Automated Email Scheduler for Gmail - Will Matheson
Executive Summary
This project aims
to create an email scheduling solution through Microsoft’s Excel VBA for small
organizations and individuals who use Gmail as their primary email application.
The benefits will help users efficiently communicate with clients, suppliers,
applicants, recruiters, contacts, management, direct reports etc. Once the
workbook is loaded up with pending drafts, the workbook will need to be
scheduled to run as a task in Windows Task Scheduler to be run every hour.
Relationship management with clients, suppliers, applicants, and coworkers is an important facet of today’s world of business. Employees who remember to maintain contacts with key individuals in a timely manner are able to excel. Email is becoming a critical channel for communication. Automated e-mails with canned messages are commonly used but lack the personal touch of a phone call or customized e-mail. One struggle with writing customized e-mails is making sure the message is sent to the recipient at the right time. During a busy week when work is piling up, it is easy to lose track of time to get an important e-mail out Friday morning and ends up being remembered Friday at the end of day. This can result in delayed projects, lost productivity, and slow turnaround times in communication. This effect is compounded when dealing with overseas contacts whose workday is opposite your own.
The business need is a tool that can assist users who want to schedule e-mails to send to their contacts at a specific time. This way, users can have a productive episode of drafting e-mails at any time of the day or night and have the messages sent out at scheduled times in the future. The benefit is not letting important communication between the user and their contact be at the mercy of a busy schedule.
The most commonly used application for workplace e-mail is Microsoft Outlook. A feature to schedule e-mails at a specific time exists for Outlook and greatly benefits employees as they strive to manage relationships and communication pertaining to their work. Google for Work is a growing SaaS solution for small businesses which offers Gmail as an application for e-mails. The same functionality of scheduling e-mails does not exist for Google’s Gmail. There are third party developers who have created Chrome Extensions which do offer scheduling functionality. However, these solutions come with subscription plans and have tiered service levels which can limit the number of scheduled e-mails you can schedule or send in a period of time.
Relationship management with clients, suppliers, applicants, and coworkers is an important facet of today’s world of business. Employees who remember to maintain contacts with key individuals in a timely manner are able to excel. Email is becoming a critical channel for communication. Automated e-mails with canned messages are commonly used but lack the personal touch of a phone call or customized e-mail. One struggle with writing customized e-mails is making sure the message is sent to the recipient at the right time. During a busy week when work is piling up, it is easy to lose track of time to get an important e-mail out Friday morning and ends up being remembered Friday at the end of day. This can result in delayed projects, lost productivity, and slow turnaround times in communication. This effect is compounded when dealing with overseas contacts whose workday is opposite your own.
The business need is a tool that can assist users who want to schedule e-mails to send to their contacts at a specific time. This way, users can have a productive episode of drafting e-mails at any time of the day or night and have the messages sent out at scheduled times in the future. The benefit is not letting important communication between the user and their contact be at the mercy of a busy schedule.
The most commonly used application for workplace e-mail is Microsoft Outlook. A feature to schedule e-mails at a specific time exists for Outlook and greatly benefits employees as they strive to manage relationships and communication pertaining to their work. Google for Work is a growing SaaS solution for small businesses which offers Gmail as an application for e-mails. The same functionality of scheduling e-mails does not exist for Google’s Gmail. There are third party developers who have created Chrome Extensions which do offer scheduling functionality. However, these solutions come with subscription plans and have tiered service levels which can limit the number of scheduled e-mails you can schedule or send in a period of time.
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