The 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.
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