Admissibility of using electronic correspondence in court. Corporate mail: archiving of incoming and outgoing messages

Today, courts often accept electronic correspondence as written evidence. However, for this she must have legal force. Meanwhile, clear and uniform rules and methods for determining the legitimacy of virtual correspondence have not yet been developed, which leads to a large number of problems.

Let's look at a few ways to make emails look legal force.

Long gone are the days when the only means of communication were letters written on paper. The development of economic relations between economic entities is no longer conceivable without the use of information technology. This is especially true when counterparties are located in different cities or even countries.

Communication via electronic communication helps reduce material costs, and also allows you to quickly develop a common position on specific issues.

However, such progress should not be viewed only on the positive side. Various disputes often arise between subjects of economic relations; to resolve them, they turn to the courts. The court makes a decision based on an assessment of the evidence provided by the parties.

At the same time, the relevance, admissibility, reliability of each evidence separately, as well as the sufficiency and interconnection of the evidence in their totality are analyzed. This rule is enshrined both in the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation (clause 2 of Article 71) and in the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation (clause 3 of Article 67). In the process of determining the admissibility and reliability of the evidence provided, the court often asks questions, the solution of which significantly affects the outcome of the case.

The use of electronic document management in relations between business entities is regulated by the norms of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. In particular, in paragraph 2 of Art. 434 states: an agreement in writing can be concluded by exchanging documents via electronic communication, which makes it possible to reliably establish that the document comes from a party to the agreement.

In accordance with paragraph 1 of Art. 71 Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation and paragraph 1 of Art. 75 of the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, written evidence is business correspondence containing information about circumstances relevant for the consideration and resolution of the case, executed in the form digital recording and received via electronic communication.

To use electronic documents In legal proceedings, two conditions must be met. Firstly, as already indicated, they must have legal force. Secondly, the document must be readable, that is, it must contain information that is generally understandable and accessible to perception.

This requirement stems from general rules legal proceedings, which presuppose the immediacy of judges’ perception of information from sources of evidence.

Often, the court refuses to admit as evidence to the case materials electronic correspondence that does not meet the above conditions, and subsequently makes a decision that does not satisfy the legal requirements of the interested party.

Let's consider the main ways to legitimize electronic correspondence before and after the start of proceedings.

Working with a notary

If the proceedings have not yet begun, then to give electronic correspondence legal force, you need to involve a notary. In paragraph 1 of Art. 102 of the Fundamentals of Legislation on Notaries (Fundamentals) states that, at the request of interested parties, a notary provides evidence necessary in court or an administrative body if there are reasons to believe that the provision of evidence will subsequently become impossible or difficult. And in paragraph 1 of Art. 103 of the Fundamentals stipulates that in order to secure evidence, the notary inspects written and material evidence.

According to paragraph 2 of Art. 102 Fundamentally, a notary does not provide evidence in a case that, at the time interested parties contact him, is being processed by a court or administrative body. Otherwise, the courts recognize notarized electronic correspondence as unacceptable evidence (Resolution of the Ninth AAS dated March 11, 2010 No. 09AP-656/2010-GK).

It is worth recalling that, based on Part 4 of Art. 103 Fundamentals, provision of evidence without notifying one of the parties and interested parties is carried out only in urgent cases.

In order to examine the evidence, a protocol is drawn up, in which, in addition to detailed description The notary's actions must also contain information about the date and place of the inspection, the notary performing the inspection, the interested parties participating in it, and also list the circumstances discovered during the inspection. The emails themselves are printed and filed with a protocol, which is signed by the persons participating in the inspection, by a notary and sealed with his seal. By virtue of the Determination of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation dated April 23, 2010 No. VAS-4481/10, the notarial protocol for the inspection of an electronic mailbox is recognized as appropriate evidence.

Currently, not all notaries provide services for certification of emails, and their cost is quite high. For example: one of the notaries in Moscow charges 2 thousand rubles for one page of the descriptive part of the protocol.

A person interested in providing evidence applies to a notary with a corresponding application. It should indicate:

• evidence to be secured;
• the circumstances that are supported by this evidence;
• the grounds for which evidence is required;
• at the time of contacting a notary, the case is not being processed by a court of general jurisdiction, an arbitration court or an administrative body.

Notaries inspect the contents email box or remotely, that is, they use remote access to a mail server (this may be the server of a provider providing an electronic communications service under a contract; a mail server of a domain name registrar or a free Internet mail server), or directly from the computer of the interested party on which an e-mail program is installed ( Microsoft Outlook, Netscape Messenger, etc.).

During a remote inspection, in addition to the application, the notary may need permission from the domain name registrar or Internet provider. It all depends on who exactly is supporting the work. mailboxes or electronic mail server under contract.

