Email Lists Promote British Culture

L-Soft celebrates 10th anniversary with continued customer success



London, September 28, 2004 – L-Soft, the premier email software vendor, today announced that British Council, the United Kingdom's international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations, is using L-Soft's LISTSERV email list software to manage the organisation's global network of email discussion lists and newsletters.

The British Council, which operates in 220 cities across 110 countries worldwide, uses the email lists to promote learning and a positive image of British culture among people, communities and nations. "For an organisation as geographically spread as the British Council and that has opening up communication between communities at its heart, email lists provide an invaluable way of quickly and cost-effectively disseminating information and sharing experiences," said David Mason, Manager, Education Market Information, British Council.

One of the most active users of LISTSERV lists are the members of the English Language Teaching Contact Scheme (ELTeCS), a global network of over 10,000 English Language teaching professionals supported by the British Council. The English teachers are linked together through regional email lists to share ideas, best practices and courses. The largest ELTeCS list has more than 4,000 subscribers.

While some of the ELTeCS subscribers are in countries where broadband Internet is the norm, many are still using dial-up connections or Internet cafes to provide the link with their colleagues and peers overseas. Coupled with varying levels of technical sophistication among users, solutions such as online forums requiring password management are not only too complex but also require regular Internet access. In contrast, every user can open an email message. Even if they only get online once a month, the subscribers will find all the information and discussion threads in their inbox or in online LISTSERV archives. "Email lists simply continue to be the most effective way of keeping our global communities up-to-date, and we're delighted with the support L-Soft provides," Mr. Mason said.

L-Soft's work with the British Council in many respects represents a return to its roots for the company whose flagship product, LISTSERV, is the first and one of the most established programs for email list management on the market. "Over the last ten years of L-Soft, we've seen email lists grow from first being a privilege of the academia to a key communication tool in any organisation," said Eric Thomas, founder and CEO of L-Soft.

With increasing privacy and data protection legislation, email list management is a serious business which must be done properly. "There are two key questions you have to ask yourself when setting up an email list: Firstly, is there a clear rationale behind the decision and, secondly, is it strategic enough that you want to pay for a proven and supported solution," said Rachel Kittridge, UK director of L-Soft. "As we look towards the next ten years with products such as LISTSERV Maestro, it is important to combine effective list management with new functions such as tracking and reporting how users interact with the email itself. It's this constant reinvigoration of email as a communications and sophisticated marketing tool that keeps L-Soft focused and customers such as the British Council excited about the opportunities ahead," added Mrs. Kittridge.

About L-Soft

L-Soft specialises in the development of products and services for professional email communication management. Since 1994, L-Soft has pioneered the email communication industry with LISTSERV, the premier software for email list management. L-Soft's technology is tailored for commercial usage, offering outstanding performance, reliability and scalability. With offices in the UK, US, Germany and Sweden, the company serves over 3,500 customers across the globe, including AOL-Time Warner/CNN, British Council, Centaur Communications, IBM, Microsoft, The New York Times and The United Nations.

L-Soft UK Press Contact

Outi Tuomaala
+44 (0)203-7555117 or +46-8-50709911
https://www.lsoft.com/contact/econtact.asp?id=pressinfo






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