Ignoring Instant Messaging at Work...

Hello. I found quite interesting article with following title: ‘Ignoring Instant Messaging at Work Won’t Make It Go Away’ on Gartner website. Title doesn’t say much about the content, so I decided to write a few words about the most essential facts. I found out that IM is now used in over 90% of organizations. Quite often, IM is being realized by use of consumer IM services what is extremely dangerous for companies due to threats, such as malicious code or leakage of potentially sensitive information. The best way to stop staff using consumer IM services is to provide an enterprise alternative. Unfortunately, many senior executives don’t see the reason for providing such alternatives – they simply prefer blocking IM in hope that this would prevent employees from using it. But it’s not the right way of solving such a problem (probably due to the generation gap – traditionally minded executives simply don’t see the benefits of IM compared for example with the telephone). In order to deal with the need for IM in companies, the strategy that decides on a corporate IM standard should be developed as well as policies connected with archiving IM messages (which become records and may be subject to legal discovery orders).