Certification from the provider

Resolutions of the Ninth AAS dated 04/06/2009 No. 09AP-3703/2009-AK, dated 04/27/2009 No. 09AP-5209/2009, FAS MO dated 05/13/2010 No. KG-A41/4138-10 stipulate that the courts also recognize the admissibility of electronic correspondence , if it is certified by the Internet service provider or domain name registrar who are responsible for managing mail server.

The provider or domain name registrar certifies electronic correspondence at the request of an interested party only if it manages the mail server and such right is specified in the service agreement.

However, the volume of electronic correspondence can be quite large, which in turn can complicate the process of providing paper documents. In this regard, the court sometimes allows the provision of electronic correspondence to electronic media. Thus, the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region, making a Decision dated August 1, 2008 in case No. A41-2326/08, referred to the admissibility of electronic correspondence provided to the court on four CDs.

But when considering the case in the appellate instance, the Tenth AAC, by its Resolution dated 10/09/2008 in case No. A41-2326/08, recognized the reference to electronic correspondence as unfounded and canceled the decision of the court of first instance, indicating that the interested party did not submit any documents provided for by the concluded parties agreement.

Thus, emails relating to the subject of the dispute must be submitted to the court in writing, and all other documents can be submitted on electronic media.

Confirming the contents of letters by referring to them in subsequent paper correspondence will help prove the facts stated in virtual correspondence. The use of other written evidence is reflected in the Resolution of the Ninth AAS dated December 20, 2010 No. 09AP-27221/2010-GK. Meanwhile, the court, when considering the case and assessing the evidence provided by the parties, has the right not to consider paper correspondence with links to electronic correspondence admissible.

He only takes it into account and makes a decision based on a comprehensive analysis of all the evidence presented.

Get help from an expert

If the proceedings have already begun, then to give electronic correspondence legal force it is necessary to exercise the right to attract an expert. In paragraph 1 of Art. 82 of the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation stipulates that in order to clarify issues that arise during the consideration of a case that require special knowledge, the arbitration court appoints an examination at the request of a person participating in the case, or with the consent of the persons participating in it.

If the appointment of an examination is prescribed by law or a contract, or is required to verify an application for falsification of the evidence presented, or if an additional or repeated examination is necessary, the arbitration court may appoint an examination on its own initiative. The appointment of an examination for the purpose of verifying the evidence presented is also provided for in Art. 79 Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation.

In a petition to appoint a forensic examination, it is necessary to indicate the organization and specific experts who will carry it out, as well as the range of issues for which the interested party decided to apply to the court to order an examination. In addition, information about the cost and timing of such an examination should be provided and the full amount to pay for it should be deposited with the court. The involved expert must meet the requirements established for him in Art. 13 Federal Law“On state forensic activity in the Russian Federation.”

Attachment to the case materials as evidence of an expert's opinion on the authenticity of electronic correspondence is confirmed by judicial practice (Decision of the Moscow Arbitration Court dated 08/21/2009 in case No. A40-13210/09-110-153; Resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Moscow Region dated 01/20/2010 No. KG-A40 /14271-09).

Based on the contract

In paragraph 3 of Art. 75 of the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation notes that documents received via electronic communication are recognized as written evidence if this is specified in the agreement between the parties. Accordingly, it is necessary to indicate that the parties recognize the equal legal force of correspondence and documents received via fax, the Internet and other means as the originals. electronic methods communications. In this case, the agreement must specify the email address from which electronic correspondence will be sent, and information about the authorized person authorized to conduct it.

The contract must stipulate that the designated email address is used by the parties not only for work correspondence, but also for the transfer of work results, which is confirmed by the position of the FAS MO in Resolution No. KG-A40/12090-08 dated January 12, 2009. The Decree of the Ninth AAS dated December 24, 2010 No. 09AP-31261/2010-GK emphasizes that the contract must stipulate the possibility of using e-mail for approval terms of reference and making claims regarding the quality of services provided and work performed.

In addition, the parties may provide in the agreement that notifications and messages sent by email are recognized by them, but must be additionally confirmed within a certain period by courier or by registered mail(Resolution of the Thirteenth AAS dated April 25, 2008 No. A56-42419/2007).

To summarize, we can say that today there is a practice of courts using electronic correspondence as written evidence. However, taking into account the requirements of procedural legislation regarding the admissibility and reliability of evidence, virtual correspondence is taken into account by the court only if it has legal force.

In this regard, a large number of problems arise, since a unified methodology for determining the legitimacy of electronic correspondence has not yet been formed. The right of an interested party to contact a notary in order to secure evidence is enshrined, but there is no regulatory act of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation regulating the procedure for the provision of such services by notaries. As a result, there is no single approach to determining their value and forming a clear mechanism for implementing this right.

