Email has overtaken telephony as the communication tool of choice in the workplace, new research claimed today.

A Datamonitor poll conducted for Dimension Data revealed that people would rather use email than speak to each other on the telephone.

The study found that 100 per cent of the end user respondents use email, followed by fixed-line telephony (80 per cent), mobile telephony (76 per cent) and instant messaging (66 per cent).

Rob Lopez, managing director of solutions at Dimension Data, said: "In today's corporate environment there is a myriad of communications tools available, including desktop telephony, mobile telephony and email.

"However, our research indicates that end users prefer to communicate using electronic media rather than voice services such as telephony."

Lopez added that the growing reliance on email raises questions about how effective and meaningful such communication is when discussing complex issues.

"This could have a negative impact on productivity as end users struggle to deal with growing volumes of email," he said.

The research pointed out that the three most ubiquitous technologies increase productivity the most.

Over 70 per cent of the end users surveyed said that email has a positive impact on their productivity, followed by conventional fixed-line telephony (53 per cent) and mobile telephony (52 per cent).

From a productivity point of view, the research shows that instant messaging, blogs and soft phones are considered most disruptive, and can have a negative impact on productivity if not managed properly.

The research surveyed 390 IT managers and 524 enterprise users across 13 countries in the US, Asia Pacific and EMEA.