Consistency of Email Delivery Times

Abstract

Reliable email delivery is an important aspect of effective workplace communication. This study analysed the consistency of email delivery time, by measuring the time taken for an email to arrive in the receiver’s inbox. The results showed that within a particular workplace, email delivery time is unlikely to differ significantly. Further studies are needed to determine whether the time of day or the location of the receiver’s computer plays a role in email delivery times. However, these results have provided support for the efficiency of email as a communication medium.

Introduction

Our society is increasingly reliant on electronic technologies for communication purposes. Most businesses use email as their primary form of communication, due to its convenience; the non-verbal format of email means that sender and receiver do not need to co-ordinate their availability in order to communicate. Furthermore, email communication is far quicker than other forms of non-verbal communication, such as fax or letters.

The reliability of email as a communication method has never been objectively analysed. The aim of this experiment was to conduct a preliminary study to determine if email delivery time—that is, the time taken for an email to reach the receiver’s inbox—is consistent. Employee productivity within any communications company is largely dependant on reliable email delivery and response; large variability in email delivery time would question the efficiency of email as a communication method. It was hypothesised that variability would exist in email delivery speeds sent at roughly the same time of day.

Methods

Emails were sent autonomously from the author’s staff email account to herself, and contained no ‘subject’ or ‘content’ material. Email delivery speed was measured using a timer (Invitrogen free sample) and was determined as the time between the ‘send’ button being pressed and the little yellow envelope appearing on the screen. A total of 6 replicates were performed between10:35and10:40amon a normal work-day.

Results

All six emails were delivered in exactly 18 whole seconds. Millisecond differences between replicates were ignored because it was impossible to distinguish scientific variability from human error.

Discussion

This preliminary data does not support the hypothesis that there is variability in email delivery speeds sent at roughly the same time of day. Rather, this data suggests that email delivery speed is probably fairly consistent, providing support for email as an efficient communication medium. However, this is a preliminary study and further experiments need to be conducted to validate these results.

Despite a lack of physics or technological communications knowledge, the author assumes that the email delivery process involves transit of the email through various ‘cyber-gateways’—virtual locations that connect different computer networks. Email transmission between these gateways is presumably almost instantaneous.  Therefore, the 18-second latency in email delivery time is most likely the result of a hold-up in email transmission through these gateways.

The results of this experiment cannot be considered definitive due to the small sample size. However, the lack of any statistical variation in the results seems to suggest that this particular technological phenomenon may not present the variability often seen in the biological sciences; therefore the results presented here may correctly represent the email delivery speed of a larger sample size.

The lack of variability in email delivery time observed in this study may be due to the low sensitivity of the measuring device. A hand-held timer is sufficient to capture large differences in email delivery time; however millisecond differences would go unnoticed when such a crude measure of email delivery time is used. Therefore, the low sensitivity of the measuring device used in this study precludes any analysis of millisecond variability in email delivery time. However, such minute differences in email delivery time would not significantly affect email reliability, and is of interest sake only.

Email delivery times were measured autonomously within a single user’s account. As such, the results of this study do not indicate whether email delivery times differ when sent from one user’s account to another. However, by logical reasoning, the physical location of the receiver’s computer in relation to the sender’s may have an impact. For example, an email sent to a person in another company may need to pass through multiple cyber-gateways. A delay at each gateway would accumulate and notably slow the email delivery time.  By the same reasoning, email delivery times may differ according to the time of day; for example, the email delivery process may be slowed during peak email usage times due to a hold-up at key cyber-gateways. Therefore, email delivery times may differ when sent from one user’s account to another or at different times of day, however definitive evidence of this phenomenon cannot be provided from this preliminary study.

Conclusion

A speedy and reliable email response time is essential in a busy work environment. This preliminary study has demonstrated that email delivery speeds are unlikely to differ significantly when sent within at a particular time of day and within a single network location. Therefore, within a single work environment, a slow email reply probably cannot be attributed to a slow transit of the ‘sent’ or ‘reply’ email through cyberspace. Further experimentation is required to determine whether the time of day or the receiver’s location effects the email delivery time. However, this preliminary study has provided important data that supports the reliability of email as a communication medium.

List of References

Microsoft Outlook 2010