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It began as a low-tech way to make use of always-on PC Internet connections, then showed its communication convenience on mobile devices. Now corporate houses are finding it a potent tool to reinforce sales force automation and customer service applications. By K. Jayadev E-mail is passé. The popularity of instant messaging (IM) is growing exponentially all over the world. Corporate users and service providers are clearly being compelled by its touted convenience. IM on mobile phones or PDAs has also entered the Indian market with the recent announcement by Orange Cellular in Mumbai tying up with Yahoo! to provide its customers Yahoo Messenger services over their mobile phones. In Delhi, IM's other form-short messaging service (SMS)-has become popular as a value-added service from Airtel and Essar Cellphone.
"The corporate world was late to realise the full potential of IM; though it has now. Else IM would have just become another tool for teens to chat with their friends and would not have hit the mainstream," says Ramesh Chandran, a Chennai-based entrepreneur who has asked his employees to use IM as the communication medium of choice.
Popularity soars IM became popular on AOL because of its instant nature, bypassing the annoying time lag inherent in sending and receiving e-mails. Crude forms of real-time messaging had been around for years, though today's versions include file-attachment and picture icons along with "buddy lists" of friends online. More than 60 million people worldwide are regular IM users, and that figure is projected to explode with corporate use. According to market research firm IDC, users on an average sent about 900 million instant messages a day last year and will send about 7 billion a day by 2004. And according to a research by the Gartner Group, 12 billion SMS messages are sent over airwaves each month worldwide (with paging services adding another 3 million messages). NetValue, a global Internet research company, says the number of users of instant messaging in Asia grew from 4.9 million in January to 7.7 million in June this year. Hong Kong has the highest proportion of IM users in the continent, with 65 per cent of Net surfers using IM to communicate. Singapore has the second highest proportion, at almost 50 per cent. Usage of IM is lower, but still significant, in South Korea and Taiwan. IM for business houses Started as an alternative to existing e-mail services, IM was initially based on "presence management". A problem with e-mail is that a sender is never sure if the addressee will access it. Hence the appeal of IM, which alerts you if your correspondent is also online. The popularity of IM picked up with AOL, then MSN, Yahoo! and our own Rediff Bol launched their services. Research firm IDC believes this quality will make IM a useful application in an enterprise, mainly because time-sensitive information can reach a large number of users at one time. IDC feels wide area IM, which is billed, will be complemented by wireless LAN messaging, which will essentially be free within the premises. Both technologies would eventually be integrated with the Internet, analysts point out. At present IM can take many forms: Two-way SMS over mobile devices, packet data, two-way paging, messaging deposition notification (MDN) and SMS with two-way Internet. A recent Gartner Group report on IM usage by business houses says, "About half of USA's major companies use IM, which lets people converse, virtually in real time, by sending quick missives over the Net." The number has doubled in the past year. Corporates prefer to use IM not just because of its immediacy. It is also cost-effective; SMS costs are lower than those for voice calls-and even e-mail, since it reaches faster. "For organisations speed means money. I am sure IM will become more respectable with corporate usage gaining momentum in the next couple of months," says Arjun Mukerjee of Silverline Technologies. IM can quickly establish itself in a company, but IT involvement is required for its take-off. Using a private IM product requires setting up your own IM server and linking it to your corporate directory. This is easier than setting up most e-mail servers. The cost may range from Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 per desktop. You can also opt for free IM applications from IM services on the Internet, like Yahoo Messenger. "The biggest challenge is setting up a single directory for your enterprise. If a company does not have a directory then connecting any IM solution with the existing directory services might turn out to be a major exercise," comments S.M. Reddy, CEO of AbacusWeb, a subsidiary of YRD Inc., which has developed an interoperable IM platform.
Security concerns IM has a major drawback: There is no audit trail, a copy of the talk or a message exchanged between two parties. For record purposes you will need to print out a copy of each session. That leads us to the question of security, which is an important issue in a corporate set-up. "With so many messages flying around you would expect security problems to abound," points out Indresan Iyer, a Chennai-based IT entrepreneur. In an IM service, there is nothing for a user to operate or adjust unlike e-mail encryption products, which are complex and not as transparent. Another IM problem has to do with attachments. Given that a virus-infected attachment on an IM message could be quickly sent around, entire networks can be hit. IM application developers are hence adding encryption to their solutions. Experts advocate that anti-virus programs be installed on PCs. IM on mobile devices A dominant technology on PCs, IM is now moving towards widespread adoption on a variety of mobile devices. Explains Balu Doraisami, managing director of Compaq Computers India Ltd, "This was a natural progression for IM-especially with wireless picking up at an alarming rate. Around 50 million people worldwide have taken to mobile (wireless) usage in one year, while it took 38 years for radio to reach a similar figure." Sending up to 160 characters of text to another cell phone may not sound great, but the GSM Association estimates that over 10 billion SMS messages are sent worldwide each month. Other estimates are even higher. With IM, wireless devices offer contact management and the ability to configure different levels of availability. So firms are devising software for smart pagers, handheld computers and cell phones that could chart the course of the converging mobile market. Adding IM to the new crop of smart pagers and wireless handhelds will only blur the already hazy line between the two. Although their form and origins-two-way communication versus information management-differ, both include Web access, e-mail services, address books and calendars. Opening the loop A problem that major mobile phone handset makers are looking to circumvent is the closed nature of current Web-based IM networks. For instance, a Yahoo! IM client is unable to contact an ICQ user. To this end, Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia announced a pact that will ensure universal IM specifications for wireless IM. The project, entitled the 'Wireless Village', aims to publish a framework of specifications by the year-end. With the limited success of WAP and the slim chance of streaming video becoming the killer application for wireless devices, industry advocates may turn to IM as the saviour of the '3G revolution'. Meanwhile, YRD Inc. of the US has gone ahead with a universal IM application called YRD. Says Reddy of YRD's Indian arm Abacus, "Though we are yet to make a formal launch of this (service), we are sure all public IM services would accept it. We are basing our product on FCC specifications and will have applications like VoIP and sale force automation running on the YRD platform." Not everyone is elated, though. Research firm Jupiter feels IM will not be a killer application on wireless devices like it is on the PC because "there's no easy way to reply to messages. Tiny keyboards, phone keypads or on-screen touch pads don't cut it". The report goes on to add, "Even if a better interface were created, many wireless services charge per packet, so the cost of staying in constant contact might be prohibitive." Today's SMS addicts, however, aren't listening. |
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Long
associated with casual, text-based conversations among teens and singles
in America Online (AOL) chat rooms, the IM technology is becoming an integral
part of an IS manager's agenda. Already instant messaging applications
from mainstream software and media companies like Yahoo!, AOL Time Warner
and Microsoft offer a long menu of communications tools that go beyond
the traditional text-based instant messages. These include audio chat
and PC-to-phone telephony, videoconferencing, file-sharing and multiplayer
games. Today, many firms in India too encourage their staff to make use
of IM for immediate communications needs.
