The increasing use of IM in the office

According to the latest industry report from Gartner, 95% of all corporate employees will be using instant messaging (IM) as a primary form of communication by the year 2013.

Sales of enterprise-class IM systems, on the other hand, will surge from the current $267 million in 2005 to more than $688 million in 2010.

Says David Mario Smith, an analyst at Gartner:

We saw IM start as a social phenomenon. Now it’s crept into the enterprise.

Understandably, the rise of the IM in the office is a development that has both CIOs and IT managers paying some serious attention to. Chief among the concerns, obviously, is the increased potential of viruses and malware infestations, as well as risk of serious security breaches.

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