Hot buttons for managing IM

We recently surveyed organizations about their use or potential use of instant messaging. Here’s what we found.

Among organizations using enterprise-grade instant messaging (EIM), 80% indicated that accelerating troubleshooting to reduce IT staff costs in their EIM system is “very” or “extremely” important – the highest percentage for the 13 metrics about which we asked. Among large organizations (with more than 1,000 e-mail users), regardless of whether they are using EIM, 70% consider accelerating troubleshooting to be either very or extremely important, while among smaller organizations, only 54% consider accelerating troubleshooting to be very or extremely important.

This is likely because the larger the organization, the more reliance put on instant messaging in general, and those that are using EIM rely on the technology a great deal. Consequently, speeding the troubleshooting process to minimize IT costs is extremely important.

By way of contrast, identifying potential security breaches by understanding who is using the EIM system is considered very or extremely important by about three-quarters of respondents, regardless of size.

The importance of proving the value of EIM to upper management varies widely by organization size. Among larger organizations, 74% consider the ability to prove EIM’s value to be very or extremely important, while among smaller organizations only 52% consider it to be very or extremely important. EIM initiatives are much more difficult to justify in larger organizations because of the greater initial and ongoing investments required, necessitating proof that the investments are providing a demonstrable return on investment.

While larger organizations consider e-mail-based spam to be more of a problem than do smaller organizations, a much higher percentage of smaller organizations consider instant messaging-based spam to be a significant problem than do larger organizations. This may be due to the fact that larger organizations tend to be much more proactive than smaller ones in implementing spam-blocking technologies, thereby neutralizing the problem before it gets out of hand, as has been the case with e-mail-based spam.

You can view highlights of this survey at:

https://www.ostermanresearch.com/results/survey_0603.htm