The 47% is from discussions of fantasy football only?? I assume that this is discussion on a corporate IM network only - not yahoo, aim or msn. This has got to make you wonder where the benefits are for providing such a service to your users.
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47% of respondents use IM to discuss fantasy football at work
The question in the survey was "Do you use instant messaging to discuss fantasy football while at work?" Yes/No
Responses would include Yahoo, AIM, MSN, and Google Talk, as well as corporate-provided Microsoft LCS, Jabber XCP, or Lotus Sametime. The point of the survey was to identify non-business topics being discussed during business hours over business-provided PC's and networks (even if the IM network itself is free).
Like email, the WWW, and the telephone, there are benefits to using IM in the workplace, and there are risks (security problems, compliance liabilities, inappropriate use and hostile work environment liabilities, and yes, productivity-wasting personal use). And, just as with email, it's up to companies to create, communicate, and enforce policy to mitigate those risks. Over 80% of U.S. companies have put email security and policy enforcement products in place, but only about 15 to 20% have done the same for instant messaging so far. The gap is unexplainable, especially in light of survey results like this that show that corporations need to apply the same level of "control" over IM that they do over email, telephone, and WWW use.
Most companies also
Most companies also overspend on technology they don't need. There's three components to IT management: policies, procedures and controls. The former two are almost completely neglected while most of the time, money and resources go to the latter. In the all-out IT department versus the user scenario, there's never going to be enough money to keep the network and data secure. The standard Adversarial tact only breed distrust causing breakdowns and cost increases. If businesses would start clearly defining their IT needs (communications and back-office support) they could eliminate all the extraneous crap like IM, which only creates an opportunity for exploit, wasting time and adds another item to maintain and patch.
The only fantasy here is that most IT Managers know anything...
IM and fantasy football? What a load of BS! Most IT managers can't even count the number of active devices on their network let alone know what the users are doing. The current marketing fog has everyone convinced that as long as they buy BRAND X firewall or device they're done. Network management has been reduced to a check box function. No wonder networks continue to be exploited and fail in spite of increased spending. But it does provide for lots of story content such as this particular rendition.