A hypothetical company... let's call it "FilterMail"

1. E-mail hurts organizational effectiveness:

For all its benefits, e-mail occasionally gives a real body-blow to organizational effectiveness. It's usually an issue of too much noise that takes us away from using the tool for the greatest benefit to our companies.

2. It takes us away from something terribly basic in business:
We all want to give better service to trusted customers and vendors.


3. We need help managing our attention:

We create a set of filters on our e-mail systems. Filters that let our best customers and vendors get our immediate attention. Filters that flag all other messages as demanding a lessor amount of immediate focus.

4. Consider a story about how this might play out:

Unknown-Vendor-X finds my name somewhere. He or she sends me a message. That person's message to TomPortante@collectiveSome.com - for example, goes through FilterMail's system.

If it's a name of a contact I've place on my friends-of-the-company-list the mail is forwarded immediately to my computer.

For everyone else, three things happen.

-That piece of mail is forwarded to a FilterMail system mailbox in my name. It's a system mailbox I have access to. For, say, 60 days items are stored in 'interim mail'. After that time, messages are deleted.

-A message is returned to the sender of that mail. "Your e-mail to tomportante@collectivesome.com has not passed a mail filter. You have three delivery options (i) base rate postage is 15 cents, (ii) priority mail is 1 dollar, (iii) immediate attention mail is three dollars. Please press the PayPal button to deposit your postage costs." (NOTE: any micro-payment system)

-If there's no reply, no further action is taken and the message sits in the interim mailbox for a specified time. If, on the other hand, the sender selects one of the options, the original message (sitting in Interim Mail) is forwarded to me with a mail message icon letting me know someone has paid postage.

(... and of course, once I've read the postage-paid message, I could add that person to a "friends" permission list.)

5. There is a business opportunity for this hypothetical service:

This listing of "friends-of-the-company" can be outsourced to a third-party mail system.


6. There are at least two compelling value propositions for anyone with their names on such lists:

Professional contacts (eg: WiFi provider, office-supplies contact, lists of preferred pharmaceutical sales-reps) can have not only their name and addresses listed as a "trusted vendor for companies x, y, and z" -- but they can have their whole business card info included in that link. (and - even more info can be attached to their names. See below)

Their status as a preferred vendor would be in a free, web accessible database.


7. And an equally compelling one for the company providing this service:

An analogy to the Yellow Pages is a good one. Contacts would be given a free space for minimal information. Additional fees would be levied for better advertisements.