Should Your Business Use Instant Messaging?

Posted on December 11, 2005
Filed Under Computing |

TheStreet.com | Should Your Business Use Instant Messaging?

Hope some suits read this article and get a clue about something I’ve been talking about for years - phone messages are so 80s, email is so 90s - IM is the way to go for quick, instant, and brief business communication.

Nice to see Jabber was listed first on the list of options. Too bad the “open standard” that Google Talk is based on was not mentioned to be Jabber’s protocol.

The Downsides listed are misleading, since they do not affect all IM systems (mainly MSN and AOL). Phishing scams (a universal problem) should be well explained to employees using IM (and email). Phishing scams hinge on the fact that the recipient does not take proper steps to verify who/how the information is sent.

Comments

2 Responses to “Should Your Business Use Instant Messaging?”

  1. Christian Spatzierer on December 11th, 2005 17:54

    Your words on IMing are right on time! We too think it’s the new, and future way to go. Quick, clean, and effecient. And for us it is now time to step out of the shadows and reveal ourselves - literally.

    18 months ago we created StaffOnline. The only real time, live, audio, video and chat application. We’ve quietly been showing our product, gathering clients over the past months, and are now ready to take it to the next level.

    No frills, no smileys, no phone numbers, no VoIP, and best of all NOTHING TO DOWNLOAD to use it. Our goal is to humanise web sites. StaffOnline bridges the gap between having a customer come to a business in person or talking to them on the phone. It pretty much clears all the downsides mentioned in the article too.

    It is really much more of a “soft video phone” type product but I feel the masses aren’t quite ready yet for this type of wording. So for now we mingle with the chat applications out there; until the time is right.

    Drop by our site Marc, and try a demo. I’d love to hear, and read, your feedback.

    Cheers!
    Christian Spatzierer
    Business Development
    PLMEDIA Inc.

  2. mhp on December 14th, 2005 15:07

    I was hesitent when moderating this comment because it was gratuitous advertising, but when I looked at the company and the product my decision was clear.

    I like what your company is doing with the concept of IM, and moving away from the old-school methods of slow (and time consuming) communication. Your product does a great job of abstracting away the technological details and leaves the focus on instant communication, be it text, audio, or video. It is great to see a small Canadian company innovate in this domain.

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