Boosting your IM IQ will pay off
I've been using instant messaging for a while. It's an extraordinarily effective management tool, enabling me to make quick decisions on urgent items while participating in conference calls or meetings.
But I never thought much about instant messaging as a disruptive technology . . . until recently, when I turned a nontechnical friend on to the joys of instant messaging. She immediately asked: "Why are the phone companies allowing this?"
My reaction was to think: "Uh, what's she getting at?"
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Upon reflection, the answer is plenty. Instant messaging is more than a handy way to keep in touch with the kids when you're at work. It represents a new communication paradigm with profound implications for companies and service providers.
An informal survey of financial services firms revealed that most have used instant messaging - and supported it within their IT departments - for more than a year. They view it as a strategic technology enabling faster response time to clients and improving communication within departments.
More importantly, enterprise-ready instant-message suites are getting ready for widespread deployment. FaceTime, which presented at a recent Wall Street Technology Association seminar, makes enterprise instant-message products that helped one customer improve the efficiency of the second-level help desk at its call centers by up to sevenfold.Any technology that delivers that kind of return on investment should pique your interest.
But that's not the whole story. Most of the instant-message services are gearing up to offer "click to chat" functionality, meaning that once you've found your buddy, you can switch from online to voice communications. The "call" goes directly to the PC, across the instant-message session, never touching the desktop phone. Add to that the concept that handheld device manufacturers such as Palm are seeking to add instant-message capability to their next-generation devices and you have a new approach to voice communications.
Instant messaging could well be the killer app for enterprise IP telephony. . . and sound the death knell for expensive, intelligent network-routing services. Instant-message technology embodies the two key capabilities necessary for next-generation communications: highly scalable directories and an effective call-setup mechanism. (Those who sniff at instant messaging's scalability might want to consider that there are more than 100 million users of instant messaging in the world, which makes it larger than any wireless phone network by far.)
You might think the prospect of such a disruptive technology would worry service providers, because it strikes at the heart of their core revenue streams. But when I discussed the idea with a couple of major service providers, their reaction was to say, in essence, "Uh, what's she getting at?"
As I said before, plenty. Service providers should think hard about how to incorporate this disruptive technology into their offerings, or risk being on the wrong side of this revolution. Enterprise IT directors should consider ways in which instant messaging can improve efficiency in areas such as call centers, help desks and for internal functions such as personnel and accounting.
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Johnson is senior vice president and CTO for Greenwich Technology Partners, a network consulting and engineering firm. Her column appears biweekly. She can be reached atjohna@greenwichtech.com.
