Email has become a fundamental part of some key business processes Most of us probably knew this already in an abstract sense, but the importance of email to key business processes was brought into sharp focus by 1,826 readers of The Register in our latest Reader Study. Two thirds of respondents, including 1,102 SMBs, told us that email was critical to the sales process, with a further quarter saying it was important. The picture is similar for the customer service process where over 90% rated email as critical or important.