There are several ways to give electronic correspondence legal force in order to present it as evidence in court: securing electronic correspondence from a notary, certification from an Internet provider, by reference to emails in further paper correspondence, as well as confirmation of their authenticity by forensic examination.

A competent approach to the timely provision of electronic correspondence as written evidence will allow business entities to fully restore their violated rights when resolving disputes.

We are considering backup and creating backups from the point of view of organizing the work process

ABOUT technical means A lot has already been said about backup and recovery of information, so in this article we will look at creating backups more from the point of view of organizing this process. Effective information backup systems imply, first of all, a competent strategy, organizational decisions and data preservation policies.

We see the following types of backup as the main trends for 2017-2019:

• copying from any devices on a “subscription” basis for each gigabyte of data using cloud services, which, through an agent pre-installed in the system, “upload” copies to the cloud. An example of this is
• copying to the cloud using Veaam and similar products (Acronis/Symantec/HP Data Protector). Requires preparation of the provider, setting up a connector between the provider’s cloud and the “ground” virtual environment.
• “in-house” copying using software solutions from manufacturers NAS systems or dedicated corporate sector storage
• distributed backup using built-in OS Windows Server solutions

Backup tasks in an organization

Backing up information most often serves two purposes:

• save data for the fastest possible recovery (disaster recovery), if an accident occurs with the company’s IT system, it is attacked by a virus, etc. Such backups have a relatively short storage period (usually a day or two, then they are overwritten by newer ones), and the data can be accessed very quickly. User and business data are copied, as well as OS settings, application software and all information necessary to restore system functionality
• create a long-term archive of information about the company’s activities, which can be accessed if necessary to obtain data for past periods. Such archives are stored for a long time (months and years), the speed of access to them is not particularly important - it is usually not a problem if receiving the data takes several days. Only business and user data is stored, there is no need to store any system information.

For example, in the copy for quick recovery system you can only access the latest one, current version any document, and the archive can store all its past versions.

It is quite possible to combine these two goals: maintain a long-term archive and make “casts” of the system for disaster recovery, especially if there is little data and the company is simple. But you should clearly differentiate: what you are doing and for what purposes, what resources you use for each task, where and for how long these will be stored backups based on business requirements.

In the event of an accident, you can restore the system to “bare metal”, i.e. backup and then restore the OS from a backup with all the settings, custom applications and data. However, such copies are more difficult to create and require more space for storage and in some cases, the hardware configuration must be completely identical to the one from which the copy was made, otherwise such restoration will not work. Therefore, sometimes it is more expedient to reinstall the OS again and then restore business application data. When choosing policies for making, storing copies and restoring data from them, it is worth taking into account the operating features and available resources of each specific company; there are no universal recommendations.

Backup VS Redundancy

To ensure that equipment continues to operate even if a single component fails, a certain amount of redundancy is introduced into it - “extra” components or computing resources that might seem unnecessary during normal operation.

Example of redundancy:

• cluster architecture, where when a node fails, its functions are taken over by other nodes
• A RAID array in which the failure of one of the disks is not critical for the system as a whole, the information will be preserved
• a “mirror” server to which data is constantly replicated from the main one and to which company services are switched if main server lost his ability to work.

This redundancy improves system reliability, but it is not a replacement for backup. Neither , nor the cluster will in any way protect data from a virus, deletion due to user error or violation file system, since data will be affected across the entire system, there will not be an intact copy left to restore. In addition, none of the above tools will fully solve the problem of maintaining a long-term archive of company data.

Backup routine

The backup process itself significantly loads the server from which information is copied, to the point of failure of certain services and inaccessibility to users. In addition, it is very desirable that changes are not made to the data at the moment when they are copied - this can cause various collisions.

It is better not to copy data “on the go”, but to create backup copies when no one is using the system or the load is minimal. For companies with standard working hours, it makes sense to make backups at night or on weekends; for 24-hour services, it is worth choosing a time when user activity is minimal.

Types of backup in an organization

There are different technologies backups, which differ in cost and time:

• full backup– the selected data is copied entirely. Most reliable way, but requires the largest number resources, space for storing data and copying time, therefore it is rarely used in its pure form, usually combined with other types (for example, the first time a complete copy is taken from the system, and then only the changes made are backed up). Allows you to restore lost data from scratch faster than all other types of copying
• incremental copy– only data that has been changed since the last backup is recorded. Such copies require significantly less memory than a full copy, and they are made much faster. Of course, with this approach it is necessary to periodically make a full backup; in case of any accident, the system is restored from such a copy, and then all subsequent incremental copies are rolled onto it in chronological order. Important point: incremental copy restores deleted files and that's all previous versions files that have changed, so when restoring you should provide additional disk space in this case
• differential backup– similar to incremental, i.e. Only changes made since the last full copy are copied. The difference is that each subsequent copy retains changes from the previous one and adds new ones. It turns out that to recover after a disaster, you only need a full copy and the last of the differential ones, which significantly reduces recovery time. The disadvantages, compared to incremental copying, are the large volume of copies (sometimes comparable to full copying) and longer time copying.

