Instant Messaging Comes Of Age In Business

Many of these historical concerns
are being addressed. In mid-October,
Microsoft announced enhancements
to its corporate IM service that
will weave in features commonly
found in their Outlook e-mail software.
If you’re like me, IM was
something the kids did with their
friends, but that all changed several
years ago when I wanted a quick
answer to a question but the person
with the answer was on the phone.
Now, with IM enabled office wide,
I can still ‘chat’ with
my coworkers even if they’re
on the phone. That makes us both
more efficient.

I love the code-naming used by our
friends in Redmond. The new enterprise
IM client is code-named Istanbul.
Not sure where these exotic code
names come from, but Istanbul resembles
the Windows Messenger software that’s
currently found in Windows XP. The
difference is that a user’s
IM information is synchronized with
Outlook’s calendar and scheduling
information. Istanbul further connects
to common desk phones and serves
up an alert when someone calls.
People can then route the call to
their cell phone or voice mailbox.

Istanbul is a feature within Microsoft’s
Live Communications Server 2005
(LCS), software that initially launched
(Live Communications Server 2003
and then 2004) as a way for companies
to offer secure IM to their employees.

With Istanbul, Microsoft is taking
another step toward incorporating
IM ‘presence’ into its
other popular products such as Outlook
and Microsoft Office. Presence technology
is designed to let people channel
many communication types to their
phone or Internet device of choice.
It can tell other contacts where
those same people can be reached
when they’re offline or whether
they can be reached at all. Future
applications will include Internet
voice calling (VoIP) and the ability
to set up live meetings with other
contacts using LCS. And, LCS 2005
will interoperate with AOL and Yahoo!

The new features found in Istanbul
can be used only if companies install
LCS 2005, currently in release to
manufacturing status, and Exchange
server software. LCS 2005 is expected
to launch by the end of the year.

And what about search darling Google?
Although few people seem to realize
it, Google already owns an IM client
called Hello that it picked up this
summer with its acquisition of photo-sharing
service Picasa.

I can hear you now: This doesn’t
apply to accounting firms. But you
might be interested to learn that
your fellow accountants considered
this important enough to include
as one of the ‘Top 10 Technologies’
for 2005 (see page 4). It came in
at number six, up from number 10
in 2004. Here’s what Anne
Stanton, president of the Norwich
Group, had to say about IM:

‘Instant Messaging and Secure
Instant Messaging usage continues
to proliferate at businesses in
2004. IM is an interruption and
a software package that can instantly
indicate if someone is online. There
are times when an interruption is
just what is called for, and, if
you are doing business globally
or among multiple offices, the online
indicator can truly help with efficiency
and cut down on voice mail tag.’

It just confirms that the convergence
of communications technologies is
still on the move and picking up
momentum. I suspect that in a few
years the device we’re using
will be ubiquitous, and we’ll
(most of the time) be reachable
if we want to be.

You’ll remember that what
is now LCS was included with versions
of Exchange 2000. With the release
of Exchange 2003, the IM server
application was stripped out and
is now purchased separately. Irrespective
of the motivation behind this move,
you should take a serious look at
this technology.

Mr.
Goodfellow is a partner of BKR Fordham
Goodfellow, LLP, and manages its
wholly-owned subsidiary One Tech,
LLC. He can be reached at 503-648-6651
ext. 115 or brentg@onetechllc.com.