CU I&E Submission: Email Inbox Automation Through Outlook Rules

Category

Sponsored Projects/Research
Technology

Submitted By

Kayla Berg, kayla.berg@colorado.edu, Research Contract Administrator

Project Team

Kayla Berg, kayla.berg@colorado.edu, Research Contract Administrator

Project Description

-Set up 101 Outlook rules to improve efficiency in OCG's main email inbox
-54% of incoming emails are now automatically routed to correct place without needing admin action
-Auto-routing of emails saves admin team from dealing with an average of 816 emails per month, which results in about 10 hours of work saved every month (calculated with an average of 45 seconds per email)
-Award emails from sponsors that require special handling by specific officers are tagged with unique category tag ("Sponsor Specific"). Dramatic improvement of accuracy in follow-through action due to added visual cue, saving time and effort from having to reroute
-Presented my project to CU's Microsoft 365 Group and have helped teams both inside of my office and across campus to put in Outlook rules for more efficient inbox management
-OCG Director included my project in the annual report of efficiencies gained to the Board of Regents

Project Efficiency 

-Using tools CU already has access to (ie no extra cost) in order to reduce job stress and free up time for admin team to contribute their energy to projects that require more brain power

Project Inspiration 

About two months after starting my position, I was monitoring this inbox and became frustrated that there is no good way in Outlook to forward multiple emails at once. Trying to do so sends the emails as attachments on one email, rather than forwarding each email individually. Sometimes dozens of emails need to get forwarded to another OCG email address, so this is tedious when done individually. I had heard about rules, so I presented the idea to my team supervisor (Ron Matteson) and got permission to experiment with putting in rules.

What Makes You Happiest about this Project?

I am happiest that this project has reduced tedious actions and cognitive load on my teammates. There is a lot less that we have to remember or look up due to having over half of the incoming emails auto-routed, and by having visual cues as reminders that certain emails need special handling.