To choose the right one for everyone specific case type of copying, you should first assess, at a minimum, how much space is available for storing backup copies, how much time can be allocated for the “backup window” without compromising business processes.

Backup topology

Backup schemes also differ in their topology.

• Decentralized scheme. Its essence is that on each server and workstation may have its own backup software that operates independently of other nodes on the network. All data is uploaded to some common network resource, from where they are then archived or restored, if necessary. The advantages of the scheme are that it is extremely simple, easy to implement and usually does not require additional software; copying is done regular means operating system or DBMS. There are also disadvantages - it is difficult to establish a general backup and information protection policy, a backup schedule is common for all programs, you will have to configure and monitor the activities of each program separately, which complicates administration. Therefore, a decentralized backup scheme is suitable either for a small and simple network, or for cases where a centralized scheme cannot be organized due to any restrictions
• Centralized scheme– its implementation requires specialized client-server software. The server part is installed on the backup server and centrally manages software agents installed on users, which collect, copy information about the system or restore it from a copy. In this option, it is easy to set up general backup policies and backup schedules; all participants can work in accordance with the company’s general information backup instructions
• Centralized backup scheme without agent programs– a simplified version of the previous scheme, when the server part uses only existing services (for example, collects data from specially designated shared Windows folders). The scheme is not very reliable; it has a known problem where files currently open for editing are not included in the backup copy and can be lost if the system crashes. Therefore, it should only be used small networks and subject to high user discipline
• Mixed scheme– a combination of centralized and decentralized. Agent programs are installed only on some network servers; data from other devices is sent to these servers by their local programs, each using its own means. And from these servers, agent programs will centrally collect, process and send the accumulated information to a common storage.

Backup storage location

To further protect information from possible loss, it is advisable to physically store backup copies separately from the main equipment on which the working system. At the same time, it is necessary to ensure the ability to quickly obtain these copies if such a case actually arises when the data needs to be restored.

The most popular method is to store backups in the cloud in a data center (your own or rented from a provider), sending data there and receiving it back via a secure VPN tunnel. In this case, the data transfer speed is limited throughput channel, but large amounts of data can be compressed using compression algorithms or deduplication.

You can also record data on removable physical media that will be stored outside the office or company building. The advantage of this approach is its simplicity, the disadvantages are the need to organize the logistics of moving physical media to rewrite copies, to restore data from a copy, as well as safe storage data (data encryption, non-disclosure agreements with employees).

Organizational aspects and human factor

Except purely technical points, in organizing information backup, the organizational aspect is also important. It is necessary to develop a regulation on the backup of information and ensure its implementation by all involved employees. In particular, such a provision should include the following:

• regularity of copying, scheduled backups and before important changes in the system
• double-checking backups - it is necessary to periodically check whether it is really possible to restore a working database or system from a backup copy
• documenting recovery procedures in case another administrator has to restore the system. Naturally, access to such documentation should be limited
• determination of conditions under which the system is considered inoperative and it is necessary to begin the recovery procedure

What is email? In the modern business world this is:

• Your face. It is with the help of email that you can create a positive image in the eyes of the counterparty or spoil the first impression.
• Your working tool. A lot of communication with the outside world takes place via email. Therefore, if you are proficient in this instrument, you can make your life a lot easier.
• A powerful distraction. The outside world is trying to get at you, distract you and throw you off. the right path via email.

From this perspective, let’s look at working with email. Let's start with something simple.

Formatting a letter

I use an email client Mozilla Thunderbird, so I will tell you using his example. Let's create a new letter and go from top to bottom through the list of fields.

To whom. Copy. Bcc

Some may not know, but "To" in Mozilla can be changed to "Cc" or "Bcc".

• To whom: we write the main recipient or several recipients separated by a semicolon.
• Copy: we write to someone who should read the letter, but from whom we do not expect a reaction.
• Bcc: we are writing to someone who should read the letter, but should remain unknown to the other recipients of the letter. It is especially appropriate to use for mass mailing of business letters, such as notifications.

Wrong V mass mailing specify recipients using the “Copy” or “To” fields. Several times a year I receive letters that list 50–90 recipients in the “Cc” field. There is a violation of privacy. Not all of your recipients need to know who else you are working with on a similar topic. It’s good if these are people who know each other. What if there are competing companies on the list that don’t know about each other? At a minimum, you need to be prepared for unnecessary explanations, and at maximum, to terminate cooperation with one of them. Don't do that.

