Most workers to favour IM as comms tool by 2013

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Instant messaging (IM) is becoming increasingly critical as a business tool and by 2013 almost all workers (95 per cent) will be using it as their primary technology tool for real-time communication, claims analyst Gartner.

Many knowledge workers now feel that access to this communication medium is as important as being able to use a telephone or email, according to the analyst who is advised businesses that haven't already started to incorporate IM into their organisation to do so with a real sense of urgency.

Between now and the mass audience expected for IM by 2013, Gartner expects the technology to have become the de factor tool for voice, video and text chat by 2011, in a worldwide market that is expected to swell from $267 million in 2005 to $688 million in 2010.

IM has moved from moved from the periphery to become a key piece of enterprise collaboration infrastructure, displacing other mediums in its path to glory, according to Gartner.

"Although consumer IM use has been predominant in business, we expect penetration levels for enterprise grade IM to rise from around 25 per cent currently to nearly 100 per cent by the end of the decade," said David Mario Smith, a research analyst at Gartner.

The analyst is advising companies to prepare for IM's arrival and eventual settlement as a business-critical tool by ensuring that they use enterprise-grade products from the likes of IBM and Microsoft, in addition to making sure that traffic is secured behind the firewall.

Furthermore, says Gartner, external partner or customer connections using federated public services such as AOL/AIM, MSN or Yahoo should be given the additional hygiene and protection on offer from key security players.

"The business benefits that IM can bring are considerable. The ability to connect people in disparate locations by text, voice and video in one application is incredibly powerful and is equally well suited to an informal 'water cooler' atmosphere as well as more formal group communications," Smith said.

It is also likely that many businesses will select IM systems that complement their existing email infrastructures, according to Smith, who was also keen to stress that IM will not replace email. "Stand-alone enterprise vendors face increasing pressure from strategic platform vendors like IBM and Microsoft, which are positioned to leverage their email and collaboration infrastructures to dominate the enterprise IM Market. What we are now seeing from these players is the morphing of the IM system into more than it was originally intended for, that is a fully converged unified communications platform with presence at its centre."

Gartner is also predicting that presence technology will be offered independently of IM and email products by 2012, a key consideration that both vendors and end-user organisations need to bear in mind.

"The IM client is becoming the launch pad for many types of communications channels and services," added Smith.

"Presence will extend its influence beyond IM to become an essential source of innovation for enterprise applications of the future."

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