E-mail — The “glue” to office automation

The key to automating the office lies not in the standardization of hardware and software from one particular vendor, but in providing useful connectivity of all information processing devices in the office. This connectivity can be achieved through the implementation of a carefully designed electronic mail (e-mail) system that interfaces with a wide variety of hardware, software and networking components. This paper presents some criteria which can be used to evaluate and select such an e-mail system to best suit the communications needs of your office. Network design guidelines for implementing this e-mail system at minimal cost are then presented. Finally, in order to illustrate the concepts and issues presented, the AT&T Private Message Exchange is examined in detail.