Instant messaging is a slippery fish for some firms

Excuse me while I ‘pop out’ from this blog posting and message one of my mates: “Is an eel a fish or not?” Be warned – using instant messaging (IM) technology for such crucial business questions is likely to become increasingly prevalent.

For a start, researcher IDC says IM is set to overtake email as the preferred form of business communication by the second half of 2010. If that sounds fanciful, then the research, sponsored by Nortel, also shows European firms are already heavily reliant on IM. More than 50 percent of respondents – twice the number of North American executives – use instant and text messaging for business.

But with regards to non-believing businesses, there is at least one significant barrier to overcome: security concerns. Research from ProcessOne suggests the majority of UK businesses miss out on instant messaging benefits because they fear workers will leak confidential information. As much as 74 per cent of firms say IM could provide collaboration benefits, but 72 per cent ban the technology because of security concerns.

[The Knowledge]