Subject of the letter

The importance of the subject line is often written (sometimes sensibly) on corporate blogs. professional services newsletters. But most often we are talking about sales letters, where the subject line of the letter solves the problem “the email should be opened.”

We are discussing daily business correspondence. Here the theme solves the problem “the letter and its author should be easily identified and then found.” Moreover, your diligence will return to you in the form of karma of numerous response letters, only with prefixes Re: or Fwd, among which you will have to look for the desired letter on the topic.

Twenty letters is the volume of one-day correspondence for a middle manager. I’m not talking about entrepreneurs and business owners at all; their number of letters sometimes goes off scale at 200 or more per day. Therefore once again: do not send emails with an empty subject.

So, how to formulate the subject line of an email correctly?

Mistake #1 : Only the company name in the subject. For example, “Sky” and that’s it. Firstly, you are probably not the only one from your company communicating with this counterparty. Secondly, such a topic does not bring any meaning, because the name of your company is already visible from the address. Thirdly, guess what your own mailbox will look like with this approach to correspondence? Something like this.

Is it convenient to search on such topics?

Mistake #2 : flashy, selling headline. It's great if you know how to write such headlines. But is it appropriate to use these skills in business correspondence? Remember the purpose of a business email subject line: not to sell, but to provide identification and search.

Letter text

There are many guides on writing texts for different cases life. For example, Maxim Ilyakhov, Alexander Amzin and other masters of words have a lot of useful information. I advise you to read their articles, at least to improve general literacy and improve the overall style of written speech.

In the process of writing a letter, we must make several decisions sequentially.

A matter of politeness . At the beginning of the letter, you can blur into pleasantries or even tenderness in the spirit of “My dear Rodya, it’s been more than two months since I talked to you in writing, from which I myself suffered and even didn’t sleep some nights, thinking.” Very polite and very costly, both in terms of time to write such an introduction, and in terms of the interlocutor’s time to read it. Correspondence is business, remember? Not an essay in the epistolary genre for a competition or a letter to Raskolnikov’s mother, but business correspondence.

We respect our time and the recipient's!

It only makes sense to introduce yourself and recall the circumstances of your acquaintance in the first letter sent after a fleeting meeting at an exhibition. If this is a continuation of cooperation or ongoing correspondence, in the first letter of the day we write: “Hello, Ivan”, in the second and subsequent ones: “Ivan, ...”.

Appeal . I have always been concerned about the question of who to address in a letter if there are several recipients. Recently I wrote a letter addressed to three girls named Anna. Without any doubt, I wrote “Hello, Anna” and didn’t worry. But such luck is not always the case.

What if there are three or even seven recipients and they do not have the same name? You can list them by name: “Good afternoon, Rodion, Pulcheria, Avdotya and Pyotr Petrovich.” But it's long and takes time. You can write: “Hello, colleagues!”

For myself, I use the rule of addressing by name the person in the “To” field. And don’t contact those in the copy at all. This rule also allows you to more accurately determine (one!) the addressee of the letter and the purpose of this letter.

Citation . Often correspondence is a chain of letters with questions and answers - in a word, a dialogue. It is considered good practice not to delete the correspondence history and write your response at the top of the quoted text, so that when you return to this correspondence a week later, you can easily read the dialogue from top to bottom, descending by date.

For some reason, the default setting in Mozilla is “Place cursor after quoted text.” I recommend changing it in the “Tools” → “Account Options” → “Composing and Addressing” menu. It must be so.

Purpose of the letter . There are two types of business letters:

• when we simply inform the interlocutor (for example, a report on the work done for the month);
• and when we want something from the interlocutor. For example, so that he approves the attached invoice for payment.

As a rule, there are many times more encouraging letters than reporting letters. If we want to achieve something from the interlocutor, it is very important to say this in a letter in plain text. The call to action should be accompanied by a name and go last sentence in a letter.

Wrong : “Porfiry Petrovich, I know who hacked the old woman to death.”

Right : “Porfiry Petrovich, it was I who hacked the old woman to death, please take measures to arrest me, I’m tired of suffering!”

Why should the correspondent think for you what to do with this letter? After all, he may make the wrong decision.

Signature in the text . She must be. Moreover, all email clients allow you to configure automatic signature substitution, for example the classic “Sincerely, …”. In Mozilla, this is done in the “Tools” → “Account Options” menu.

Whether or not to write contacts in the signature is a personal matter for everyone. But if you are in any way connected with sales, be sure to write. Even if the deal does not take place as a result of communication, in the future you will be easily found using the contacts from the signature.

