For the benefit of those new to the work of The Open Group and the
Messaging Forum (primarily the speakers), the chair of the forum, Dean
Richardson from MessageGate, gave a brief introduction.
Christopher Saunders, the Managing Editor of InstantMessagingPlanet,com
addressed the subject of Securing
Instant Messaging in the Enterprise. This presentation confirmed
the key issues identified in July 2003 but highlighted the opportunities
that Instant Messaging affords, especially faster decision making and
the availability of presence information and finished by identifying
different approaches that are available now to deploy IM in the enterprise
in a managed and secure way.
Todd Tweedy, from the Tweedy Group, presented an analyst's view
of Instant Messaging and how to link Consumer
and Enterprise IM Networks. The presentation identified the biggest
challenges to be management of identity and interoperability and proposed
the concept of "Clearinghouse Technology" to address both
of these issues.
Art Filliland, Director of Business Development at IMLogic Inc., in
a presentation entitled Instant
Messaging, Harnessing IM Productivity, described the challenges
facing the enterprise in deploying Instant Messaging and through a
description of the product That IMLogic delivers showed one approach
to integrating a robust enterprise class solution to the multiple IM
services.
There were some common themes through all of the presentations:
- Instant Messaging in the Enterprise is real. More than 80% of Fortune
500 companies have some form of Instant Messaging.
- Instant Messaging can bring business benefits in terms of reduction
in other forms of communication, presence information and faster
decision making.
- Enterprise concerns relate to security, interoperability with multiple
public IM services, and associating anonymous screen names with corporate
identities.
- The existence of multiple IM services is not a problem in the consumer
market. The majority of IM users are signed up to more than 1 service.
- There are viable approaches to deploy IM within an enterprise available
now that address many of the concerns identified during our BOF in
July 2003.
The meeting concluded with a discussion about the future role of The
Messaging Forum with respect to Instant Messaging.
IM has been adopted .. there is a clear need for somebody to evangelize
correct usage. The Open Group should consider developing a Managers
Guide to Instant Messaging in the Enterprise addressing topics such
as
- What is Instant Messaging
- How do I know whether it is in my enterprise?
- Why is it valuable to the enterprise?
- What are the options available for management of IM in an enterprise
context
Interoperability is not yet a problem that anyone cares about enough
to do something about. Consumers don't care and enterprises don't yet
know that it is important. Vendors are currently focused on differentiating
their brands. The real need for interoperability is between enterprise
and consumer. "A standard is probably 5 years away".
