Eight benefits of IM

To justify the use of IM in an enterprise, Matt Cain of Meta Group suggests the following:

1. Phone displacement: For geographically dispersed environments, IM can be used as a substitute for short-duration phone calls, eliminating expenses.

2. Back channel: IM is used to augment other communication channels. For example, if team members are talking with an external client on the phone, IM can be used between internal team members to plot strategy or to help clarify points.

3. Immediacy: IM can help cut through desktop clutter, resulting in immediate responses. For time-sensitive business processes, such as customer service, crisis management and problem resolution, IM is key.

4. Emergencies: IM is a vehicle for rapidly disseminating critical information to the entire company, groups or individuals in cases of natural catastrophes, health issues, network outages or schedule changes. Sometimes the IM network will remain up when phone and e-mail systems are down.

5. Bonding: IM can provide a link among dispersed workgroups. Ad hoc contacts are made more productive by the ability to quickly add other team members to the workgroup.

6. Find-me service: IM-to-Short Messaging Service gateway services can be used to route instant messages to cell phones.

7. Experts on demand: IM systems can help users quickly reach out to experts for instant consultations, or for surveying multiple experts at once.

8. Self-service: Person-to-machine IM services, which let users query human resource virtual agents for information on benefits or enrollment, or which let sales staff gain access to data, can help expedite business cycles.