Enterprise IM?

Enterprise IM?

Many of today's popular IM applications support video conferencing, so not only can you speak with your coworkers and clients, but you can also see them. The benefits of video conferencing really depend on your business and the value you attach to being able to see the other people in the conference. Overall, it can bring a more personal touch to electronic communications. Figure B shows an example of a video chat using Eyeball Chat.

Figure B

However, video conferencing is one area where there remains room for improvement in IM services. Even with a broadband connection, getting smooth video and reasonably fast frame rates is difficult, particularly if you throw in other collaboration features that can also soak up available bandwidth. Nevertheless, I expect video quality on IM services to improve enough in the near future to rival dedicated video conferencing systems. Today's IM applications don't stop at text chat and audio/video conferencing. File sharing is another handy IM feature. Let's say that you need to quickly share a document with a coworker in another location. You could send the document by e-mail, but the message is subject to delivery lag time and workload of the e-mail servers involved. Although messages generally get routed fairly quickly, a heavily loaded server or failure can slow down e-mail for hours or longer. With IM, you can transfer the file right away and not worry about lag time. Figure C shows a file transfer window in MSN Messenger.

Figure C

IM also offers application sharing, which can be valuable during conferencing and can be a great feature for providing technical assistance. Application sharing can even go one step further and offer remote control features that allow you to access an application on a remote user's desktop to share information, fine-tune a document or presentation, or help resolve a technical question. Figure D provides a look at the MSN Messenger options for application sharing.

Figure D

Although you can get remote control features with Windows XP's Remote Assistance or third-party applications such as pcAnywhere or VNC, the IM solution is more attractive for most users because the applications are free and generally easier to set up and use. In addition, all your other collaboration features are built in and available in a single application. That means you can easily have a chat while you share an application or document. Even the text-only component of IM has uses in the business world. Let's say you're negotiating a big sale or a new contract on a conference phone call with both a coworker in another location and an important client. You and your coworker can exchange information and strategise in real time through IM while you carry on the phone conversation. Text chat also has important uses within the organisation when you need to communicate quickly with coworkers. For example, you might be in a meeting or presentation but someone on your staff needs you to act on an issue right away. You can communicate through IM without disrupting the meeting, something that probably wouldn't be feasible with video or audio chat. Final word
Don't forget to factor security into the picture when you're looking for an IM solution. By their nature, public IM services are not terribly secure. If you're going to be chatting about sensitive information or passing around proprietary secrets, public IM might not be the best choice. You can instead choose an in-house solution that enables you to lock down access and use technologies such as VPNs and/or IPSec to secure your IM traffic. In my next article, I will look at how you can select that best IM solution for your organisation.

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