Instant Messaging: Catching on Fast

Businesses trying to cut through the e-mail clutter are increasingly using instant messaging for real-time communications.

By Matthew J. Turosz

March 13, 2002

Nearly three-quarters of America's large companies will use fast-growing instant messaging (IM) technology by the end of 2003, convening virtual meetings among project team members, keeping stockbrokers a step ahead of the competition and improving e-tailers' sales by passing on instant help and feedback to online customers.

Developed originally as an online consumer offering by America Online (AOL), Microsoft and Yahoo!, instant messaging is catching on with office workers, who use it to cut through the e-mail cluttering their PC desktops for real-time communications with colleagues. And with an Internet-enabled private network connection, a company can quickly set up a virtual meeting between marketing executives at a central office in Chicago, for instance, and members of a design team in India.

IBM's Lotus Sametime IM software, for example, provides the benefits of instant messaging over the Internet, plus the control and security features required by businesses. Run on a separate server, Lotus Sametime allows companies to host e-meetings with distant workers, suppliers or major clients, using "virtual white board" screen-sharing features that let all participants see and mark the same document. An advertiser can easily show a PowerPoint presentation to pitch a new marketing campaign to a client, while both remain in their offices. The U.S. Navy is using Lotus Sametime for real-time links between fleets and bases.

On the horizon, instant messaging will use wireless communications links to reach workers wherever they are. By 2003, so-called presence technology will allow managers to see whether employees out of the office are available—by cell phone, laptop or personal digital assistant. If so, it will take only a simple browser click to establish an IM connection. Leading cell phone makers Ericsson, Nokia and Motorola, acting through a consortium called Wireless Village, released specifications in February for a standard to link wireless and corporate networks for instant messaging.

Before instant messaging can become as ubiquitous as office e-mail, however, the leading consumer IM software vendors must address interoperability problems and plug security holes. Right now, users of AOL's two services—Instant Messenger and ICQ messaging service—Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger can communicate only with IM "buddies" who use the same software. To win Federal Communications Commission approval of its merger with Time Warner, AOL, the market leader with more than 42 million users, was ordered to open up its system to others but has been dragging its feet.

Meanwhile, businesses that want to establish IM links to communicate with online customers are working around the problem by using products developed by other software providers such as FaceTime Communications, Jabber, Trillian and PalTalk. These software applications provide de facto interoperability, allowing companies to communicate over the different consumer IM systems. But some of the suppliers of interoperability solutions have run into trouble—AOL, for instance, has taken steps to block access to its network by PalTalk and Trillian.

Under an agreement it signed with AOL in January, FaceTime is providing its software to insurance and financial service companies, which use it primarily in call centers for communications with the firms' clients and customers. In exchange for granting such access, AOL receives a percentage of FaceTime's royalties. Although they haven't signed similar agreements with FaceTime, Yahoo! and Microsoft aren't protesting the interoperating that's occurring so far. Amica Insurance uses the FaceTime software to speed up claims processing and answer policyholders' questions, whether they use AOL, Yahoo! or MSN IM services. Other FaceTime IM interoperability clients include BankOne, Western Union, Compaq, Dell and Alaska Airlines.

Another key concern among business users of IM services is warding off hacker attacks and viruses. Since the beginning of the year, MSN Messenger and AOL's Instant Messenger and ICQ messaging service have been the target of viruses that exploit vulnerabilities in their services. While vendors quickly released software patches to fix problems and security software is under development, such vulnerabilities—as with e-mail—are likely never to disappear altogether.