3. CAESARS stands for Communications, Administration, Execution, Storage and Retrieval System.  The title itself is instructive:
1. Communications.  CAESARS deals with both written and verbal communictions.  In order to achieve this, as well as handling written corresondence in hardcopy and digital form, it also has the capability of recording verbal communications through the use of a low-cost, PC-based telephone exchange system that offers Voice over IP to the users desktop.
2. Administration.  The term, "Administration" in the global sense relates to all actions that are necessary to control the creation, promulgation and storage of all communications.  Included in this is the scheduling of workload for staff involved in creating and responding to communications of all natures.  It also provides for the monitoring of staff productivity and staff utilisation.  This provides a useful means of informing management about matters relating to staff development and training as well manning requirements.
3. Execution.  Execution refers to the creation of written correspondence.  One of CAESARS key functions is to assist authors in the creation of documents in a format accords with the writing standards and conventions mandated by the particular organisation or company CAESARS serves.  In this manner, CAESARS provides a powerful means by which the productivity of staff can be significantly increased and accuracy of information transmission improved.
4. Storage.  Storage involves storing all communications in a manner that will later facilitate their retrieval and guard against their accidental loss.  Within the limits of the need to maintain confidentiality and/or security of certain records, CAESARS typically will achieve this through the use of backups and archives, in some instances, in separate physical locations.
5. Retrieval.  The ease with which documents can be retrieved is dependent to a large extent on the standards used to store the documents in the first instance.

The Role of Email

4. Email has evolved over the years from being a crude means of plain text messaging to a highly sophisticated system for communication.  Designed primarily to satisfy the needs of private individuals communicating on a personal level, email has found its way into business to the point where it is the chief means of written communications within most modern companies.  Being so and if it were properly administered, email would provide an effective record of how decisions were arrived at and "who directed whom to do what".  Unfortunately, email has never properly evolved to suit the more formal needs of business.  For the purposes of formal communication, it is usual practice in most businesses to write a document using a word processor such as Microsoft Word.  Print the document.  Have it signed by an authorised person.  Scan the signed document and then attach the scanned document in Portable Document Format (PDF), or any number of graphics formats, to an email for transmission purposes with the email acting as a covering note.
5. CAESARS takes the next logical step, in that:
1. Instead of writing the document in a separate word processor, the email application has a comprehensive text editor built into it and the document is created in an eXtended Hyper-Text Markup Language (XHTML) such that, when opened by the recipient, the email has a highly polished appearance; exactly the same as if it had been produced in a work processor.
2. The document is formatted according to the writing conventions of the company; these writing conventions (called styles in “publisher-speak”) being defined in a separate file that every email application possesses or has access to.  Using this technique, the transmitted document is as compact as is humanly possible because all of the formmating is done by the recipient email application utilising the style sheet file it already holds.  This means that the CAESARS email system requires minimal bandwidth in order to operate.  By way of example, the styles file could cover document formats for:
• memoranda,
• minutes,
• demi-official letters,
• official letters,
• technical and non-technical research and discussion papers, and
• all other specific-to-purpose correspondence formats for that organisation or company.
6. The email application provides a "wizard" that helps the author create the document through asking a series of questions and providing the author a number of options to choose from.  In this manner, authors require minimal training in that organisation's or company's writing conventions.  By relieving authors of this burden, they may concentrate more on the content of the document rather than being overly concerned with its presentation.  This has the potential to greatly improved the quality and consistency of written communications.
7. When the email arrives at the recipient's location, the recipient clicks on the document listing as per a normal email client.  The difference is that when the email opens, the recipient is presented with a draft or finished document, depending on the circumstances, not, as is presently the case, an email with an attachment that has to be opened using another application.  If the document is a draft, it may be altered.  A CAESARS module provides the means by which the document can be worked on by numerous persons at the same time, each person working at some remote location.  The means of doing this is similar to Google's “Etherpad” application.  If it is a published document, it is locked and is read-only.
8. Because of the standards inherent in email communication (defined by Internet RFCs) a CAESARS email can be so constructed so that, when necessary, they can be read by conventional email clients.  Conversely, it is possible also to encrypt emails and to utilise authentication techniques, well proven through everyday use on the Internet, to ensure very high levels of security with email if desired.
9. Properly developed, email sits at the hub of CAESARS.  It is the main means of formal written communication for the future.

Building an Email Application to suit Business Needs

10. Conventional Document Management Systems consist of a collection of various applications, not presenting to a user as one coherent application.  For example, users have to deal with:
    • a Word Processor, the purpose of which is to be as generic as possible, that is, to satisfy the broadest range of users;
    • an Email Application, such as Microsoft Outlook, or Thunderbird or Evolution; and
    • a Document Management and Retrieval System that is nothing more than a glorified "File Explorer" with (usually) a very poor capability of searching its database to find a particular document for the poor user.
    
    
11. CAESARS combines this into one coherent application and then adds to it the ability to treat documents as if they were tasks in a workshop job.  This is not an unreasonable thing to do.  After all, to read a document takes time and in taking time, it consumes labour.  Likewise creating a document, storing it and retrieving, answering it if you are the recipient, etc.  Why shouldn't these actions be timed, charged against an particular project or duty statement item and accounted for.  Once that is in place it is possible to determine the average time that should be taken to perform routine tasks and that then allows the scheduling of tasks, knowing how much staff are already loaded and the time that should be consumed with the new job or task.  All of this can be accommodated in whulat would appear to a user to be an email client.


12. At first glance, it might seem like a significant undertaking to build a email application.  This is not the case because most of the work has already been done by others working within the Open Source community and this work is freely available.  Within the standards that exist on the Internet, it would be possible to build a software application specifically for business email (described in "computerise" as an "email client") as well as a messaging system and server system utilising, to a large degree, Open Source applications that already exist.


13. By way of example, if you click here, you will see a graphic that describes a system I conceived and created and installed with the help of my team; consisting of Matthew Fisher, Michael van der Kolff and Wesley Young.  In Step 1, a team leader fills out a form presented, in this case, by Microsoft Outlook but it could done using Thunderbird or Evolution as the email client.  The form is constructed according to the CAFÉ standard so that it is easy to learn and easy to input data into.  It also trys to reduce the probability of the person making an error. (To learn more about CAFÉ Click Here.)  When the person has completed the form, the click on the "Submit" button and it is dispatched by email, over the Internet, to a server.  At the server, the attached data is decrypted and placed in a database.  In Step 3, this data is presented to a Production Control Clerk in a list, just as one is presented emails in an in-box.  When the Production Control Clerk clicks on an entry, just as happens with an email, the entry opens to display a form filled with the data that was input by the person in the workplace in Step 1.  The Production Control Clerk checks the content of the form and adds to it as is necessary.  Once everything is complete, the Production Control Clerk clicks on an option to upload all complete data to a remote server for input into the remote server's database.  This is no different to a person filling out a draft Minute, sending it to their supervisor, the Supervisor correcting or adding to the Minute and when it is complete, distributing the Minute according to its Address Distribution List. present an email in an "inbox".