Finally, one more feature of the letter body for those interlocutors who don’t like (can’t, don’t want, don’t have time) to answer your letters. Please indicate the default in the body of the letter. For example, “Porfiry Petrovich, if you don’t come to arrest me before 12:00 Friday, then I consider myself amnestied.” Of course, the deadline must be realistic (you should not send the text from the example on Friday at 11:50). The recipient must be physically able to read and act on your letter. Such “silence” relieves you of responsibility for the interlocutor’s failure to respond. As always, you need to approach the use of this feature wisely. If a person responds to your letters on time and regularly, such an ultimatum may, if not offend him, then stress him out a little or lead to a decision not to answer the letter right now, but make you wait until Friday.

Attachments

Letters often come with attachments: resumes, commercial proposals, estimates, schedules, scans of documents - very handy tool and at the same time a source of popular errors.

Error : huge investment size. I often receive emails with attachments up to 20 MB in size. As a rule, these are scans of some documents in TIFF format, with a resolution of 600dpi. Mail program The correspondent will almost certainly be stuck for several minutes trying in vain to load a preview of this attachment. And God forbid the recipient tries to read this letter on a smartphone...

Personally, I immediately delete such letters. Don't want your email to end up in the trash before it's read? Check the size of the investment. It is recommended that it be no more than 3 MB.

What to do if it exceeds?

• Try reconfiguring your scanner to a different format and resolution. For example, PDF and 300dpi produce quite readable scans.
• Think about programs like WinRar archiver or 7zip. Some files compress perfectly.
• What to do if the attachment is huge and you can’t compress it? For example, an almost empty accounting database weighs 900 MB. Cloud information storage services will come to the rescue: Dropbox, Google Drive and the like. Some services, such as Mail.ru, automatically convert huge attachments into links to cloud storage. But I prefer to manage my information stored in the cloud myself, so I don’t welcome automation from Mail.ru.

And one more not entirely obvious recommendation about investments - their Name . It must be understandable and acceptable to the recipient. Once upon a time we were cooking in company commercial offer in the name... let it be Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. I received a letter from the manager with a draft CP for approval, and the attachment included a file named “ForFedi.docx”. The manager who sent me this had a dialogue that went something like this:

Dear manager, are you personally ready to approach this respected man and call him Fedya to his face?

Somehow, no, he’s a respected man, everyone calls him by his first name and patronymic.

Why did you name the attachment “For Fedi”? If I send it to him right now, do you think he will buy axes from us using this CP?

I was going to rename it later...

Why prepare a time bomb - the refusal of a potential client - or create extra work for yourself by renaming the file? Why not immediately name the attachment correctly: “For Fyodor Mikhailovich.docx” or even better - “KP_Sky_Axes.docx”.

So, we have more or less sorted out email as a “face”. Let's move on to looking at email as a tool. efficient work and let's talk about its distracting component.

Working with letters

Email is a powerful distraction. As with any distraction, email needs to be dealt with by tightening rules and introducing work schedules.

At a minimum, you need to turn off ALL notifications about mail arrivals. If the email client is configured by default, you will be notified and sound signal, and they will blink the icon next to the clock and show a preview of the letter. In a word, they will do everything to first tear you away from painstaking work, and then plunge you into the abyss of unread letters and unviewed mailings - minus an hour or two from your life.

Some people have strong willpower that allows them not to be distracted by notifications, but ordinary people It’s better not to tempt fate and turn them off. In Mozilla Thunderbird, this is done through the menu "Tools" → "Settings" → "General" → "When new messages appear."

If there are no notifications, how can you understand that a letter has arrived?

Very simple. You yourself, consciously, set aside time to parse your mail, open your email client and see everything unread messages. This can be done twice a day, for example, at lunch and in the evening, or during forced downtime, for example, in traffic jams.

People often ask, what about response times and urgent letters? I answer: you do not have urgent letters in your mail. Unless you work in a department customer support(this department has its own regulations for working with mail).

If there are urgent letters, the sender will notify you about this through other channels - telephone, SMS, Skype. Then you will consciously go into your email client and process urgent mail. All time management gurus (for example, Gleb Arkhangelsky with his “Time Drive”) declare a standard response to email within 24 hours. This is a normal rule of good manners - not to expect instant replies via email from your interlocutor. If there is an urgent letter, notify about it through faster communication channels.

So, we turned off notifications and now turn on the email client according to our schedule.

What to do when we go to the mail and engage in an activity called “sorting out email”? Where is the beginning and end of this work?

I've heard a lot about the zero inbox system, but, unfortunately, I haven't met a single person using it. I had to reinvent my wheel. There are articles on this topic on Lifehacker. For example, " ". Below I will talk about the zero inbox system in my interpretation. I would be grateful if GTD gurus would comment and add or improve the described system.

