Anticlue

Yeah, may save on email server space but this would be negated by all the space needed to log the communications. My company recenlty with MSN as the official IM tool. You bet everything is logged with a monthly report going to the managers.

D

We used to heaps at my old work (TQ.com.au), and it was just a fast/easy way to communicate to one another without bugging the rest of the team.

Its amazing that it feels quicker to dbl click on the MSN icontray, click person and begin typing then it is to jump into Outlook, click name from a vast amount of people (we had over 350 in one building alone) type email and wait for a reply....latency sux.

You can even do shared screens, which was great as if i had a problem and someone was on the other side of the floor, i could give them access and show them what i mean.

Then theres solitaire showdown, bad...spent tooooo much time playing it with other team members. (We had a liberal boss).

It can bite a company on the ass, in that wasting time is easily made available but my motto is, we are all adults and if we choose to risk our jobs by stuffing around, then so be it. You get fired simple as that. Because its either IM, EMAIL or Water Cooler..either way employees will and continue to, find ways to muck around if they choose to.

The bigger concern with regular IM clients is security - your conversations are broadcast over the 'net in clear text. IM should definitely not be used for anything confidential or any personal data.

We use an internal IRC server for important IM - all conversations stay within the corporate network so it's secure. It's a group chat by default which means developers (and business folks) can collaborate more easily and information is disseminated better.

I couldn't agree more.