Instant Messaging Tough Enough for Business: No Server Required

Instant Messaging Tough Eno ugh for Business: No Server Requ ired

An Osterman Research White Paper
Prepared for W ebEx Septemb er 2006

Osterman Research, Inc. . P.O. Box 1058 . Black Diamond, Washington 98010-1058 Phone: +1 253 630 5839 . Fax: +1 866 842 3274 . info@ostermanresearch.com . www.ostermanresearch.com Instant Messaging Tough Enough for Business: No Server Required
Why You Should Read This White Paper Instant messaging (IM) is widely used in North American workplaces today and is becoming increasingly popular. The technology provides a number of important benefits, including the ability to communicate with others in real time, the ability to know someone's presence status and the abilty to improve organizational decision-making and information flow. Unfortunately, most use of IM in the workplace consists of consumer-grade IM clients that do not provide the level of security organizations require in order to adequetely protect their networks. As a result, it is extremely important that IT managers implement a plan to deploy an enterprise-grade IM solution while at the same time minimizing the impact of this change on end users and on their IT staff. Osterman Research's semi- This white paper discusses the important benefits that annual tracking business IM can provide to any sized organization, the risks survey of IM use in the workplace that organizations face from unmanaged use of IM, and the reveals that the factors that must be addressed as organizations plan their use of IM has upgrade to an enterprise-grade IM capability. This white been increasing paper also discusses the solution offered by WebEx and the steadily over the advantages that their capabilities can provide to any past several organization. years. As of mid- 2006, IM can be found in 93% of North American IM Can Make Organizations More Efficient organizations and is in use by IM Use is Steadily Increasing 34% of individuals IM is one of the most useful technologies available to who use email. information workers today because it provides information on a contact's availability and the tools to communicate with that contact in real time. Osterman Research's semi-annual tracking survey of IM use in the workplace reveals that the use of IM has been increasing steadily over the past several years. As of mid-2006, IM can be found in 93% of North American organizations and is in use by 34% of individuals who use email. Osterman Research anticipates steady growth in the use of IM for the next several years, resulting in almost complete penetration of IM into the email user base by 2009, as shown in the following figure.
© 2006 Osterman Research, Inc. Page 1 Instant Messaging Tough Enough for Business: No Server Required
Historical and Forecasted Penetration of IM in the Workplace 100% 98% 99%94% 96%90% 91% 91% 93%87%84%80% % of Organizations in Which IM is Used 72%63%60%
44%40% % of Email Users Who Use IM28%23% 25%20% 19%8%0%2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009(All data is for year-end) Unlike email or The Business Benefits of IM the telephone, There are a variety of benefits associated with the use of IM, IM provides users not least of which is the ability to communicate more with the significant efficiently. Unlike email or the telephone, IM provides users advantage of with the significant advantage of knowing who is available knowing who is for a conversation and providing the tools to conduct that available for a conversation. The result is the ability to make faster conversation decisions, respond to customer inquiries more quickly and and providing efficiently, and an acceleration of the overall information the tools to flow within an organization. conduct that conversation. Perhaps more important than IM itself, however, is the underlying technology that enables IM - presence. While IM is the most widely used application of presence, there are a number of potential applications that can make use of presence information. Integrating presence with online collaboration capabilities, for example, can permit employees to conduct ad hoc meetings more efficiently, allowing them to resolve issues and make decisions more quickly by using a rich set of online meeting tools. The advantages of IM are particu... [download for more]