Getting It Together: IM Goes to the WorkplaceThe integration of Instant Messaging (IM) in a device-aware network, also known as Telepresence and Online Presence Awareness, is emerging as a hot development target. IM is moving out of teenage chat rooms and into offices and boardrooms, joining email and the cellphone as a mainstream workplace tool.IM has been in active use as a consumer technology for eight or nine years. Although IM remains a preferred teenager medium, "corporate IM is on the way," conclude Robert Mahowald and Mark Levitt in an IDC report "Finding a Place: Corporate Instant Messaging Market." They note that for business applications, "online presence awareness (OPA) is regarded by most vendors as the most important and enduring technology of IM, and in the long run, many envision it extended to applications and embedded in OS." Why use IM? Workers see IM as a medium for quick, semi-permanent "flashes" that beg a near-immediate response. According to IDC surveys, employees "often feel that IM gives their workdays the kind of "flow" that they feel when sitting directly among their colleagues, being able to ask questions of them, and getting kind of quick responses that allow them to drive on to the next task." The survey showed workplaces use IM for "business day coordination that requires immediate feedback." Those seeking to exploit IM's workplace potential must, of course, integrate it across a variety of mobile device platforms. But they must surmount a psychological obstacle: changing the mindset of knowledge workers and IT managers who see IM "as a 'chat' application," according to the IDC forecast. The report forecasts a tripling of workplace IM traffic in 2 years that will surpass consumer IM usage. The survey also indicated that a majority of business, financial and consulting services plan to deploy IM to their employees by fall, 2001. Already, Integrated Collaborative Environment (ICE) vendors are offering embedded IM capabilities, including presence awareness, threaded messaging, and user availability into the fall/spring 2000/2001 product upgrades. |
