Microsoft is close to release of a beta version of its enterprise instant messaging and presence-awareness server, called Live Communications Server 2005. The company calls it a major step in the construction of a comprehensive solution offering real-time connectivity for businesses.
Instant messaging is becoming more important to businesses that have discovered specific applications for the technology. Perhaps the biggest beneficiary so far has been the financial industry, where the telephone is too attention-intensive and e-mail is too cumbersome. Businesses started embracing IM four years ago, but it has only been in the last year or so that IM has been offered as a serious component of an enterprise software package.
|