At any given moment of every day, I sit at my desk with a minimum of two Instant Messenger windows conversing, four email accounts buzzing, two landlines ringing, one Blackberry running various web applications, email, text and phone, as well as all those Internet windows open to articles, news stories and reviews that I am still hoping to read. To some this may seem like madness, to me (and many others like me) it’s just another day in the office (or with the wonderful world of technology today, it could be just another day at the beach).

This scenario isn’t complicated, especially when managed all from one device and broken down to only three programs (Trillian, Firefox, my email client (managing all accounts)) and one phone (with all lines forwarded). But in the corporate environment, where productivity and security have become major concerns, how do we effectively manage this environment?

Let’s review a fairly common scenario: Currently you may be pushing anywhere from three to 10 software programs out to your desktops. These might include: Internal and external email communication, customer order processing, customer management, vendor/distribution management, marketing and sales tracking, etc. Most of our clients are looking more and more to consolidate their operations, expenses and the associated infrastructure. How does one effectively minimize the number of applications while continuing to adopt innovative and useful technology advances? Is a corporate Instant Messaging policy required to help manage this process and how do you properly implement such a plan?

Let’s review with a little history lesson: IM in the workplace started a number of years ago with proprietary messaging systems built into specific software programs for specific tasks in order to speed up inter/intradepartmental communication and increase order accuracy and speed. During the years of the tech boom, employees started downloading AOL, ICQ or MSN onto their work machines to keep in touch with family and friends during work hours. I was one of the first in my office at that time to load an IM client onto my machine, but I rarely used it due to its lack of popularity at the time. It’s no fun breaking the rules and using company time for personal reasons if you can’t share it with anyone! However, as the number of IM users increased, the functionality increased exponentially as well.

As with many technology innovations, the creative uses and innovation spread faster than the practical. This is a very good thing, don’t get me wrong, but there comes a time when it’s necessary to take a much closer look at your business and technology practices to ensure efficient, productive and secure technology growth in line with your business goals.

AOL threw its hat into the ring just recently, hoping perhaps a piece of the corporate IM pie would be sent its way. However, like all of their competition in this space, they are willing to provide this service, without much of a solution involved. How are they really working with you to ensure security? What about possible productivity losses or gains for that matter? IM can be a very valuable tool, but it has to be rolled out, trained and monitored on many levels. Which companies out there are stepping up to the plate to actually provide some value to their customers? That has yet to be determined, but if you have any feedback we’d love to hear from you!

I have an old friend whose primary responsibility is IM security software development and the way we see it is that this is one of the most important subjects for your next budget meeting, fiscal year and possibly the next five years.