Free IM Is Hard To Beat In The Enterprise

IM use is growing steadily among corporate workers who use free services from companies like America Online, Microsoft, and Yahoo to send quick text messages to coworkers, family, and friends.

A recent study by The Radicati Group found that 20 percent of enterprises worldwide use IM today for personal or company communications, compared with 85 percent in the U.S. and Canada, where there are far more computer users than in other regions.

By 2008, however, the rest of the world will catch up, with the global percentage expected to reach 80 percent, Radicati said. Worldwide revenue from enterprise IM, IM management, wireless IM, and public IM networks is expected to reach $413 million by 2008.

The number of IM users worldwide is expected to reach 670 million in 2008, from 362 million today. However, the percentage of people using public networks and private networks is expected to remain the same, at 88 percent and 12 percent, respectively.

The availability of free services is expected to make it difficult for vendors selling proprietary IM software to gain much traction within corporations.

"No one wants to pay for something that they are already using for free," Radicati analyst Genelle Hung said.

Today, more enterprises address concerns over liability from IM use at work through the use of proprietary networks, rather than managing the use of public IM services at the corporate Internet gateway, Hung said. That, however, is expected to reverse over the next several years, because managing at the gateway is less expensive than are proprietary IM networks.

Management software enables companies to use filters to detect messages that may contain profanity or slanderous language, and to enforce corporate rules on IM use. The products also can log IM traffic for evidence in lawsuits or criminal cases.

The Radicati study also found that 44 percent of companies today deployed instant messaging to increase intra-office communications, 33 percent to reduce long-distance phone charges, 11 percent to increase productivity, and 11 percent to complement existing e-mail and phone systems.

This story courtesy of TechWeb.