FaceTime Tuesday announced a new version of its security and management software for IM communications designed to accommodate distributed workforces.

IMAuditor 8.0, slated for availability at the end of September and priced starting at $5,000, is an IM proxy that works with the latest versions of enterprise IM applications such as IBM Lotus Sametime and Microsoft’s Live Communications Server, as well as with public IM networks from AOL, MSN and Yahoo.

Osterman Research predicts that by 2007, two-thirds of corporations in North America will use some form of enterprise IM that goes beyond simple communication to include - at minimum - security, namespace control, and some auditing, logging, or archiving capability.

FaceTime’s IMAuditor 8.0 features location-aware policy enforcement, so that administrators can enforce policies specific to the user’s IP address or IP subnet that they’re using to access IM, according to company officials. This lets administrators enforce security and usage policies with guests, contractors, and temporary workers based on where they log on to the network.

Administrators can also ensure that mobile workers adhere to the same security and compliance policies that are in effect when they’re in the office by directing all IM communication through the central IMAuditor without requiring an agent running locally, they say.

This release also archives all files transferred via IM, a feature that is particularly important for companies in industries where regulations call for all information sent out of the company to be captured. There is also a ‘stealth-mode’ feature that lets administrators choose whether they want to notify users that their IM communications are being monitored and archived.