breaking or if someone accidentally deletes an email.

Martin said: "Mail Manager allowed us to systematically file our emails into a secure and backed up location. So, we've benefitted in multiple ways. Mail Manager additionally solved our inbox storage issues, as well as improved staff productivity as emails are now filed out of an inbox, keeping it clean and organised. Every email sent and received is automatically filed, so you’re never frustrated by a chaotic inbox.”

Martin said his favourite features are the ability to send and file as you go: "Everything you send is being filed straightaway, and you're doing it as you go. It’s easier to file than not to. I also think the search function is very good. The search filters make it really easier to view correspondence by location, time, project and more."

Martin also shared his thoughts for anyone looking to adopt an email management solution: "Look for something that is simple for users to use and solves the problem that an individual user has, as well as a wider systematic problem. I think Mail Manager does just that. Mail Manager is an incredibly user-friendly email management solution."