Over the last few weeks, Microsoft, AOL, and Yahoo announced new offerings addressing the out-of-control market of instant messaging. With all of this hype around “enterprise” instant messaging, when does it really make sense to lay down your dollars and embrace one of these offerings?
Probably never, here’s why.
What was once the realm of teenage girls chatting with each other, instant messaging has taken over the corporate network like a wildfire, introduced not by the IT manager, but by the employees themselves, to keep in touch with their kids, friends, and close business contacts (usually in that order). Because there is no interoperability in sight for AOL, MSN, and Yahoo, employees typically run all three clients to be able to communicate with contacts that are spread out across these networks.
|