It is important to understand and accept that email is not a task scheduler or archive for your activities. Therefore, the Inbox folder should always be empty. Once you start sorting through your inbox, don't stop or be distracted by anything until you've emptied this folder.

What to do with emails in your inbox? You need to go through each letter sequentially and delete it. Yes, just highlight and press Delete on your keyboard. If you can’t bring yourself to delete the letter, you’ll have to decide what to do with it.

1. Can you answer it in three minutes? Do I need to answer it? Yes, it is necessary, and the answer will take no more than three minutes, then answer immediately.
2. You must answer, but preparing an answer will take more than three minutes. If you use a task scheduler that allows you to convert an email into a task, turn the email into a task and forget about it for a while. For example, I use the absolutely wonderful service Doit.im. It allows you to generate a personal email address: you forward the letter to it, and it turns into a task. But if you don’t have a task scheduler, move the letter to the “0_Run” subfolder.
3. After quickly replying to a letter, turning it into a task, or simply reading it, you need to decide what to do with this message next: delete it or send it to one of the folders for long-term storage.

Here are the long-term storage folders I have.

• 0_Execute. I don’t have such a folder, but if you don’t have a planner, I repeat, you can put letters that require detailed work here. This folder also needs to be cleaned regularly, but with a thoughtful approach at a time specially allocated for this.
• 1_Ref. This is where I put letters from background information: welcome letters with logins from various web services, tickets for upcoming flights, and so on.
• 2_Projects. An archive of correspondence on partners and projects with which there are current relationships is stored here. Naturally, a separate folder has been created for each project or partner. In the partner’s folder I put letters not only from his employees, but also letters from Neb employees related to this partner. Very convenient: if necessary, all correspondence on the project is at hand in a couple of clicks.
• 3_Museum. This is where I put those letters that it would be a pity to delete, and the benefit of them is not obvious. Folders with closed projects from "2_Projects". In short, the “Museum” stores the first candidates for removal.
• 4_Documents. Here are letters from electronic samples documents that may be useful in the future for accounting, for example, reconciliation reports from clients, tickets for trips taken. The folder has many similarities with the “2_Projects” and “1_Reference” folders, only accounting information is stored in it, and management information is stored in the “2_Projects” folder. In “4_Documents” there is dead information, and in “2_Projects” there is live information.
• 5_Knowledge. Here I only put really useful newsletters that I want to return to after a while for inspiration or to find solutions.

There are other settings mail client, important for the operation of this system. First, by default in Thunderbird there is a “Mark messages as read” checkbox. I prefer to do this consciously, so down with the flag! To do this, go to the menu “Tools” → “Settings” → “Advanced” → “Reading and Display”.

Secondly, we use filters . Previously, I actively used filters that automatically forwarded letters to the appropriate folders based on the sender's address. For example, letters from a lawyer were moved to the “Lawyer” folder. I abandoned this approach for several reasons. First: letters from a lawyer in 99% of cases relate to some project or partner, which means they must be moved to the folder of this partner or project. Second: I decided to add awareness. You yourself must decide where a specific letter should be stored, and it is more convenient to look for unprocessed messages in only one place - in the inbox. Now I use filters only for distributing automatic regular letters from various systems, that is, letters that do not require me to make decisions. Filters in Mozilla Thunderbird are configured in the “Tools” → “Message Filters” menu.

So, when the right approach Email should take from 10 to 60 minutes a day, depending on the volume of correspondence.

Yes, and one more thing. Have you already turned off notifications about the arrival of new letters? ;)

Let's assume you have to deal with a legal entity registered in the Russian Federation. But you only know its name and you don’t have money to use it paid services or ordering professional competitive intelligence.

What can you find out about a company on the Internet for free, instantly and legally?

1. General information from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities

What you can find: date of creation of the company, registration address, full names of the founders and general director, to which branch of the Federal Tax Service and the Pension Fund the company is attached, types of activities, history of changes to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (changes in the charter, appointment of general directors, etc.).

You can search for companies and individual entrepreneurs both by OGRN/TIN and by name/full name. Please note that to get all the data you need to download the PDF from the link. In addition to the first paragraph of the article, be sure to apply the second.

2. Have documents to change information been submitted to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities?

What you can find: information about legal entities that are in the process of registering/making changes to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.
In short: we check whether any information from the database mentioned in paragraph `1 will change in the near future.

Usage notes: similar to the previous paragraph.

3. Is the legal address reliable?

What you can check: Is the company address used for mass registration of legal entities?

4. Court cases in which the company name is mentioned

What you can find: a sea of ​​interesting details: tax evasion, salary arrears, industrial safety violations, etc. This item is required to be completed before the interview.

