notes Matt Mahoney

^^Enterprise Instant Messaging

MOERATOR: Fredric Paul , Editor in Chief, The TechWeb Network
PANELIST: Jonathan Christensen , Vice President of Products and Chief Technology Officer, Facetime
PANELIST: David McFarlane , COO, IMlogic

Headlines:

• "IM is presence on the network, it isn't about the client per se."
• 85% of business usage is on aol, msn, yahoo
• Reduce long distance calls 30% gartner
• Estimated 40% reduction in email usage gartner

^^^^Jonathan

The Basics -

• IM is not email: adoption path, deployment patterns diff
• Long way from common interoperability
• Public IM (PIM): aol, yahoo, etc
• Enterprise IM (EIM)

Explosive market growth -

• over 90% of enterprises have users accessing IM
• 58B business IMs sent in 2003 IBD
• Will usurp email by 2006 as preferred method of communication gartner
• 350M EIM users by 2005 yankee group

IM Usage patterns facetime survey - 994 participants -

• 78% cite quick business conversation
• 44% communicate among geographically disperesed group
• 88% use IM for empl-to-employee chat
• 41% use IM to communicate with partners or customers

Network usage evenly split -

• 31% using PIM exclusively
• 39% using EIM exclusively
• 30% using combination

• 85% of business usage is on aol, msn, yahoo
• ie, majority business usage is public
• 65% of active users have more than 1 IM client

Enteprise Impact -

• Displacing as much as 30% of voice traffic
• Replacing email for quick conversations
• Only 14% cited lack of interop as a deterrent to IM adoption
• "Dial tone 2.0" -- you there? time for a quick call? -- identify whether network and other is available...a presence ping

Predictions -

• Rates continue - Proprietary IM systems will continue to grow
• Big incs get it first - On premise IM systems will be deployed in large enterprise environments
• TCO heartburn - Interconnections btw PIM and EIM are a growing customer frustration/req
• PIM systems will add security and other features to gain IT traction

^^^^David

Driving forces behind adoption...
Personal experience..

Myth 1: IM is not chat: Presence dialtone = breakthrough
Myth 2: IM is distractive: rather, trusted tool among trusted relationships
Myth 3: IM is just like email: LCD for next level of collaboration
Myth 4: IM is a teen toy:

• Reduce long distance calls 30% gartner
• Estimated 40% reduction in email usage gartner
• Estimated 15% reduction in voicemail usage gartner

Myth 5: Why taken so long to catch on:

• massive uptake with PIM (90% users)
• slow uptake from orgs to coordinate & manage the use, only 10% EIM

Challenges -

1. Complexity & chaos: 40% of firms use 3 or more IM networks Osterman research

• no trend towards interop, standardization
• easy for users to operate under the radar

2. Security vulnerability: securing IM is one of the top 3 priorities for IT mgrs in 2004 yankee group

• 36% survey respondents admitted to passing confidential information source

3. Legal risks: enter SEC and NASD

4. IT headaches: expensive integration

IM Hierarchy of Needs -

• Physiological: compliance
• Safety: security
• Love: collaboration
• Esteem: BPM
• Self-actualization: transactional IM

Enterprise IM Strategy -

Phase 1: management & contro
Phase 2: IM communities: within/beyond firewall
Phase 3: Productivity & business apps

^^^^Q&A

Q: What the driving event for EIM adoption?

David: threats, worms, security breach

Jonathan: value propositions point to solving ills typically, yet note once EIM deployed, PIM typically doesn't go way.

Built a small model while at msft: 500 person organization leads to 25k domains pretty quickly

Q: How to avoid the mess?

David: Do not wait for standards. Look to single sign-on applications now.

Q: How to deal with "Presence of Use" problem, where individuals sign in everywhere (desk, conf room, etc)?

Jonathan: Managing varying states coming. MSN does a decent job right now. Simple brute force method, when login new device, logged out previous.

Q: How do you view the convergence of IM with existing comm tools, like email?

"If i want to go look for a conversation where a decision is made, how do i do that?"

J: IM will incorporate email, not the other way around. IM is less protocol-limited. Closer to voice.

D: IM is presence on the network, it isn't about the client per se. Client integration will occur.

Q: What makes a good IM client? Do clients matter that much? I don't see ppl choosing IM by the client.

J: True, the network effect is primary. Yet MSN 6.0 launch with games, etc saw adoption spike. Client could count?

Q: Do you have any numbers on the proportion of messages that are in the context of an application (e.g. about this xls we're working on) esther

J: Prelim msft research on integration: results interesting, but effects overstated.

Only 20% of active knowledge worker market knows/uses Rt-click. Other ways may work.