Feature Requests:
POP3 Polling and/or Email Integration

1. •  
     CommentAuthorMichael
   • CommentTimeSep 18th 2007

    
   We recently received the following feature request:
   
   

   It would be great if Intervals had a POP3 polling feature for Work Requests (and possibly other functions). So a client could e-mail a specific address (requests@domain.com) and Intervals would poll that mail account every 5-10 minutes for new messages. If there’s one that matches certain criteria (or all for that matter), a new work request would be generated. Intervals would look up the user by their e-mail address. Then all I’d have to do is assign it to a project.

   
   
   On our long range development plan we have plans to do email integration to handle this exact scenario. When you create your Intervals URL we are planning on associating a work request email with it. For example, requests@intervals.projectaccount.com. Then, if that address gets an email it would automatically pull it into the Work Request Queue...including attachments.
   
   We currently have our Clients either:
   a. log into Intervals as executive users to submit work requests
   or
   b. have them send an email to a generic email account that we check periodically throughout the day and then copy and paste the email as a task.
   
   It would be great to get others thoughts on email integration in general, automating work requests, and ways to use email to streamline work flow.
   
   We have wrestled with this issue over the years because we feel like email is a terrible productivity tool. That is why we try to get all of our work done inside of Intervals and a lot of the emails push you back into Intervals. If you track time, this is essential. However, we are not naive enough to try and shut out email altogether, but we are wrestling with the best integration that is easy to use, makes sense, and enhances work flows.
   
   If you have any thoughts, please feel free to sound off...
2. • CommentAuthorwlevins
   • CommentTimeOct 30th 2007

    
   I would love this....and might expand upon it further. Can the polling pickup a "project id" in the subject line and add the item to a project?
3. • CommentAuthordebronkart
   • CommentTimeApr 1st 2008

    
   Email may be a terrible productivity tool but it has a couple of serious advantages.
   
   For one thing, I can use it (see the mobile thread) when I'm off the 'net, e.g. texting. This would let Intervals answer my "who knows where the time goes" even when I'm not at my desk, which is where its real-time usefulness currently stops.
   
   For another, even when I'm at my desk, I spend 1000% of my time in email, and organize large amounts of my life in email (which is one reason, btw, that your *outbound* emails are so useful). It's frankly a lot easier to do Ctrl+N and whip out a quick email to get a task captured into Intervals than to Alt-tab over, click the right window, find Create New Task, and fill in the required fields.
   
   A key reality: likelihood of a tool being used at every opportunity is inversely proportional to the SQUARE of how long it takes. (Something I can do in 10 seconds, without leaving my current tool, is dozens of times more likely to happen than something that "only" requires going to my browser and filling out a form.)
   
   p.s. I just started using Intervals yesterday and I'm going nuts with it - already planning world domination (in-house), and I'll probably upgrade shortly. Can't believe I never heard of this thing.
4. •  
     CommentAuthorjreeve
   • CommentTimeMay 23rd 2008

    
   We've started developing email integration into Intervals and have a few updates to share. Here are a few highlights from our whiteboard sessions:
   

   
   
   • Each Intervals account will be given its own unique email domain (i.e. request@email.pelago.projectaccount.com)
   
   
   • Send requests into the work queue: request@email.pelago.projectaccount.com
   
   
   • Send comments to tasks: task#@email.pelago.projectaccount.com
   
   
5. • CommentAuthordeeha
   • CommentTimeAug 14th 2008

    
   I will love this feature,I hope it can support some "group" features, like groupmail, for group using, good luck.
6. •  
     CommentAuthorjreeve
   • CommentTimeSep 3rd 2008

    
   Email integration is almost complete and will go live soon. It will be implemented differently than described above. The initial release will allow Intervals to automatically poll a POP3 email box and pull the emails into the request queue.
7. • CommentAuthormediacontour
   • CommentTimeOct 13th 2008

    
   This would be a dream come true!
   
   It's a pain to move tasks from email to Intervals and then get them into certain fields.
   If I could provide my clients with an email outline that corresponds to all of the fields in Intervals so that it auto populates that would be stellar.
   
   Currently we have emails coming in to 3 different project managers that they have to disseminate not only between the 3 of them but then assign them to someone on their team. Then someone has to put it into Intervals.
   
   Regardless -- my team loves Intervals. No more Basecamp!