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...extension, reached into the enterprise and become for many the communication method choice. The Yankee Group estimates in a February 2003 report ("Vendors Race to Get a Piece of the Enterprise LM Market" by Paul Ritter) that there are more than 25 million business IM users in the United States, the majority of which have been using consumer instant message networks without IT knowledge.
This means that employees, often unbeknownst to IT departments, have been IMing away without safeguards, leaving companies vulnerable to system security breaches and legal liability. For a time, many companies were in denial about this phenomenon, but instant messaging players big and small understood what was happening and have been developing products to meet the growing needs of enterprise customers. While other technology markets may struggle or experience modest expansion, IM will not suffer the same fate. According to the February 2003 Yankee Group report, "The enterprise IM marketplace will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 150 percent for the next 3 years." With that kind of growth potential, it's easy to see why companies are lining up to get a bite of this business.
As companies adopt IM as a mainstream communications tool, however, they must build formal policies around naming conventions, security, archiving and other management issues. Beyond that, as IM matures, people are realizing that they can take advantage of IM's presence awareness--the ability to know when someone is actively online (by checking a buddy list, for example) to link to other enterprise applications such as CRM, thereby making IM more than just a communications medium, but also a productivity tool.
This article explores the growing enterprise instant messaging phenomenon, paying particular attention to the financial services industry, which was an early adopter of this technology, and where government regulations force these companies to use strong security and auditing capabilities.
INTO THE BREACH
Although many companies are warming to the idea of IM now (many at the insistence of their own employees), initially most...
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