Email processing

An email received from an email server (2) is delivered to a mail store controller (3) from which it is then stored in a mail store memory (5) with attachments in another storage location (6). The server controller (4) prepares a header for the email classifying the email having regard to what information it can immediately read. The first or initial header is sent to a router (15). The router (15) reads the header and sends it firstly to a profile controller (12) where the header is read and a profile database (13) is consulted which would have been inputted by management with various rules. Then, the header may be augmented with some instruction such as the need to copy another individual with the email and sent back to the router (15) where it is then sent to various conversion controllers (10, 12, 14) where various conversion operations take place. Each time a conversion operation takes place on an attachment, this is carried out by removing the attachment from the attachment store (6), carrying out the operation on the attachment, altering the header to record the particular operation has taken place and then sending the attachment back for storage. A similar process may take place on the other constituents of the email such as the message body or the subject. When all the necessary operations have been carried out in the email to make it understandable by the recipient, the header is delivered from the router (15) back to the server controller (4) which then retrieves the message, attachments and header and delivers to the mail store controller (3) and in turn back out to the email server (2) for subsequent delivery to the recipient.