Douglas expects EmailRobot to provide automated responses and routing of incoming E-mail messages, and to help point customers to relevant sections of the bank's Web site, where they may find answers on their own. Channeling the flow National Commerce Bank is not the only company facing a torrent of E-mail. International Data Corp. says that only 30 percent of Fortune 500 companies responded to questions directed to their Webmaster . Matrixx Marketing Inc. found that 27 percent of the 100 Fortune 500 companies it surveyed had no mechanism for accepting E-mail inquiries. The situation isn't likely to improve until companies get some help.
Most companies establish a generic mailbox address that receives all the incoming messages.
Once those messages are in hand, the problem begins. David Cooperstein, an analyst for the telecommunications strategies service at Forrester in Cambridge, Mass., says that a year ago such traffic was not even on the radar screen of most IS managers and Webmasters. Mustang Software Inc. Internet Mail Center. Visitors scan the Web site's back-end Lotus Notes document database through a Lotus Domino Web server, looking for pertinent documents, which they download to their local PC or desktop systems. When that happens, the site automatically records the E-mail address of the person downloading the documents using WebLeader.