Usage notes: To avoid wasting time looking through similar cases and quickly find something really interesting, go to the “categories” tab.

Analogues:

5. Debts to bailiffs

What you can find: whether the company has overdue payments to the Pension Fund, unpaid taxes or debts to employees/partners that are already being collected with the help of bailiffs.

Usage notes: for the search, it is better to use not the name, but the OGRN, which can be found in paragraph 1. It also makes sense to contact the general director regarding his debts as an individual.

6. Is the company bankrupt?

What you can find: messages about various stages bankruptcy procedures for this company (if there were any): results of meetings of creditors, results of auctions, etc.

Usage notes: To search, it is better to use the OGRN, which can be found in the first paragraph.

7. Mortgaged property of the company

What you can find: dates of birth, passport numbers, TIN, email addresses, VIN numbers of cars.

Usage notes: open notification texts using links. They are the most interesting things.

P.S. Ivan Sidorovich Sidorov apparently lives in a slightly distorted reality, where he does business with Ivan Petrovich Petrov from Romashka LLC :-)

8. Does the company participate in government procurement?

What you can find: what and in what volume the company supplied to government agencies.

9. Does the company fulfill its obligations to partners?

What you can check: has it been entered? legal entity to the register of unscrupulous suppliers.

10. Are the company’s licenses valid?

What you can check: Are the licenses listed on the company’s website valid?

Usage notes: For example, three registers are given, but there are more of them.

11. Contacts from the “yellow pages”

What you can find: website, phone number, actual address.

12. How much are the company's shares worth?

What you can find: dynamics of the company's share price in recent years.

Usage notes: dial in Google name companies + “shared price”.

13. Does the company have patents?

What you can find: information about inventions that were made or purchased by the company.

Usage notes: If patents are not in the database, this does not at all guarantee their absence.

14. Information about the company’s website

A separate topic is collecting information about company websites. Both currently existing and abandoned/deleted. My modest experience in collecting information suggests that on forgotten and hidden pages Usually the most interesting things are written. This process is described in detail in three materials.

Tamara Vorotyntseva – development director of the training company “BUSINESS PARTNER” (Moscow). Practicing business coach, author of the book “Building a Personnel Training System” and publications in business publications in Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. Creator of the online newsletter: “ E-mail correspondence in business" on the subscribe.ru server! The book is practical guide for business people conducting active correspondence with clients and partners. It presents tools that will help make electronic communication effective, optimal in time and results, and most compliant with the norms and rules accepted in the modern business community. The author gives practical advice, illustrates his observations with real-life cases, and provides reasoned conclusions. The text of the book is rich in recognizable examples of real business correspondence. The author shares his observations, techniques, and “tricks” that can significantly affect the efficiency and effectiveness of business email. If you are business man and it is important for you to write quickly, concisely, competently, in accordance with the rules of good business manners - this book will become your reliable assistant.

Book:

When working with the To, Cc, and Bcc fields, remember that this is an important part of the email that affects further actions participants in the correspondence.

“To whom” (“That”). This field contains the address of the recipient to whom the letter and the information contained in it are directly addressed. The author of the letter is waiting for a response from the main recipient. If two recipients are placed in this field, then the author of the letter is waiting for a response from each or some of them (keep this in mind if your name is on the list of recipients). At the same time (if you are the sender), keep in mind that it is not very advisable to include more than one addressee in the “To” (“To”) field. A letter sent to several recipients may not receive a single response, since each will think that the other will answer.

If the letter is addressed to you, but contains copies of other recipients, be sure to use the “Reply ALL” button when replying! This will allow you to maintain the circle of recipients that the initiator of the correspondence designated.

“Copy” (“Cs”). IN In this field, place the addresses of recipients who, in your opinion, should be aware of correspondence via this issue. These recipients receive information only “for your information.” The cc recipient usually does not have to respond to the letter, but can do so if necessary.

PLEASE NOTE. THIS IS IMPORTANT!

If your name is in the “Cc” (“CC”) field, then when entering into correspondence, remember that there are situations when it is extremely important to be polite. Use the phrases: “Let me join the discussion,” or “Let me join your dialogue,” or “Let me express my opinion.”

"Blind carbon copy" ("Bcc"). This field is prohibited for use in some companies, as it is a tool that contradicts ethical standards of communication. The purpose of this field is to invite the recipient to become a “secret witness.”

If your business practice is to use this field in your work, consider the following. The recipient located in " bcc", remains invisible to the primary recipient and to the recipients in the copy. Sometimes it is useful for the sender and the “secret recipient” to have a preliminary agreement (or subsequent awareness) about the reason and purpose of this method of information.

PLEASE NOTE. THIS IS IMPORTANT!

The “hidden” recipient should absolutely not enter into correspondence from this field.